Primary Election Results: Battle For PA State Supreme Court's 7th Seat

8:34 p.m. A few dozen early election day returns are coming in, but results continue to be largely mail-in ballots. Mastriano-backed McCullough has narrowed the gap on the Republican side, while McCaffery maintains a strong lead on the left.

Democrats

McCaffery: 103,641
Kunselman: 59,723

Republicans

Carluccio: 16,898
McCullough: 12,225

8:19 p.m. Early returns are in for the state Supreme Court seat, with significantly more voter turnout on the Democratic side in the early going. That is largely due to the fact that only mail-in ballots have been counted thus far.

Democrats

McCaffery: 94,193
Kunselman: 48,973

Republicans

Carluccio: 13,188
McCullough: 8,858

HARRISBURG, PA — For the second time in three years, there is an opening on Pennsylvania's state Supreme Court, and Republicans have a chance to narrow the Democratic supermajority held in the body since 2021.

Two candidates in each party squared off on Tuesday, setting up a general election in November that will be the best, and really only true, statewide pulse of Pennsylvania's political mood following last fall's midterms and ahead of the 2024 presidential and U.S. Senate elections.

Democrats currently hold a 4-2 majority in the seven-person state Supreme Court.

On the Democratic side, Superior Court judges Deborah Kunselman and Daniel D. McCaffery will face off. For the Republicans, Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia McCullough will battle Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas Judge Carolyn Tornetta Carluccio. McCullough, backed by State Sen. Doug Mastriano, is widely seen as the MAGA pick, while Carluccio is the establishment's choice.

The race is to fill a seat left vacant by longtime Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Max Baer, who died in Oct. 2022 at 74.

While Democrats will retain a majority on the board regardless of the outcome of November's election, the race is nevertheless critical to the future of the nation. Court turnover is regular and Pennsylvania's high court has decided, and could continue to decide, battleground state election suits that hold great influence over national politics.

Baer had been slated to be replaced a few short months following his death, as the Court has a mandatory retirement age of 75.

Baer helmed the party's 5-2 majority on the court. He was elected to the Supreme Court in 2003 and was named chief justice in 2021 following the retirement of Thomas Saylor. Baer either led or had an influential voice on numerous decisions pertaining to election law, ranging from cases connected to the 2020 election all the way up to this summer's decision reaffirming the state's mail-in voting law.