Your voter’s guide to the Nov. 2022 election in Pennsylvania

The midterm elections are Tuesday, and once again, eyes across the country will be on Pennsylvania.

Voters in the swing state this week will decide who will succeed Sen. Pat Toomey — Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, or celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz. They’ll also determine whether Attorney General Josh Shapiro or State Sen. Doug Mastriano will succeed Gov. Tom Wolf, as his two terms in office come to a close.

While you’ve likely heard all about those races, there are plenty of other important candidates running for state and local offices to consider. And this year, there’s potential for Democrats to take control of at least one chamber of the legislature, controlled by the GOP for more than a decade.

“For the first time in generations, we’re actually competing on a level playing field,” Rep. Leanne Krueger (D., Delaware), chair of the House Democrats’ campaign arm, told The Inquirer earlier this year.

Simply put, participating in the bedrock of American democracy makes the country better. It may be a choice, but voting is also a civic duty that carries great responsibility and shapes the future for generations to come.

Plus, the more people that vote, the more elected offices start to actually look like the communities they represent. The voters are the boss — and the way to give politicians and local officials direction is by using your ballot.

💻 You can check your voter registration status on the state’s website by entering your name, license number, or PennDOT ID.

☎️ You can also call 1-877-VOTESPA or your county’s election officials.

Nope, not for the general election. You can vote for anyone you want, whether or not you’re registered under that party.

Because Pennsylvania is a closed primary state, voters can only cast ballots for candidates affiliated with their registered party during primary elections. However, every voter can vote on the ballot questions, no matter whether they’re Republican, Democrat, third party, or unaffiliated.

📅 The general election will be held Nov. 8.

🕖 Polls are open from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. on Nov. 8, election day. As long as you make it in line by 8 p.m., you’ll be able to vote.

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💻 If you’re planning to vote in person on Nov. 8, you can find your polling place on the Department of State’s website, where you’ll need to enter your county, city, and street. Philadelphia also has its own lookup tool.

We encourage you to check your polling place before heading out to vote, as it may not be the same one you’ve used in the past.

☎️ You can also call your county’s elections officials. A list of phone numbers can be found on the Department of State’s website.

📅 Completed ballots have to be received by your county elections office by 8 p.m. on Nov. 8.

✉️ You can send your ballot back to their county’s election officials by mail. Note: If you mail your ballot, it still has to be received by Nov. 8. Postmarks don’t count.

📮 In Philadelphia, there are also 18 drop boxes across the city where you can return your mail ballot.

Yes. It is very important that you seal your ballot in the smaller inner “secrecy envelope” (it says “Official Election Ballot.”) Put that envelope in the outer return envelope and make sure to sign and date the voter’s declaration.

If you’re going the mail route, it will be important to make sure you’re sending the ballot back properly. A naked ballot is a mail ballot that a voter submits without an inner “secrecy envelope.”

Pennsylvania uses a two-envelope system: Filled-out ballots go first inside a blank, anonymous secrecy envelope, and then into the return envelope that is addressed to the county elections office and has the voter’s signature and information. If voters place the ballot directly into the return envelope, it’s “naked.”

💻 You can check on the status of your mail ballot on the Department of State’s website by entering your name, date of birth, and county.

The governor and lieutenant governor will appear on your ballot together. The lieutenant governor is the governor’s second-in-command, and the job includes directing statewide emergency management policies, chairing the Board of Pardons, and presiding over the state Senate.

Governor: Josh Shapiro (Democrat)

Josh Shapiro, 49, is in his second term as Pennsylvania’s attorney general. He gained prominence when he released a grand jury report on the Catholic Church’s sex-abuse scandal. He won a settlement in a major wage theft case and helped resolve a dispute between two Western Pennsylvania health care giants he said had left patients excluded from a major hospital network.

Shapiro’s profile grew in the aftermath of the 2020 election, when his office defended Pennsylvania’s secretary of state in court as allies of then-President Donald Trump challenged the results. Last year, he sued Pennsylvania Senate Republicans after they subpoenaed Wolf’s administration for millions of voters’ personal records.

Abortion access and voting integrity are among the issues most important to him.

Read more about Josh Shapiro here.

Lieutenant governor: Austin Davis (Democrat)

Austin Davis grew up in Mon Valley, near Pittsburgh. He was the first to go to college in his family, majoring in political science. By 2018, he won a race to represent Allegheny County in the state House, becoming the first Black representative from his district and one of only four in the entire legislature representing majority-white districts. He now chairs the Allegheny County House Democratic Delegation and is a member of the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus.

Governor: Doug Mastriano (Republican)

State Sen. Doug Mastriano, 58, won Pennsylvania’s crowded Republican primary for governor in May by casting himself as the only true conservative in the race, mocking rivals as RINOs, a partisan slur that means “Republicans in name only.”

