National political themes will lead off the campaign for Pennsylvania’s next attorney general

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — National political themes will lead off the campaign for Pennsylvania’s next attorney general, an office that played a major role — and gained national notoriety — in fighting lawsuits designed to keep Donald Trump in power after he lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden.

The nominees — Democrat Eugene DePasquale, the former twice-elected state auditor general, and Republican Dave Sunday, the twice-elected district attorney of York County — will carry forward messages they honed in their primary campaigns into their November general election contest.

DePasquale says his top two priorities reflect the concerns he heard from Democratic primary voters: protecting elections and abortion rights.

DePasquale said Pennsylvanians see the state’s top law enforcement office differently following Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the U.S. Supreme Court overturning of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision protecting abortion rights.

Its law enforcement role is still important, DePasquale said. “But abortion rights and democracy and voting rights were over and over and over again expressed to me by voters.”

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