Democrat Eugene DePasquale and Republican Dave Sunday will face off for Pa. attorney general

Former Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale won Tuesday’s Democratic primary election for attorney general in a crowded field and will face York County District Attorney Dave Sunday, who handily won the Republican primary, in the November general election.

DePasquale, 52, was one of five Democratic candidates vying to become the state’s next top prosecutor. He was the only Democrat in the field who has previously held statewide elected office and the only one from Western Pennsylvania, with the rest hailing from the Southeast.

Sunday, 48, rode the state Republican Party’s endorsement and his record as a prosecutor to the Republican nomination over State Rep. Craig Williams (R., Delaware).

DePasquale and Sunday will advance to what is expected to be one of the most competitive and expensive state-level races this year. The attorney general, the state’s top prosecutor, has wide-ranging powers and is a position from which candidates often ascend to higher office.

DePasquale said that his win shows voters want to protect democracy and reproductive rights, and that he’s excited by the opportunity to do so as the Democratic nominee.

“Democrats across the state made me the nominee, and I’m looking forward to the fight ahead,” DePasquale said in an interview late Tuesday.

Sunday, in his acceptance speech at his election night party in York, said his victory was a sign that “people all across Pennsylvania embrace and believe that accountability and redemption is what we need.”

”We have to hold people accountable, but on the other end of it, we have to embrace redemption as a society,” Sunday added.

The sleepy primary election had few conflicts on either side, and the race is expected to heat up in the coming months.

Republican leaders coalesced around Sunday months before the primary, as the state GOP wanted to avoid its previous errors in the 2022 election, when they left the primary races open; party members cite that as the reason for their losing in the November election. Sunday got the Republican Attorneys General Association endorsement early, as well, giving him a leg up in the state party’s endorsement process.

Williams dropped out of the state GOP’s endorsement process and ran without the party’s support, claiming that he was shut out of the endorsement process and that Sunday was handpicked by a small number of Harrisburg lobbyists to run for the office.

Sunday is a two-term district attorney for York County. He is a Navy veteran who, after his four years of service, said he worked at UPS while in college and law school. He then began his career in York County, and has spent the last 15 years working there as a prosecutor. He said his top issue is fighting the “fentanyl epidemic” in the state, as well as shoring up the state’s resources for mental health and elder fraud.

DePasquale is a former York County state lawmaker who also served two terms as auditor general during former Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration. He is credited for getting the auditor general’s office more attention, due to his investigations into the backlog of untested rape kits and unanswered calls to the state’s child abuse hotline. He said protecting the environment and reducing gun violence are among his top priorities.

DePasquale beat out his four Democratic opponents: State Rep. Jared Solomon (D., Philadelphia), Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer, Philadelphia’s former top public defender Keir Bradford-Grey, and former Bucks County solicitor Joe Khan. He was outraised by Solomon, but still won Tuesday’s election.

In Pittsburgh, where DePasquale grew up and returned to live in recent years, voters said he was the only candidate from Western Pennsylvania with name recognition.

”The others — by mailing and by TV ads — have really controlled what you get in your mailbox and what you see on the airwaves, much more than Eugene DePasquale has been able to,” said Liz Healy, 77, a Democratic committee chairperson in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, noting that DePasquale had trailed behind several other candidates in fundraising.

”I’d be happy with any one of the five of them,” Healy added.

Rob Issler, 42, a consultant from Warrington, voted for Khan, though he admitted he didn’t know much about him, except that he’s from Bucks County.

Ken Verbrugghe, 62, a retired police officer, voted for Stollsteimer for attorney general at his polling place at Roxborough High School, seeing him as the one who was most strongly opposed to Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner.

Republican voters appeared largely united around Sunday.

Brian Newswanger, 65 and a lifelong Republican who lives in Philadelphia, said the economy and safety were his top issues. He voted for Sunday, he said, because Williams was too focused on local issues and Krasner, rather than the statewide picture.

“We got issues with our present [Philadelphia] DA, with Krasner,” Newswanger said. “It seems like [Williams] was focused on that, but there’s a lot more that we need to be doing. [Krasner] is an issue that has to be dealt with. But there are other issues as well.”

Solomon, asked if he had a message for DePasquale, said at his election night party in Philadelphia that Democrats are “all going to unite and work as hard as we can.”

Khan, at his election night party in Bucks County, said he’d spoken to DePasquale to concede. “It’s hard to come all this way and come up a little short,” Khan said.

Pennsylvania’s attorney general is tasked with enforcing the state’s laws and investigating corruption. This can range from consumer protections, drug investigations, impaneling grand juries, and more.

However, the role has shifted in recent years, as the nation’s politics have become more polarized. The Pennsylvania attorney general often sues on behalf of the state in federal civil court against federal policies, depending on which party holds the White House.

What’s more: Whoever wins in November will be seen as a top contender for governor in future years.

State attorneys general have played an increasingly important role in national politics in recent years. GOP attorneys general have thwarted Biden’s student debt relief plan and other policies, while Democratic attorney generals led the legal fight against Trump during his presidency, including Gov. Josh Shapiro, who was Pennsylvania attorney general at the time.

There is an open seat for attorney general in this year’s election. Shapiro, who became attorney general in 2020, stepped down to become governor last year and appointed Michelle Henry, his top deputy, to serve the remainder of his term. Henry did not run to serve another term.

Staff writers Maddie Hanna, Jake Blumgart, Zoe Greenberg, Aliya Schneider, Jesse Bunch, and Anna Orso contributed to this article.