Pennsylvania voters cast ballots in closely watched 2026 primary races
Shapiro and Garrity advanced unopposed while more than 854,000 mail voters and a split Republican lieutenant governor race shaped the road to November.
Pennsylvania’s closed primary put the state’s November battlefield on display before the general election race even begins. Polls opened at 7 a.m. and closed at 8 p.m. across 67 counties and more than 9,000 precincts, with more than 45,000 poll workers managing a contest that drew more than 854,000 mail ballot requests.
By the time counties began posting unofficial returns after 8 p.m., about 77% of those mail ballots had been returned, giving a first look at turnout in a state that remains one of the country’s closest battlegrounds. The Pennsylvania Department of State’s results pages were built to track returns county by county, a setup that made the night as much about ballot processing as about the candidates themselves.
The clearest statewide signal came from the governor’s race. Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro was unopposed for his party’s nomination and finished with 422,280 votes, while Republican state Treasurer Stacy Garrity secured 147,049 votes in the GOP primary. In the lieutenant governor contests, Democrat Austin Davis also ran unopposed and received 406,591 votes. Republicans, by contrast, had a contested primary between John Ventre and Jason Richey, with Richey leading in unofficial returns.
Those results set up a November contest in a state whose voting-age population is about 10.0 million, roughly 200,000 higher than in 2019. The Associated Press said Pennsylvania’s 2024 presidential margin shifted 2.9 points to the right from 2020, a warning sign for Democrats and an opening for Republicans as both parties prepare for a fight that could shape control well beyond Harrisburg. Shapiro has already backed candidates in key congressional districts Democrats hope to hold, making the governor’s political reach part of the broader general-election strategy.
The primary also highlighted where the next fight will be most competitive. Pennsylvania’s 17 U.S. House seats, along with a special election in the 196th Legislative District, sat on the same results page as the statewide races, underscoring how local turnout can ripple into November. With the registration deadline passing on May 4 and mail ballot requests due by May 12, the primary revealed which coalitions were organized early and which still need to widen their base before voters return in the fall.
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