Pennsylvania GOP endorses York County DA for attorney general

HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania Republican Party on Monday evening endorsed York County District Attorney Dave Sunday for state attorney general, making an endorsement earlier than usual in an effort to avoid a messy primary election in this year’s highest-profile state-level race.

After several unsuccessful elections in statewide races, Pennsylvania Republicans hope that, by coalescing around one candidate early, the party can avoid an attack-filled primary and save money for what’s expected to be a hotly contested general election in November.

Republican State Committee members met virtually Monday evening to hear from two of the three candidates in the race: Sunday and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Katayoun “Kat” Copeland.

Sunday, 48, was the first Republican candidate to join the race for attorney general last summer. He is a Navy veteran, and has been a prosecutor in the south-central Pennsylvania county for 15 years. He is in his second term as district attorney of the state’s eighth-largest county, and won reelection as York’s top prosecutor in an unopposed election in 2021.

The race for attorney general is crucial for Republicans’ future in the state: The top prosecutor role is seen as one of the most influential roles in Pennsylvania government, and often serves as a launching pad to the governorship. Two of Pennsylvania’s last three governors served as attorney general before their election to the governor’s mansion.

The Pennsylvania GOP voted last year to make an endorsement in the open primary. The party re-endorsed the incumbents in Pennsylvania’s other two row offices: Treasurer Stacy Garrity and Auditor General Tim DeFoor. It also endorsed financier Dave McCormick in the U.S. Senate race.

“I am thrilled with the experienced team that our State Committee has voted to endorse for the 2024 election,” Pennsylvania GOP Chairman Lawrence Tabas said in a statement Monday night announcing the full slate of endorsed candidates. “This team is committed, qualified, and prepared. We know they will be invaluable assets to citizens of the commonwealth and the United States when they are elected in November.”

Sunday said in a Wednesday news release he was “deeply honored” by the party’s endorsement.

“Their endorsement is a recognition of our shared values and a commitment to ensure that justice and the rule of law are upheld across our great Commonwealth,” Sunday added.

Republicans desperately want to avoid a repeat of the 2022 election, when the party chose not to endorse in the U.S. Senate or gubernatorial races.

In the open Senate primary, celebrity physician Mehmet Oz and McCormick spent tens of millions of dollars sparring with each other. After the costly primary, Oz lost to Democrat John Fetterman in the general election. In the gubernatorial race, the crowded field of GOP primary candidates allowed State Sen. Doug Mastriano (R., Franklin) to win the party’s nomination. The far-right Republican eventually lost to Democrat Josh Shapiro by 15 percentage points, or about 800,000 votes.

The race is wide open after current Attorney General Michelle Henry chose not to run for a full term. Shapiro appointed Henry, a Republican-turned-Democrat, to fulfill the rest of his term as attorney general when he took office as governor last year.

Sunday was the favorite going into the endorsement meeting, having won all of the regional GOP committee straw polls and receiving the Republican Attorneys General Association endorsement last year.

Sunday won’t be the only Republican on the ballot, however. A third candidate — State Rep. Craig Williams (R., Delaware) — withdrew from the GOP endorsement process and decided to run without the party’s nod. And he’s already swinging at his opponent, calling him a Democrat and comparing him to progressive Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner.

“I knew then there was no way I was bowing to a George Soros DA,” Williams said in a statement Monday. “I will unify the Republican voters with a message of tough-on-crime law and order. That has been my life’s work — to keep people safe. Democrats — like Sunday — don’t get that.”

Williams, 58, of Concord Township, previously said he believed the decision to move up the endorsement meeting was intended to block him out of the race, with the news of the virtual endorsement coming right after he announced his campaign in November.

The Marine Corps combat veteran previously got into a public fight with the Republican Attorneys General Association when he inaccurately suggested in an email to Republican State Committee members that he would get the group’s endorsement, and blamed a small group of Harrisburg insiders for controlling the outcome of the race.

“It’s Harrisburg insiders, Harrisburg lobbyists, who have their thumbs on the scale, trying to pick one guy over another,” Williams told The Inquirer last year.

Copeland, 56, previously told The Inquirer she would drop out of the race if she did not get the party’s endorsement. Her campaign could not be immediately reached for comment.

Candidates can begin collecting nomination petitions on Tuesday.

Any candidate who wants to get on the ballot for attorney general race needs to collect at least 1,000 signatures from registered voters from their party, including 100 from at least five counties. All petitions must be filed by Feb. 14.

Democrats did not endorse in their crowded primary race, with five candidates still in the running: Rep. Jared Solomon (D., Philadelphia), Delaware County DA Jack Stollsteimer, Philadelphia’s former top public defender Keir Bradford-Grey, former Bucks County solicitor Joe Khan, and former Auditor General Eugene DePasquale.