What is at stake in the Pennsylvania primary?

Pennsylvania’s primaries take place on Tuesday and although Joe Biden and Donald Trump already have their respective party’s presidential nominations sewn up, there are still plenty of interesting congressional and state races to keep an eye on.

An important swing state come November, the Keystone State’s April primary is expected to offer important insights into two key issues set to define the race for the White House later this year: abortion and Israel’s war against Hamas.

President Biden, who has recently been out campaigning in his hometown of Scranton, won the state in 2020 by a mere 80,000 ballots and could again suffer a protest vote, as he did in Michigan earlier this year, as grassroots organisers call for Democratic voters to write “uncommitted” on their ballot papers as a warning to the incumbent to do more to bring an end to the bloodshed in Gaza or risk losing their support at a more crucial stage.

Mr Trump could also suffer a protest vote, of a sort, should voters decide to mark an X next to the name of Nikki Haley, his former opponent, who suspended her campaign last month but nevertheless picked up 13 per cent of the vote in Wisconsin recently, a warning to the brash former president that not all conservatives can be relied upon to fall into line and back him.

Further down the ballot in Pennsylvania, Democrats hope to hold onto their narrow 102-101 majority in the state House of Representatives and eat into the Republicans’ 28-22 majority in the state senate, with the party needing to flip just three seats in the latter to take it to 25-25 and enjoy a majority thanks to Democratic lieutenant governor Austin Davis’s tie-breaking vote.

All 17 members of the state’s congressional delegation are running for