By Jonathan Tamari Philadelphia Inquirer
Pennsylvania is politically wide open in 2022 — and it could help set the course for Democrats and Republicans in the wake of the Trump presidency.
With Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey leaving office, the commonwealth is about to host sprawling primaries for both seats, forcing the parties to make choices about who should be their public faces, and what messages they should carry to voters after years in which politics revolved around Donald Trump.
The results, in one of the country’s most closely contested states, could have a massive impact on policy in both Harrisburg and Washington, and provide a blueprint for how to win key battlegrounds in 2024.
The Democratic Senate contest features a direct clash between the self-described populist and progressive Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, and moderate U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, a contrast embodying the divide splitting the party in Congress. But there are also other distinctions based on identity, tone, and geography. The candidates include a suburban woman, Montgomery County Commissioner Val Arkoosh, and a gay Black man from Philadelphia, state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta.
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Looming over the Republican races is the long-running quandary over how closely candidates hew to Trump, who no longer dominates the national conversation but still shadows the GOP.
The Senate race is so attractive that three of the top Republican candidates are ultra-wealthy individuals who moved back to the state to run. There’s Mehmet Oz, a surgeon, TV celebrity and political newcomer whose name ID and television mastery in some ways echo the former president’s; David McCormick, a hedge fund manager and veteran with ties to both Trump and longtime Republican insiders, and Carla Sands, a generous Trump donor whom he later named U.S. ambassador to Denmark.
Another hopeful, Montgomery County developer Jeff Bartos, argues that he can duplicate the GOP’s recent path to victory in Virginia. He likes to point out that, unlike the other rivals, he was living in Pennsylvania before the Senate seat came open.
Some gubernatorial candidates are closely affiliated with the Trump brand while others try to speak to the former president’s supporters without fully wrapping themselves in his flag.
