Elections

aged, we can live up to Dr. Martin Luther King’s words: judge on the content of your character and not on the color of your skin,” Ahmad said in an interview.

It is, Ahmad said, still not “where we need to be, but this is a good start, at least for Pennsylvania.”

As far as nominees go, Republicans nominated Lynn Swann, the former Pittsburgh Steelers star receiver, to run for governor in 2006. Swann, who is black, ultimately lost to the incumbent, Democrat Ed Rendell, who is white.

Pennsylvania’s auditor general generally serves as the state’s fiscal watchdog, auditing how money is spent. However, people serving in the office have been able to use it to advance public policy goals, and it often serves as a springboard to other offices.

In other firsts, Democrats nominated writer Nikil Saval of Philadelphia for the state Senate in the June 2 primary, which would make him the first member of the chamber who is of South Asian descent. Saval, who was endorsed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, beat twoterm incumbent Larry Farnese, and has no Republican opposition in the fall election.

Ahmad, of Philadelphia, has a doctorate in chemistry and for at least two decades has been active in Democratic politics and in organizing voters in South Asian communities. She was president of the Philadelphia chapter of the National Organization for Women, a deputy in Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration and a member of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

DeFoor is Dauphin County’s controller, first elected in 2015. He previously worked as an investigator in the state attorney general’s office and state inspector general’s office, as well as for various federal contractors and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s health plan.