Pennsylvania Democrats hope to flip Republican-held seats once they settle toss-up primaries

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democrats in Pennsylvania will settle primary fights on Tuesday to shape their congressional slate for the fall election, where they hope to capture the state’s four swing districts and ultimately a U.S. House majority.

Gov. Josh Shapiro and national Democrats are promoting their chosen candidates over progressive rivals, the latest example of a fissure that has divided the party as it grasps for a path back to power in Washington.

Three of the four swing districts have contested Democratic primaries, in addition to a wide-open primary contest in Philadelphia that will almost surely anoint the next seatholder.

The campaigns will put Pennsylvania on the front lines of Democratic efforts to retake control of Congress and block the last two years of President Donald Trump’s agenda.

They will also test Shapiro’s influence ahead of a possible White House campaign. He’s heavily favored to win reelection over Republican candidate Stacy Garrity, the state treasurer, so Shapiro is putting his clout on the line in primaries that will determine his party’s chances in November.

Three of Democrats’ primary fights are in swing districts held by Republican U.S. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, Ryan Mackenzie and Scott Perry.

Shapiro and the House Democrats’ campaign arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, have teamed up to endorse the same candidate in each of those contested primaries.

Washington U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene, the chair of the DCCC, said the party wanted “top-tier” candidates who were the strongest to take on Republican incumbents.

Two of those — Janelle Stelson and Bob Harvie — are facing opponents on the left, while another, Bob Brooks, is in a four-way primary contest.

Stelson, a former local television anchor and personality, is running in Perry’s south central Pennsylvania district and competing for the nomination against Justin Douglas, a progressive minister and a Dauphin County commissioner.

In Fitzpatrick’s district in suburban Philadelphia, Harvie, a Bucks County commissioner, is up against Lucia Simonelli, a first-time candidate and climate activist.

Brooks’ primary is for the right to challenge Mackenzie in the Allentown-area seat. He’s facing former federal prosecutor Ryan Crosswell, former Northampton County executive Lamont McClure and former legislative aide Carol Obando-Derstine.

The message of Shapiro's endorsements isn't always getting through to voters.

Tara Chickey, a Democrat voting in south central Pennsylvania’s 10th District on Tuesday, said she likes Shapiro and his endorsement of Stelson might have made a difference to her — if she had known about it.

Instead, she voted for Douglas to take on Perry. She'd simply heard more about Douglas than Stelson, she said.

Cindy Durian, meanwhile, wants Democrats to take back the U.S. House and Senate this fall, but she’s not that interested in whom party leaders think she should vote for in the contested primaries.

Durian, 65, voted for Douglas instead of Stelson. She viewed Douglas as being more engaged with regular voters during the campaign.

“I like Josh Shapiro, but I don’t have to agree with everything he says, right?” Durian said. “I mean, that’s what makes us a democratic state.”

In 2018, the last midterm election cycle under Trump, Pennsylvania Democrats flipped four Republican-held congressional seats. In 2024, Perry and Mackenzie’s margins of victory were among the slimmest in that year’s House races — smaller than the margin by which Trump won those districts in the presidential election.

Fitzpatrick won more comfortably, but he is just one of three House Republicans elected in districts that also backed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

Fitzpatrick and Perry are perennial targets of Democrats and have survived repeatedly. However, Mackenzie is a freshman in his first reelection test.

Without Trump on the ballot, Democrats hope they can capitalize on weaker Republican turnout. Shapiro won the same districts in 2022, and he’s at the top of the party’s ticket this year.

In Philadelphia, the Democratic primary for a seat in Congress is widely viewed as a toss-up among three candidates.

No Republican is seeking that party’s nomination, making the Democratic primary winner a shoo-in to succeed retiring Democratic Rep. Dwight Evans.

It features a familiar name to many in the city: Sharif Street, a state senator, former state party chairman and son of the city’s former two-term mayor, John F. Street. He is backed by Mayor Cherelle Parker, former Gov. Ed Rendell and the city’s building trades unions.

A state lawmaker, Rep. Chris Rabb, was endorsed by progressive stalwarts U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and online streamer Hasan Piker and has drawn financial backing from the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Dr. Ala Stanford, a pediatric surgeon who started a Black doctors’ consortium during the COVID-19 pandemic, was helped by millions of dollars from 314 Action, a left-leaning political action committee aimed at electing scientists to Congress.

Follow Marc Levy at http://twitter.com/timelywriter.

FILE - Lamont McClure, a candidate for the Democratic nomination in Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District, poses for a photograph in Bethlehem, Pa., May 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

FILE - Carol Obando-Derstine, a candidate for the Democratic nomination in Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District, poses for a photograph in Bethlehem, Pa., May 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

FILE - Bob Brooks, a candidate for the Democratic nomination in Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District, poses for a photograph in Bethlehem, Pa., May 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

FILE - Ryan Crosswell, a candidate for the Democratic nomination in Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District, poses for a photograph in Bethlehem, Pa., May 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

FILE - Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro speaks to the crowd at a Clinton County Democratic Party event at the Avenue 209 coffee shop, April 11, 2026, in Lock Haven, Pa. (AP Photo/Marc Levy, File)

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The teenagers who killed three people at a San Diego mosque met online and shared a “broad hatred” toward different religions and races, authorities said Tuesday.

