Candidates take another step toward securing party nomination
• State legislative race roundup. Page a2 • C-SPAN broadcast bus makes tour stop. Page B1 • Rafferty wins GOP nomination for attorney general. Page B7 • McGinty tabbed as Senate candidate. Page B7
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump campaigns during a rally Monday in Wilkes-Barre.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during a campaign rally at Fitzgerald Fieldhouse on the University of Pittsburgh campus, Monday, April 25, 2016, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)
Republican presidential candidate John Kasich leaves the Penrose Diner in Philadelphia Monday.
HARRISBURG – Billionaire real estate developer Donald Trump and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won Pennsylvania’s presidential primaries Tuesday, with Trump receiving support across the demographic spectrum and Clinton prevailing despite a weak appeal to millennials.
Trump pulled in support from a majority of Republican men and women and voters from cities, suburbs and rural areas. He also had the backing of the majority of voters with annual incomes over $100,000 or under $50,000, according to results from an exit poll conducted for the Associated Press and television networks by Edison Research.
Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who have trailed Trump in the campaign, split support among the minority of GOP voters who said they preferred a political insider, the exit poll showed.
Washington County mirrored the state results. Clinton received 54 percent of the vote to Sanders’ 39 percent. On the Republican side, Trump cruised to an easy victory with 61 percent, while Cruz had 20 percent and Cruz got 17 percent of the vote. Voter turnout in Washington County was about 40 percent.
Greene County voters also overwhelmingly selected Trump as their pick for the Republican nomination. Trump received 2,478 votes, which was 65 percent of the Republican vote in that county. The next closest Republican was Ted Cruz, who received about 21.5 percent of the vote, followed by John Kasich with about 11 percent.
The Democratic race in Greene County was much closer with Clinton edging Sanders by a 44 to 38 percent margin. Clinton received 2,166 votes in Greene County, compared to 1,872 by Sanders.
On the Democratic side, Vermont U.S. Sen. Sanders earned the votes of a wide majority of voters under age 30.
But Clinton, a former U.S. first lady and U.S. senator from New York, won among voters 45 and older, as well as women, black voters and those looking for an experienced candidate who can win in November. She also turned in a solid performance in Philadelphia and its suburbs, where two in five Democrats live.
In a victory speech in Philadelphia, Clinton urged Democrats to unify against a Republican candidate who would “pit Americans against each other.” Trump, speaking in New York, declared the GOP primary stakes “over” and suggested Clinton is doing well in the election only because she’s a woman.
For Trump, the battle goes on in Pennsylvania even after his decisive win. The state’s GOP primary is something of a beauty contest, since only 17 of 71 delegates are promised to the statewide winner and 54 others three elected in each of 18 congressional districts are essentially free agents and can vote for whomever they want at the convention, under state party rules.
In suburban Harrisburg, Dave Penn, a 61-year-old fire protection sales representative, liked that Trump doesn’t “take any bull” and that he “lets the upper echelons know where he stands.” In Hamburg, Laura Seyler, a 63-year-old buyer for a direct marketer, voted for Trump because he’s a “bully” and “will take the bat and straighten things out.”
On the Democratic side, the 127 delegates up for grabs in the primary are apportioned based on the vote in each congressional district, which could deliver a significant delegate haul for Clinton. Another 62 are divvied up later proportionally based on the statewide vote.
In Philadelphia, Susan Barr-Toman, a 48-year-old author, called Clinton “the most qualified candidate” and predicted that even Republicans would support her over Trump in the fall contest.
Voters decided hotly contested Democratic primary races for U.S. Senate and state attorney general.
Democrats backed their party establishment’s choice, Katie McGinty, for U.S. Senate to challenge Republican incumbent Pat Toomey in November. They rejected an ex-congressman, Joe Sestak, who six years ago nearly won the office.
McGinty was endorsed by President Barack Obama and was aided by millions of dollars from the party and its allies. Sestak lost to Toomey by just 2 percentage points in 2010 but was spurned by a party establishment that views him as a maverick.
Democratic Party leaders recruited McGinty, who had more than a decade as a state and national environmental policy official. The money they poured into her campaign bought a surge of TV advertising, which helped her close a polling gap with Sestak. The fall contest could help determine control of the U.S. Senate.
Democrats picked Montgomery County Commissioner Josh Shapiro in a three-way race for the attorney general nomination against two career county prosecutors, and Republicans nominated state Sen. John Rafferty, of Montgomery County, over a career prosecutor and police officer.
The candidates will vie to succeed Democrat Kathleen Kane, who decided not to seek a second term while she faces trial over allegations she unlawfully leaked grand jury information. Kane, the first woman and first Democrat to be elected the state’s attorney general, has denied the accusations.
In congressional races, Democratic U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah lost his bid for a 12th term in a four-way primary as he faces trial on federal racketeering and bribery charges in May. Fattah, of Philadelphia, has denied any wrongdoing. Longtime House Rep. Dwight Evans won in the heavily Democratic district.
Associated Press writers Michael Rubinkam in Hamburg and Errin Haines Whack and Geoff Mulvihill in Philadelphia contributed to this report.