Mastriano, 58, served for three decades in the U.S. Army, retiring in 2017 as a colonel after serving in Europe, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

His first campaign, a 2018 primary for a U.S. House seat in central Pennsylvania, ended in defeat. He won a 2019 special election for his state Senate district, and a full four-year term in 2020.

Mastriano lives in Fayetteville, a small burg of 3,200 people in central Pennsylvania’s Franklin County.

Mastriano touts his campaign as an effort to restore freedoms he says have been taken away through “heavy-handed draconian policies” to stem the COVID-19 pandemic. He’s also one of the most prominent election deniers in Pennsylvania.

Read more about Doug Mastriano here.

Lieutenant governor: Carrie DelRosso (Republican)

Carrie DelRosso surprised many in 2020 by unseating longtime Democratic State Rep. Frank Dermody. She represents parts of Allegheny County.

Governor: Christina Digiulio (Green Party)

Christina Digiulio is an environmental activist who was inspired to run by the construction of the Mariner East pipeline, according to WHYY. Digiulio, who lives in Chester County, graduated from Lock Haven University. She and Badges-Canning, candidate for lieutenant governor, plan “to focus on anti-corruption legislation, improving healthcare access and affordability, environmental justice and repair, infrastructure upgrades, protecting womens’ rights, and ensuring voting rights,” according to the Green Party of Pennsylvania.

Lieutenant governor: Michael Bagdes-Canning (Green Party)

Michael Bagdes-Canning, of Butler County, is mayor of Cherry Valley, a former educator, former union leader, and anti-fracking advocate. He and Digiulio plan “to focus on anti-corruption legislation, improving healthcare access and affordability, environmental justice and repair, infrastructure upgrades, protecting womens’ rights, and ensuring voting rights,” according to the Green Party of Pennsylvania.

Governor: Joseph Soloski (Keystone Party of Pennsylvania)

Joseph Soloski, of Centre County, supports a reduction in state spending, adjusting to a part-time legislature as a cost-saving measure, term limits for state representatives, decriminalizing marijuana, and more, according to his campaign website. His background is in finance and accounting.

Lieutenant governor: Nicole Shultz (Keystone Party of Pennsylvania)

Nicole Shultz, of York County, has a background in small business and agriculture. She plans to be a “relentless advocate for individual rights,” and will focus on “outreach and rehabilitation programs for drug offenders as well as other non-violent crime offenders,” according to her campaign website.

Governor: Matt Hackenburg (Libertarian Party)

Matt Hackenburg is “a veteran against war, the husband of a nurse against medical tyranny, and a neighbor against government overreach into our communities,” according to his website. Hackenburg is from Bangor, and is an avionics engineer and National Guard veteran, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Lieutenant governor: Timothy McMaster (Libertarian)

Tim McMaster, of York County, is an auditor and chair of the audit committee for Conewago Township, according to his campaign website. He supports lowering the property tax for homeowners, promoting small businesses, loosening restrictions around marijuana use, and more.

John Fetterman (Democrat)

John Fetterman, the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, has used his unorthodox image and persona to chart an unlikely path from mayor of tiny Braddock to the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in one of the country’s most crucial races.

Fetterman, 53, has long received national attention for his time as mayor of the small Rust Belt town outside Pittsburgh, ran an unsuccessful Senate campaign in 2016, but was elected lieutenant governor in 2018 where he advocated for marijuana legalization and criminal justice reform

Fetterman often rails against economic inequality, what he calls the low minimum wage, and poor housing and health care systems. He has called for raising the minimum wage, as well as ending the Senate filibuster, the rule that requires a 60-vote supermajority for most significant legislation. He’s shifted on certain issues including fracking, which he now largely supports.

Shortly before the primary election, Fetterman suffered a stroke. His doctors now say he has a clean bill of health, though he does continue to exhibit symptoms of auditory processing disorder (understanding certain spoken words).

Read more about John Fetterman here.

Mehmet Oz (Republican)

Mehmet Oz — best known as the TV celebrity “Dr. Oz” after rising to fame with help from Oprah — won an endorsement from former President Donald Trump to propel him to victory in an expensive and brutal GOP primary decided by fewer than 1,000 votes. The cardiothoracic surgeon ran then as a self-described “conservative outsider,” in Trump’s mold, banking on his name recognition and personal wealth to power his campaign.

Oz, 62, has emphasized crime while campaigning in the general election, but has offered few specifics about his own plans on crime or other issues, other than to say he would oppose President Joe Biden’s agenda.

He has faced sharp questions about his longtime residency in New Jersey — where he lived for more than 30 years before moving to Pennsylvania ahead of his Senate run — and his position on abortion, now one of the most crucial issues facing voters.

