April 22 (UPI) — Pennsylvanians are voting in Republican and Democratic primaries on Tuesday with 17 House seats up for election in November.
The nominees for the presidential race are already set but there are several more races to watch in the state. Seventeen U.S. House seats will be on the ballot in November and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, a Democrat, is running for re-election against Republican David McCormick.
Casey and McCormick are running unopposed in their respective primaries.
Polls opened at 7 a.m. EDT and will remain open until 8 p.m. EDT.
Nominees for state offices will be determined by Tuesday’s primaries, including nominees for what will be an open attorney general’s office. Current Attorney General Michelle Henry, a Democrat, is not running for re-election.
There are five candidates running for the Democratic nomination and two for the Republican nomination.
Henry was appointed to office in 2023 after former attorney general Josh Shapiro was elected governor.
Two Democrats are running for the nomination to challenge Republican State Treasurer Stacy Garrity: Ryan Bizzarro, a former state legislator, and Erin McClelland, a government consultant and behavioral health worker.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of State voter registration records from September, there are more than 8.7 million registered voters in Pennsylvania. Democrats represent a small majority of registered voters with more than 3.8 million. There are more than 3.4 million registered Republicans and about 1.2 million unaffiliated or “other” voters.
The Senate and House races across the country will be critical as Republicans and Democrats vie for control in Congress. Democrats currently hold a narrow majority in the Senate. Likewise, Republicans have a slim majority in the House which has created challenges for passing legislation in the past year.
The Keystone State was one of the crucial swing states won by President Joe Biden in 2020. Biden was born in Scranton, Pa.