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Ahmad Declares Victory in Dem Auditor General Primary

The lone statewide contested primary has seemingly come to a close. 

Nina Ahmad, former Deputy Mayor of Philadelphia, declared victory in the six candidate primary on Thursday afternoon. According to a release from the Ahmad campaign, Pittsburgh City Controller Michael Lamb, who is in second place and trails by close to 70,000 votes, offered his congratulations and support in a phone call yesterday. 

“First, I’d like to thank the three other women and two men who ran for auditor general for running strong campaigns based on progressive ideas for delivering positive change in our commonwealth,” said Dr. Ahmad. “Second, as a board member for the National Organization for Women, I was particularly proud that so many highly qualified women ran for this important office. I hope that’s a sign of things to come.”

“Last, but definitely not least, I can’t thank enough the broad coalition of progressives, unions, and community leaders from across the state who supported my campaign,” Ahmad continued. “I promised change and voters responded resoundingly by electing a new face and a new voice. I am deeply humbled.”

As of Thursday afternoon, Ahmad received 462,000 votes, 33.3%, while Lamb had 395,000, 28.48%. The only other candidate to crack double digits in vote share in the primary by the time Ahmad declared victory was former Lancaster County congressional candidate Christina Hartman, who tallied 203,000 votes, 14.64%. 

Tracie Fountain, a longtime Auditor General office employee, was in fourth place with 9.3% of the vote, followed by state Rep. Scott Conklin (D-Centre) with 7.95%, and Rosie Marie Davis, a Monroe County CPA, with 6.33%. 

Ahmad, who promoted a number of progressive initiatives during her bid, was supported by Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Philadelphia), state Sen. Katie Muth (D-Montgomery), Philadelphia’s Southwest Coalition, and more from the southeast. Lamb touted endorsements from Reps. Mike Doyle (D-Allegheny) and Conor Lamb (D-Allegheny), several members of the state legislature from western PA, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, and more.  

The Pennsylvania Democratic Party did not endorse a candidate for the office at their winter meeting, although Lamb was the highest vote getter after one round of voting, but did not surpass the two-thirds threshold needed for the endorsement.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Ahmad spent a significant amount more on television advertising than her opponents in the race. Ahmad spent a bit over $530,000 on broadcast and cable television advertising, while Lamb spent just under $145,000. Davis who spent just over $1,000 on television, was the only other candidate in the race to spend money on TV.

Ahmad will face Republican Dauphin County Controller Tim DeFoor in the fall for the statewide office. 

11 Responses

  1. Ahmad has finally found an office that she could win…in a primary.

    The general election will be different.

    Depending on who’s paying attention and staying focused longest… when placing her credentials against that of her November opponent, Republican Tim DeFoor; it becomes woefully apparent that she is not qualified to be Auditor General.

    Ahmad and the Democrats are going to have a bear of a time selling her candidacy against an infinitely better qualified opponent.

    The flip side is this…will Republicans be smart enough to see the clear advantage they have in this race, build the necessary warchest and seize the narrative before Ahmad’s money machine kicks in and steals it??

  2. I really thought Lamb had it in the bag until I heard who was running his campaign. Tweedle dee and tweedle dumb!

  3. This election was called in a week because Ahmad beat the daylights out of everybody else.
    So don’t be fooled about time. Philly announced they would take a month. Maybe they get it done sooner, but still.

  4. How did they get it done on election night back when it took 2 weeks to ride a horse across PA with election results? USA survived that; it will survive Trump. That said, I want the Orange Moron gone ASAP.

    1. I’m not really going back that far with my comment below, but more talking about elections over the last 80 years. The 76 election between Carter and Ford was close but was called by the early morning hours. And I remember 92 when Clinton declared victory around 1am. The nonsense didn’t start until 2000 in Florida and this Auditor General primary taking a week to get settled. I’m just saying it will be a mess in November if they are calling PA for Trump but then realize there is a trove of Philly votes waiting to be counted that will very likely be overwhelmingly for Biden.

      1. If Biden is ahead without Philly… that won’t be a problem.

        I think some states count the mail-in ballots as they come in, but don’t release the results until election night when the in-person voting results come in.

        The only “problem” is keeping the intermediate results secret so they don’t affect the election day voting.

  5. Ok, so here is the problem. It obviously took Philadelphia over a week to finish their tallying of the votes. I thought for over a week Lamb was the candidate but now it’s Ahmad – congrats to her. But, this isn’t going to fly come November. Picture if it takes Philly over a week to get their totals in and during the delay, the votes from the rural areas are all in by 11pm on election night and it looks like Trump is winning PA. THOSE PHILLY VOTES MUST BE COUNTED ELECTION NIGHT and Mayor Kenney better hire enough staff to get the job done right. If things aren’t smooth in November across the country, that orange lunatic will use anything to declare an invalid election.

    1. Would that orange lunatic use an invalid election to declare an invalid election?

    2. The idea that all 130 million votes must be counted election night is ridiculous. The important thing is that all the votes are counted correctly, even if it takes a week.

      “When does the Electoral College meet? The meeting of the electors takes place on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December following the presidential election”

      1. It is not a bad idea to have as swift a count as possible. Frankly, I think there is an overreaction by the Trump opponents that he may challenge ballot counts because other Republicans will run in the future and they won’t tolerate weak ballot count claims. That said, it is an excellent idea for Philadelphia to plan ahead and have as quick a counting of the votes as possible.

        1. Sure, but it’s not like the holy thing that we need to know on Election Night. I’d rather have people be able to vote safely and more easily and have a longer count than disenfranchise folks.

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