www.CHESTERCMS.org
The 2022 Elections Including the Race for US Senate from Pennsylvania By Larry L. Light
I
n the end, there will be no dearth of words to accurately describe the primary and general election campaigns this year to elect a new US Senator from Pennsylvania. There are so many adjectives that might attach to the event, words like historic, extraordinary, expensive, momentous, contentious, competitive, unprecedented, battleground and turbulent….and it seems like they may all apply. The reason is that the Senate seat currently held by Patrick Toomey (R) is “open” because after serving two terms Sen. Toomey announced that he would not seek re-election. His successor will be chosen in the November 8, 2022 general election. Given the time it took to verify vote totals for Pennsylvania in the 2020 Presidential election, the vote count might not be completed for several days after the polls close. The ballots prepared for the Commonwealth’s 8.5 million registered voters in November will be full of interesting, highly charged and competitive races. In addition to the open Senate seat, we will be electing a new Governor (Gov. Wolf is term limited), 18 Members of Congress in newly reapportioned districts, 25 State Senators in districts with new boundaries and 203 State Representatives on a map that will surely be changed significantly and likely face court challenges. The primary election, scheduled for May 17th, may even be delayed as those challenges are resolved. The elections held immediately after reapportionment are unique. Some incumbents from the same party will be forced to face off in the primary and in a few elections incumbents from different parties will contest the same seat in the subsequent general election. The process of drawing new legislative district lines with the goal of creating compact and contiguous districts will guarantee an interesting election cycle. Most assuredly though, the crown jewel of 2022 election contests in Pennsylvania will be the open Senate seat. There are two politically strategic reasons. First, Pennsylvania is viewed as a competitive swing state when it comes to statewide campaigns, having produced winning margins for Trump (2016) and then Biden (2020). With Senators Casey (D) and Toomey in office the Senate seats have been politically split between the two parties since 2006. The question is whether the Biden victory has primed the pump enough to keep the Keystone state blue. Second, control of the US Senate hangs in the balance. One third of the 100 Senate seats are filled every other year. With the current even split between the parties only providing a Democratic
30 CHESTER COUNT Y Medicine | WINTER 2022
majority in the person of presiding officer Kamala Harris, the Vice President, the stakes for the 34 Senate races spread across the country in 2022 are extremely high. But none are higher than the race in Pennsylvania. Most political analysts agree that each party has four Senate seats in the category of highly competitive. At total of 26 Senate seats are considered safe and not likely to change party. Both national parties have declared Pennsylvania a key battleground in determining control of the Senate. But first, the Democratic and Republican candidates for the general election must win their own party primary election on May 17th. Among the milieu of multiple primary candidates in both parties (each party has at least five), money spent on early television commercial buys, primary candidate debates, self funded candidates, candidates with tenuous claims to residency in the state, desperate campaigns from both parties to claim the open seat and a primary that could be delayed if the state or federal reapportionment plans are not finalized in time, it is already clear that the word physician will become a regular feature in campaign verbiage for both parties. It’s not completely unknown to have a physician from Pennsylvania serve in the US Congress. Benjamin Rush signed the Declaration of Independence and was then elected to the Second Continental Congress. Over the years several other physicians were elected, but always to seats in the House of Representatives. Physicians from other states have served with distinction in the Senate, most recently and probably most notably Bill Frist, MD (R-TN). Frist served two terms in the chamber and was the Senate Majority Leader for four years. Four physicians, all Republicans, are currently US Senators. But there has never been a physician, a woman or an African American elected to the US Senate from Pennsylvania. With physicians among the crowded primary fields of both parties, this high-profile Senate election in Pennsylvania could be the tipping point in so many ways. What are the chances? Well, among the declared candidates two months before the filing deadline there were three physicians running as primary election candidates. Valerie Arkoosh, MD, Montgomery County Commissioner Chair, was the only individual in either party who ticks both the physician and female candidate boxes before she announced her withdrawal from the Democratic primary on February 4th.