Read more about Mehmet Oz here.

Richard Weiss (Green Party)

Richard Weiss, of Pittsburgh, “supports Medicare for All, reproductive rights, sensible gun regulation, and restorative justice reforms that reduce crime and save money, while improving police professionalism,” according to the Green Party of Pennsylvania.

Daniel Wassmer (Keystone Party of Pennsylvania)

Daniel Wassmer is a Bucks County lawyer who also ran as the Libertarian candidate for attorney general against Josh Shapiro in 2020.

Erik Gerhardt (Libertarian Party)

Erik Gerhardt is a carpenter and small business owner. He supports lowering taxes, reforming police through recruitment, decriminalizing marijuana, and leaving abortion decisions up to the state to decide, according to his campaign website.

With 435 members, and six nonvoting members, the House is one of two chambers, along with the Senate, that form the U.S. Congress. The speaker of the House is third in the line of succession, behind the president and vice president. Each state has a number of U.S. House seats proportional to its population. Since 2019, the House has been led by a Democratic majority.

Pennsylvania is going from 18 seats in the House to 17 following the decennial redistricting process, because of slow population growth recorded by the census. Six of them are in the Philadelphia region, while three of them (the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th districts) include parts of Philadelphia. There are a handful of others we’re also keeping a close eye on outside of our immediate region:

District 1

District 2

District 3

There are no Republicans candidates.

District 4

District 5

District 6

District 7

District 8

District 12

District 17

District 2

District 4

District 8

District 172

District 177

District 182

District 184

District 194

District 200

There will be two special elections to fill at-large City Council positions left vacant by former Councilmembers Allan Domb and Derek Green’s recent resignations. There will also be special elections in the 7th and 9th Districts following Councilmembers Maria Quiñones-Sánchez and Cherelle Parker’s recent resignations.

Jim Harrity (Democrat)

Jim Harrity is a former aide to State Sen. Sharif Street. He plans to focus on education when he joins Council to make sure Philadelphia children get “an honest and even chance.” Harrity was raised in Southwest Philadelphia, worked in the restaurant industry, construction, and earned his GED from the Community College of Philadelphia. He has also been open about the his recovery from alcoholism.

Drew Murray (Republican)

Drew Murray describes himself as a moderate Republican, and was a Democrat for most of his life. He switched parties in 2018 after, he said, the Democratic Party “became a party that wasn’t for the middle class.” He’s campaigning on improving quality of life in the city, which he said is an area where a Republican can peel away votes from disaffected Democrats.

Poetica Bey (Libertarian)

Sharon Vaughn (Democratic)

Sharon Vaughn was a longtime City Council staffer, working behind the scenes there for more than three decades. Some of her top priorities she hopes to tackle are education, the opioid epidemic, and gun violence.

Jim Hasher (Republican)

Jim Hasher, who has described himself as a moderate, said he’ll campaign on addressing quality-of-life issues and the city’s opioid epidemic, which he sees as driving much of the record-breaking rate of gun violence seen in the city over the past two years.

Marc Jurchak (Libertarian)

Quetcy Lozada (Democrat)

Quetcy Lozada was Councilmember María Quiñones-Sánchez’s former chief of staff.

James Whitehead (Republican)

James Whitehead, a small business owner, grew up in Frankford and is a graduate of the School District of Philadelphia.

Randall Justus (Libertarian)

Anthony Phillips (Democrat)

Anthony Phillips is a Democratic committee person in former Councilmember Cherelle Parker’s district and the executive director of the nonprofit Youth Action.

Roslyn Ross (Republican)

Roslyn Ross is a former Democrat who lives in Mount Airy, according to the Northeast Times. Crime and education are among the biggest issues she hopes to tackle.

Yusuf Jackson (Libertarian)

Philadelphians will vote on two ballot questions this November.

A “yes” vote would turn the city’s airport division into its own department, and move it away from the Department of Commerce, where it operate under now. Airport officials are in favor of the move, saying it would help to streamline operations by establishing signing authority for grants and contracts as well as more have more say over staffing. The aviation division has a $388 million operating budget, making it the third largest among city departments.

A “yes” vote would give career and technical education graduates who apply for city jobs preferential treatment, similar to veterans as well as children and grandchildren of police officers and firefighters killed in the line of duty. The goal of the measure is to expand opportunities to CTE students, and to fill many vacancies in the city’s workforce.

This article contains information from the Department of State, Philadelphia Commissioners Office, and the Committee of Seventy. Staff writers Jonathan Lai, Andrew Seidman, Chris Brennan, Anna Orso, Sean Walsh, Michelle Meyers, and Catherine Dunn contributed reporting.