Republican Dave Sunday wins Pennsylvania’s attorney general race

By MARK SCOLFORO The Associated Press

FILE - Pedestrians walk past the Pennsylvania Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa., Nov. 19, 2019. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)[ASSOCIATED PRESS/Matt Rourke]

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvanians on Tuesday picked York County District Attorney Dave Sunday, a Republican, to serve as the state’s next prosecutor.

Sunday, a Navy veteran, emphasized his prosecutorial experience in the campaign against Democrat Eugene DePasquale, a former state representative and two-term auditor general. The attorney general oversees hundreds of lawyers.

The job came open because Attorney General Michelle Henry did not seek election after being appointed to fill the last two years of now-Gov. Josh Shapiro’s unexpired term.

Sunday has promised to “enforce and defend the abortion laws in Pennsylvania,” arguing during a recent debate that there is “no scenario that exists” where he would prosecute a woman for having an abortion. Many of Sunday’s Republican supporters favor an abortion ban, and DePasquale noted GOP state lawmakers tried to push through a constitutional amendment saying it does not guarantee any rights relating to abortion or public funding of abortions.

Sunday said that in the “most sad, tragic, terrible cases” he supports capital punishment.

FILE - Dave Sunday, the Republican nominee for state attorney general of Pennsylvania, speaks at a campaign event at the Beerded Goat Brewing Co., April 25, 2024, in Harrisburg, Pa. (AP Photo/Marc Levy, File)

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Marc Levy

In another statewide row office contest, incumbent Republican Auditor General Tim DeFoor won a second term, beating Democratic state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta of Philadelphia.

In the third statewide contest, Republican Treasurer Stacy Garrity of Athens in rural Bradford County won reelection, defeating Democrat Erin McClelland from the Pittsburgh area.

Pennsylvania voters will also decide whether to keep Democrats in control of the state House and maintain the Republican state Senate’s majority.

The state House had been under Republican control for more than a decade when redrawn district lines helped Democrats claim the narrowest of possible margins two years ago, giving them a 102-101 majority. The entire House is up for election, as is half the state Senate, where the GOP currently has a 28-22 majority.

Democrats face a tall order in their hopes of a tied Senate. They would need to hold all of their seats and would likely need to flip Republican-held districts in Harrisburg, Erie and west of downtown Pittsburgh.