Democrats pick candidates for key districts in the battle for the House

Major general election matchups across the House battleground are set after Tuesday’s primaries, as the race for control of Congress takes center stage in the midterm elections.

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President Donald Trump’s successful effort to unseat a Republican rival, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, and battles between progressive or establishment Democrats in deep-blue seats have captured wide attention this week and in other recent primaries.

But the results of four Democratic congressional primaries in battleground Pennsylvania — which have already drawn a combined $50 million in advertising dollars spent on or committed to these races, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact — will loom large in November, when Democrats need to net three seats to take back control of the House.

Firefighter union leader Bob Brooks won the party’s nod to take on Republican Rep. Ryan Mackenzie in the Allentown-area 7th District. Brooks overcame a crowded field of prominent Democrats from different wings of the party, as well as a last-minute push from a shadowy outside group with ties to Republicans.

Brooks had won the backing from prominent Democrats from different wings of the party — including Gov. Josh Shapiro and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. He has also gotten a significant boost on the airwaves from an outside group funded primarily by unions and The Bench, a Democratic organization that has played a significant role in elevating its preferred candidates, as well as the House Democrats’ campaign arm, which launched a late ad buy coordinated with Brooks’ campaign.

Ryan Crosswell, a former Republican prosecutor and former Justice Department official, had been the top fundraiser in the race, and has the endorsement of groups like VoteVets and New Politics, as well as Alex Vindman, the retired Army lieutenant colonel who is running for the Senate in Florida.

Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure, who has the backing of a handful of labor unions and a slew of local politicians, has benefited from a seven-figure television campaign in the race’s final weeks from a shadowy group called Lead Left PAC. That group has no real footprint, and it’s not clear who is funding it. But Punchbowl News reported this month that metadata for the group’s website linked to a GOP fundraising platform, leading to speculation that the group’s advertising campaign — which seeks to cut down both Brooks and Crosswell and raise up McClure — could be an example of Republicans trying to elevate their preferred general election opponent.

In suburban Philadelphia, Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie won the 1st Congressional District primary and the right to take on Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, whom Democrats have repeatedly tried and failed to unseat — even as he represents a district Democrats win at the presidential level.

There was less fanfare in two other major primaries in critical swing districts: The 8th District, where Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti ran unopposed and will take on Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan, and in the 10th District, where Democrat and former television news anchor Janelle Stelson will take on Republican Rep. Scott Perry in a rematch.

Other major primary contests

Many of the most hotly contested House primaries on Tuesday night weren’t in districts expected to be competitive in November. Instead, energetic battles to shape the direction of the Republican and Democratic parties in safe seats drew significant oxygen.

The most notable contest came in Kentucky, where Republican Rep. Thomas Massie lost his primary against former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein. Trump backed Gallrein, and the race drew tens of millions of dollars in outside spending, ultimately drawing more ad spending than any other House primary in American history.

Democrats faced their own ideological battle in Philadelphia, where a handful of prominent candidates faced off for the right to replace the retiring Democratic Rep. Dwight Evans in the bluest congressional district in the nation.

Progressive state Rep. Chris Rabb is projected to win that primary, vanquishing two notable opponents: former state party chairman Sharif Street, and Dr. Ala Stanford, a former federal Department of Health and Human Services staffer who was Evans’ pick to succeed him.

Rabb ran an unapologetically progressive campaign against powerful opponents, centering his campaign on economic populism, embracing progressive leaders like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and criticizing Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza as “genocide” while arguing American taxpayer money was better spent at home.

Outside the battlegrounds

Beyond Massie’s loss in Kentucky, a handful of other safe-seat primaries will almost certainly decide who will represent deeply Republican or Democratic seats in Congress next year.