Republican candidates for Pennsylvania’s three row offices, including two incumbents, all held leads in their races Tuesday night.
In the race for attorney general, York County’s Dave Sunday had collected 50.6% of the votes counted as of about 10:30 p.m., compared to 46.5% for Pittsburgh native Eugene DePasquale, according to unofficial results. Robert Cowburn, a Libertarian, had collected nearly 1.3% of the votes counted to lead the race’s four third-party candidates, the tallies showed.
As of 10:30 p.m., nearly 3.5 million ballots had been counted in that race, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State.
Sunday, 49, a Republican, is in his second term as York County’s district attorney and has served as a prosecutor for 15 years altogether. Before becoming district attorney, Sunday rose to become the office’s chief deputy prosecutor and supervised major crime cases and the felony narcotics unit.
DePasquale, 53, a Democrat, previously served two terms as Pennsylvania’s auditor general and three terms as a state representative. As auditor general, he drew attention to a large backlog of untested rape kits, unanswered calls to Pennsylvania’s ChildLine child abuse hotline and nursing home conditions.
In the race for auditor general, Republican incumbent Auditor General Tim DeFoor had collected 51.2% of the votes counted as of about 10:30 p.m., compared to 46% for state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, D-Philadelphia, according to the unofficial results. Reece Smith, a Libertarian, had collected nearly 1.8% of the votes counted to lead three third-party candidates, the tallies showed.
DeFoor, 62, of Dauphin County, became auditor general after winning the 2020 race by about 3 percentage points. He previously served four years as Dauphin County’s controller and has more than 30 years of experience as a special investigator with the state Office of Inspector General, as a special agent with the state attorney general’s office in the private sector and federal government.
Kenyatta, 34, became the first openly gay person of color to serve in the state House after he was elected six years ago. He is simultaneously seeking a fourth term as state representative in addition to running for auditor general. He finished third in the 2022 Democratic Primary race for U.S. Senate.
In the race for treasurer, Republican incumbent Treasurer Stacy Garrity had collected 51.9% of the votes counted as of about 10:30 p.m., compared to 45.7% for Harrison Democrat Erin McClelland, according to the unofficial results. Nickolas Ciesielski, a Libertarian, had collected 1.4% of the votes counted to lead three third-party candidates, the tallies showed.
Garrity, 60, of Bradford County, is a retired Army Reserve colonel and three-tour Iraq veteran. She was serving as vice president of a tungsten smelting plant when she beat incumbent Democratic Treasurer Joe Torsella by less than a percentage point four years ago. McClelland, 49, is a former congressional candidate with a background in mental health and substance abuse counseling.
The Associated Press contributed.