PA Primary Recap: Selected Legislative Races
The primary produced several notable race-specific storylines, but not a broad anti-incumbent wave. Most incumbents who drew opponents appear to have won comfortably. The races below represent the key takeaways from Tuesday’s election.
House Incumbent Losses
HD 166 – Delaware County: Judy Trombetta defeated longtime Rep. Greg Vitali, 61.77%–38.1%. Vitali is the longest serving member of the legislature. He is the chair of the House Environmental & Natural Resource Protection Committee and known for his staunch support of environmental causes. Trombetta, president of the Haverford Township Board of Commissioners, ran on a broader local-government and constituent-service profile. The result suggests Democratic voters in the district wanted a more locally visible, municipal-services-oriented representative, not necessarily a rejection of environmental priorities.
HD 195 – Philadelphia: Sierra McNeil defeated Rep. Keith Harris, 53.44%–27.27%. Harris had establishment support but appears to be simply outworked by McNeil. Harris hadn’t even filed campaign finance reports in over a year. McNeil, a social worker and educator from Strawberry Mansion, consolidated progressive and grassroots support from local groups such as Reclaim Philadelphia and Liberty City, and national groups like the Working Families Party and Our Revolution.
HD 50 – Greene and Washington: Ben Humble defeated Rep. Bud Cook, 55.51%–44.49%. Cook was aligned with Senate GOP primary candidate Al Buchtan and has had a long running feud with Senator Camera Bartolotta, who we’ll discuss later. Humble, Waynesburg Borough Council president and a volunteer firefighter, ran with strong local credibility and support from labor, police, and conservative validators. This was a candidate-quality and local-network loss for the incumbent.
HD 22 – Lehigh: Ce-Ce Gerlach defeated Rep. Ana Tiburcio, 56.35%–43.65%. Tiburcio was a very
new incumbent, having won the February special election after Josh Siegel resigned. She ran with
establishment support. Gerlach, an Allentown City Council member and former school board member,
ran with a progressive, working-class brand and backing from groups such as Working Families,
Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) -aligned activists, Lehigh Valley Stands Up, and Make the
Road Action. This was best understood as a party-process backlash race: Gerlach had been passed over for the special-election nomination, but primary voters ultimately chose her.
Senate GOP Incumbents Survive Expensive Challenges
Three Senate Republican incumbents survived major challenges tied in part to the broader skill-
games/sports-betting fight. Skill games are slot machine like gambling devices whose legality is before
the State Supreme Court. The skill game interests poured significant amounts of campaign money to
unseat the GOP incumbents. Sports betting and iGaming interests supported the incumbents.
SD 20 – Lackawanna, Luzerne, Wayne, and Wyoming: Sen. Lisa Baker defeated Tyler Meyers,
54.54%–45.46%. Baker is a senior Senate Republican, Majority Caucus Administrator, and chair of the
Judiciary Committee. Viewed as a moderate in her caucus, she hadn’t really weighed in on the gaming
issues, though that didn’t prevent an investment from the Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania, a
conservative PAC with heavy funding from the skill games industry. Meyers is an Army veteran who
ran on a conservative populist platform.
SD 46 – Beaver, Greene, and Washington: Sen. Camera Bartolotta defeated Al Buchtan, 53.39%–
46.61%. Bartolotta, Majority Caucus Secretary, holds committee roles across Labor & Industry,
Environmental Resources & Energy, Judiciary, Transportation, and others. Buchtan ran as a right-
populist challenger, and the race became a major outside-spending battlefield. Bartolotta’s win
preserves Senate GOP leadership strength, but the margin reflects real pressure from the right. Flash
points in this race centered around Bartolotta’s support for the Haitian immigrant community that
settled in her district, and her marriage to former Democratic Speaker of the House Bill DeWeese.