Mark Remily of the FBI said during a news conference that authorities have uncovered writings by the suspects. Authorities declined to specify what ideologies or views were expressed by the shooters.

Authorities have also recovered 30 firearms and a crossbow from two residences searched in connection to the investigation.

Remily said authorities are still trying to uncover whether the shooters had broader plans.

Hours before Monday's attack police were racing to find the two teenagers who would ultimately be deemed responsible.

The search began after the mother of one teen reported that her son was suicidal and had run away, according to Police Chief Scott Wahl, who said weapons and her vehicle were missing from the family's home. Two hours after her call, the shooting started at the Islamic Center of San Diego, which also houses a school.

The suspects, ages 17 and 18, were found nearby in a vehicle after killing themselves.

The shooting was the latest in a string of attacks on houses of worship and comes amid rising threats and hate crimes targeting the Muslim and Jewish communities since the beginning of war in the Middle East, forcing increases in security.

Authorities have not yet publicly identified the teens Tuesday morning, but after the shooting investigators were seen searching the San Diego home of Cain Clark, a high school senior. Clark's parents, who are listed in public records as living at the home, did not respond to messages seeking comment, nor did other family members.

James Canning, a spokesman for San Diego Unified School District, said school police were cooperating with San Diego authorities investigating the mosque attack. Clark had been attending school online since 2021 and was on track to graduate next month, he said.

While he did not attend school in person, he did participate in 2024 as a member of the wrestling team at Madison High School in San Diego. Canning said Clark had no record of disciplinary issues in high school.

Neighbors Marne and Ted Celaya said they last saw Clark a few hours before the shooting and that he waved as he got into a car alone and drove away. They described the Clark family as good neighbors of more than 20 years and remembered when Cain was born, watching him and his older brother grow up.

“It's unbelievable,” Marne Celaya said of the shooting. “He's helped me bring in my groceries.”

Authorities executed search warrants as they piece together how and why the attack happened. There was no specific threat against the Islamic center, which is the largest mosque in San Diego, but authorities found that the suspects engaged in “generalized hate rhetoric,” Wahl said.

Muslim American organizations were quick to point out that anti-Muslim rhetoric has been on the rise across the U.S. “Words have consequences,” said Mohamed Gula, interim CEO of advocacy group Emgage Action.

Among those killed was a security guard who police believe “played a pivotal role” in keeping the attack from being “much worse,” Wahl said.

The guard's actions stopped the attack from moving beyond the mosque's front section, the police chief said.

The mosque hasn’t released the victims' names. But a family friend identified the guard as Amin Abdullah, who had worked at the mosque for more than a decade.

“He wanted to defend the innocent so he decided to become a security guard,” said Shaykh Uthman Ibn Farooq, who spoke with Abdullah’s son.

In a Facebook post, the mosque called him “a courageous man who put himself on the line of the safety of others, who even in his last moments did not stop protecting our community.”

It described one of the other victims as a foundation of the center who was dedicated to building the community from the beginning. It said the other was a man whose “kindness, sincerity and wavering spirit touched everyone around him.”

Those who died were “men of courage, sacrifice, and faith,” the center wrote. “Their absence leaves a void that can never truly be filled.”

Just before the attack, the search for the missing teen intensified Monday morning as law enforcement gathered more details. Police found he had dressed in camouflage — raising their alarms — and was with a friend. Officers used automated license plate readers to track the car to a mall and went there.

The police chief said that while other officers were talking with the suspect's mother who had called police, the first reports of the shooting came from blocks away at the mosque, which sits in a neighborhood with Middle Eastern restaurants and markets. The center includes the Al Rashid School, which offers courses in Arabic language, Islamic studies and the Quran for students ages 5 and up, according to its website.

TV footage showed more than a dozen children holding hands and being walked out of the center's parking lot as it was surrounded by police vehicles.

As officers searched the mosque for the shooters, there were reports of people in a fleeing vehicle shooting at a landscaper who was not seriously hurt, Wahl said. Police then found the suspects dead.

Daniel McDonald said he was inside his house when he heard gunshots. He went outside to find the streets shut down, shattered glass on the pavement and a gardener who was shaken up. He said he saw police trying to revive one of the suspects.

Johnson reported from Seattle and Biesecker from Washington. Jaimie Ding and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles, Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City, Javier Arciga and Gregory Bull in San Diego, John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.

People walk outside of the Islamic Center of San Diego, the day after a shooting, Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

A man who did not want to be identified stands outside of the Islamic Center of San Diego, the day after a shooting, Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

People embrace outside of the Islamic Center of San Diego, the day after a shooting, Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

This aerial image shows the Islamic Center of San Diego, Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

People stand behind police tape at the scene of a shooting outside the Islamic Center of San Diego Monday, May 18, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Two men embrace at the scene of a shooting outside the Islamic Center of San Diego Monday, May 18, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

A body is covered with a tarp at the scene of a shooting outside the Islamic Center of San Diego Monday, May 18, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

People embrace near the scene of a shooting outside the Islamic Center of San Diego Monday, May 18, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)