Voter turnout strong for Westmoreland primary as political leaders look to fall campaign

More than 41% of Republicans and nearly 40% of registered Democrats in Westmoreland County voted in Tuesday’s gubernatorial and U.S. Senate primaries, numbers that have local political leaders predicting an energetic fall campaign.

The county’s results closely mirror statewide totals as Democrats backed Lt. Gov. John Fetterman for Senate while Republicans overwhelmingly supported state Sen. Doug Mastriano for governor. Voters were almost evenly split between Mehmet Oz and Dave McCormick in the GOP primary for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey.

With all 307 precincts reporting in Westmoreland County, Mastriano received 46% of the Republican vote. In the Senate race, McCormick topped Oz by just 242 votes. Statewide, Mastriano had just more than 44% of the vote with thousands of ballots still to count while Oz held a small lead over McCormick.

Bill Bretz, chairman of the Westmoreland County Republican Committee, said he expects voters will coalesce around Mastriano and whoever ultimately wins the party’s nomination for Senate.

“Their message was the same, and what the primary was about was just picking who the messenger will be,” Bretz said, noting that Mastriano’s margin of victory in both Westmoreland County and throughout the state bodes well for the party’s efforts to retake the governor’s office in November.

“We have a nominee who was resoundingly supported, and we have to support him getting into the governor’s mansion. My goal is to make that happen, and I’m confident voters of Westmoreland County will support our slate,” Bretz said.

The county’s Republican committee did not endorse in either the governor or the Senate race this spring. State Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward, R-Hempfield, the top ranking member of the party’s local delegation, endorsed Dave White, who finished a distant fourth in both statewide and Westmoreland County results in the gubernatorial primary.

Ward, in a statement released Wednesday afternoon, signaled a level of support for Mastriano.

“Doug Mastriano is the only candidate for governor who will repeal the Democrats’ job-crushing energy policies such as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, sign a voter ID bill, protect parental rights in our schools and rein in our out-of-control business-killing regulatory agencies. I will look forward to working with him to enact these important changes,” Ward said.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro did not have an opponent in the Democratic primary for governor.

Fetterman received 60% of the vote in Westmoreland County and defeated four other candidates including Rep. Conor Lamb, D-17. Lamb represented a portion of Westmoreland County for about eight months in 2020 before a redistricting shifted that seat’s boundary lines.

Meanwhile, in the race to represent the 12th District in the U.S. House, state Rep. Summer Lee, a progressive Democrat, held a small lead over attorney Steve Irwin, a moderate candidate. Irwin received more than 55% of the vote in Westmoreland County.

County Democratic Committee Chairwoman Tara Yokopenic said she was not surprised by those results.

“John Fetterman holds a unique position in Pennsylvania politics that you can’t compare to other politicians. People went to the polls and voted for John Fetterman and not a progressive over a moderate,” Yokopenic said.

County Election Bureau Interim Director Greg McCloskey said more than 200 provisional ballots, along with absentee ballots mailed in from U.S. military members overseas, still must be counted. The county’s provisional board will begin its work to review and count votes on May 20.

All of the more than 20,500 no-excuse mail-in ballots submitted by county voters this spring have been counted, McCloskey said.