Pennsylvania primary features high-profile matchups

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s primary election will decide nominees or officeholders for several high-profile offices, including mayor of the nation’s sixth largest city and one of the state’s 18 members of the U.S. House.

Pennsylvania’s primary election is May 21.

It features primary elections for Philadelphia mayor and two statewide appellate court seats. It also features special elections to fill three open seats in the Legislature and one in Congress. — and winning an appeals court decision against the Trump administration’s effort to punish the city — to carrying through on his top first-term priority. That priority, a 1.5 cent-per-ounce tax on soda and other sweetened beverages, drew national attention.

It also has drawn criticism but withstood court challenges and a public relations onslaught by grocers and the beverage industry. The money is funding new prekindergarten slots and services for schoolchildren and their families, with plans to fund parks, recreation centers and libraries.

He is opposed in the Democratic primary by two longtime city political figures: Alan Butkovitz, the former city controller defeated in 2017, and state Sen. Anthony Williams, who has served three decades in the state House and Senate combined.

Both men are critical of the soda tax and say Kenney has not attacked other problems plaguing the city, including crime.

Republican Billy Ciancaglini is running unopposed in the GOP primary. district attorney.

McCaffery and GreenHawkins are endorsed by the Democratic Party. Peck and King are endorsed by the state Republican Party. Warren ran unsuccessfully for state Supreme Court in 2015. McCaffery is the brother of former state Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffery.