Biden policy on Israel raised in Pennsylvania primary

Former President Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden both easily won the presidential primary competitions for their parties in the state. The Associated Press had called both races only minutes after polls closed Tuesday, according to WORLD’s 2024 Election Center. Neither candidate has run against significant opponents within their party ever since former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley suspended her campaign for the Republican Party nomination. Haley still nabbed roughly 16 percent of the primary vote in Pennsylvania on Wednesday. Liberal organizers had urged Democratic Party voters not to support Biden to signal discontent with the Biden administration’s support for Israel. The group Uncommitted PA on Wednesday claimed success in diverting about 100,000 Democratic votes from Biden.

What about House and Senate elections? Pittsburgh Democrat U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, a critic of Israel’s war against Hamas, easily survived a primary challenge from Edgewood City Councilman Bhavini Patel, a moderate. Many Republican and Democrat incumbents in the U.S. House of Representatives largely ran uncontested in the state’s primaries. In many cases, their general election opponents also ran uncontested. Of Pennsylvania’s 17 districts, only a handful witnessed competitive races. The U.S. Senate candidates for each party—Democrat Bob Casey and Republican Dave McCormick—ran unopposed in the primary.

Dig deeper: Read Carolina Lumetta’s report in The Stew about how Republicans are rethinking mail-in voting.