4/26 Congressional Primary Results Thread: Maryland & Pennsylvania

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Halvorson up just 315 votes, with 41% reporting.

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Fattah down 7 points with 76% in. Unless what's out is very favorable to him, he should be done.

Amusingly, his challenger, Dwight Evans, has been in the PA state House for 36 years -- he was just 26 years old when he was first elected in 1980. This is his fifth run for higher office, after losing the Democratic primaries for Lt. Gov. in 1986, Gov. in 1994, Philly Mayor in 1999, and Philly Mayor in 2007. He was a non-factor in all those elections...except, weirdly, the gubernatorial primary, when he came within single-digits. What an odd political career.

EDIT: Shuster takes the lead by 441 points, 51-49. Keep in mind Halvorson wants to join the House Freedom Caucus, which basically consists of all the hardcore Cruz supporters of the House. It would be very amusing for Halvorson to win even as _trump crushed Cruz upballot.

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Fattah down 7 points with 76% in. Unless what's out is very favorable to him, he should be done.

Amusingly, his challenger, Dwight Evans, has been in the PA state House for 36 years -- he was just 26 years old when he was first elected in 1980. This is his fifth run for higher office, after losing the Democratic primaries for Lt. Gov. in 1986, Gov. in 1994, Philly Mayor in 1999, and Philly Mayor in 2007. He was a non-factor in all those elections...except, weirdly, the gubernatorial primary, when he came within single-digits. What an odd political career.

EDIT: Shuster takes the lead by 441 points, 51-49. Keep in mind Halvorson wants to join the House Freedom Caucus, which basically consists of all the hardcore Cruz supporters of the House. It would be very amusing for Halvorson to win even as _trump crushed Cruz upballot.

A lot of Trump supporters want to throw the bums out too, so it isn't that surprising.

It's not surprising, but it is very funny, and it goes to demonstrate how downballot _trump has utterly failed to change the nature of the insurgency within the Republican Party. Shuster is up by 2% now, though.

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Halvorson closing -- he's now down by just 137 votes (out of 50,617 counted so far) with 52% reporting.

Very amusingly in the Pennsylvania Democratic Senate primary, a fourth candidate called Joseph Vodvarka is on 7%, and was in double-digits in the early returns. Clearly Pennsylvania Democrats were not thrilled with their choices.

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Wow, everyone who I wanted to win seems to be winning, and Fattah might even lose his seat. Great night.

With 84% in, Fattah is down by 8 points. There should be a checkmark coming any moment.

The only real suspense left in Pennsylvania is Halvorson/Shuster. In Maryland, Jamie Raskin started off with 40% of the vote in early results, but with 18% in David Trone (who set the record for most money ever spent in a House primary) seems to be catching him; Raskin is up just 34-28. There's also a close race on the D side in MD-6, to succeed Donna Edwards; it looks like former Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, who lost the 2014 gubernatorial election in a massive upset, is leading establishment favorite Glenn Ivey 42-35 with 59% reporting.

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Well, congrats Senator (for another 6 years) Toomey. The Democratic establishment crumpled this race up and threw it in the toilet.

Hillary winning by double-digits even as Republicans maintain the Senate (which is what polls at the moment seem to be showing) would definitely be the most hilarious election result in this country at least since 2000.

With 88% in, Evans leads Fattah 43-36. With 60% in, Shuster leads Halvorson 51-49 (1,171 votes). With 36% in, Trone (the former Republican donor who spent $9 million in a Democratic primary) leads Raskin 33-30. With 60% in, Brown leads Ivey 42-35.

All of these are safe seats where the primary is the real contest. David Trone and Anthony Brown are definitely the two guys Maryland Democrats should be sending to the House of Representatives and grooming for future higher office.

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Raskin and Shuster both pulled it out in the end. Kind of a shame; I was pulling for Trone and Halvorson. At least Anthony Brown won -- hopefully he'll try his hand again at a statewide race sometime in the future.

Also, fetterman getting 20% of the vote.

That was certainly a surprise. Shame a run for the House probably isn't in the cards.

Braddock is in PA-14, which is Safe D. Mike Doyle is only 62, though, so he'll probably be the incumbent a while longer. I don't think Fetterman is electable statewide (though who knows, on the other hand -- guy is very "authentic", so to speak, and voters especially this cycle have been responding very strongly to that.

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-I preferred Edwards, but I have no complaints about Van Hollen. Expect to see him rocket up the leadership.

If Van Hollen was interested in congressional leadership, he would probably have stayed in the House; he was the favorite to succeed Pelosi (assuming, as we have long thought, Pelosi and Hoyer intend to retire in tandem). That would probably be Becerra now.

No, I think this run indicates Van Hollen has his eye on something more prestigious than congressional leadership.

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-I preferred Edwards, but I have no complaints about Van Hollen. Expect to see him rocket up the leadership.

If Van Hollen was interested in congressional leadership, he would probably have stayed in the House; he was the favorite to succeed Pelosi (assuming, as we have long thought, Pelosi and Hoyer intend to retire in tandem). That would probably be Becerra now.

No, I think this run indicates Van Hollen has his eye on something more prestigious than congressional leadership.

It is not so much that they want to retire in tandem, but that Pelosi would rather go to the grave than hand the leadership of the House Democrats to Steny Hoyer.

True, but I felt like explaining the whole situation was unnecessary to my broader point (that van Hollen's move makes no sense unless he intends to run for President at some point). Pelosi won't retire until Hoyer does, and Hoyer still thinks he can outlive Pelosi and become Speaker.

Assuming they're both in good health (they're both 76, so big assumption) this scenario could easily continue for decades. I wonder if anyone knows what the longest stretch in American history between someone abandoning the Speakership and then reclaiming it is, and if Pelosi has a chance to beat that if she regains it like 10 years from now.