SD 48 – Berks, Lancaster, and Lebanon: Sen. Chris Gebhard defeated Clovis Crane, 67.38%–
32.62%. Gebhard, chair of Banking & Insurance, posted the strongest win among the three targeted
Senate GOP incumbents. Skill games advocates invested heavily in this race as Senator Gebhard tried
to negotiate a licensing and regulation plan that the industry fiercely opposed. His margin suggests a
stronger district-level brand than the other targeted incumbents.
Special Election Signal
HD 196 – York: Republican George Margetas defeated Democrat Ron Ruman and held the safe
republican district. President Trump won this seat by a margin of 33% in 2024. The margin for this race
was a mere 12.5%, representing a 20 point overperformance for the Democrats. That does not mean the
seat is suddenly competitive in November, but it is a meaningful Democratic enthusiasm marker in a
low-turnout special election.
Contested Open Seats
HD 148 – Montgomery: Megan Griffin-Shelley defeated Jason Landau Goodman by 93 votes in the
Democratic primary to replace Mary Jo Daley. Griffin-Shelley had Daley’s endorsement and ran on
legislative readiness and affordability issues. Goodman had strong progressive, LGBTQ,
environmental, and elected-official support. The result shows the continued importance of incumbent
endorsement, local field, and coalition discipline in low-turnout primaries.
HD 88 – Cumberland: Jeff Clark defeated Savannah Martin, 50.65%–49.35%, in the GOP primary to
replace Sheryl Delozier. Martin had Cumberland County GOP support, but Clark’s veteran and law-
enforcement profile carried him narrowly. Formal local-party backing did not prove decisive. The GOP
will have an uphill battle keeping this seat in November.
HD 100 - Lancaster: Dave Nissley defeated Kelly Osborne, 56.08%–43.92%, in the GOP primary to
replace former Speaker Bryan Cutler. Cutler backed Osborne, but Nissley had already shown anti-
incumbent traction in 2024 and ran with strong conservative support, including Second Amendment
validators. The result signals continued grassroots resistance to Harrisburg leadership in parts of the
GOP base.
SD 16 – Bucks and Lehigh: Mark Pinsley defeated Bradley Merkl-Gump, 53.52%–46.48%, for the
Democratic nomination against Sen. Jarrett Coleman. Pinsley brings county controller/accountability
credentials and prior campaign experience. Merkl-Gump had support from several Democratic elected
officials. This sets up a closely watched general election in a competitive Senate district.
Other Notable Races and Margins
HD 117 - Luzerne: Rep. Jamie Walsh defeated Bill Jones, 72.14%–27.86%. Walsh’s decisive win
validates his local brand, especially around opposition to data-center development, property-tax relief,
parental rights, and conservative reform issues.
HD 137 - Northampton: Democrat Jeff Warren drew 6,889 votes compared with Republican Rep. Joe
Emrick’s 3,435. Emrick is a long-serving incumbent and Republican chair of Professional Licensure.
Warren, a Northampton County Commissioner, enters a highly competitive district with a notable
Democratic raw-vote advantage.
HD 138 - Northampton: Democrat Jared Bitting drew 4,938 votes compared with Republican Rep.
Ann Flood’s 3,994. Flood has committee roles on Appropriations, Human Services, Insurance, Liquor
Control, and Transportation. Bitting’s vote total is a warning sign in a Republican-leaning but
potentially competitive district where warehouses, data centers, schools, taxes, and reproductive rights
may all matter.
Top of Ticket
Gov. Josh Shapiro received 1,085,529 Democratic primary votes, while Treasurer Stacy Garrity
received 633,592 Republican primary votes. Because both were effectively on glide paths to
nomination, this is better read as a turnout and enthusiasm indicator than a predictive head-to-head
measure.
Bottom Line
Strong incumbents mostly held their seats, but selected races showed that local credibility, party-
process concerns, progressive organizing, right-flank challenges, data centers, housing, taxes, and
outside spending can all disrupt normal incumbent advantages. For clients, the key watch areas heading into the general election are the Lehigh Valley/Northampton County battlegrounds, the continuing skill-games money fight, and the increasing salience of data centers and development politics in both parties.
View the full PAOrtho Legislative Tracker (PAOrtho Members Only)