What Went Down During The May 17 Primary Elections

We finally have some results coming in for Pennsylvania’s 8th District! Currently, the Trump-backed Jim Bognet leads Mike Marsicano by roughly 20 percentage points. But it’s still very, very early!

To follow up on Alex’s point, in 2006, Pennsylvania Republicans ran football great Lynn Swann for Senate, who is Black. He picked up just 13 percent of the Black vote according to exit polls. That was just 3 percentage points better than Rick Santorum, the GOP Senate candidate (who is white).

I also wonder how much Black voters will respond to a specific candidate like Fetterman, as opposed to their broader feelings about the Democratic Party. Alex has written several stories about how many of Biden’s promises to Black voters have gone unfulfilled. Seems like feelings of disillusionment with Democrats could be a bigger issue, at least if we’re talking about voter enthusiasm, than a specific candidate’s shortcomings.