Peter Hall, Pennsylvania Capital-Star

If Gov. Josh Shapiro was able to win in deep-red Lancaster County, Democratic state Sen.-elect James Malone could too, his campaign co-manager Stella Sexton said.

Shapiro won the 36th Senate District in 2022 with a 0.2% margin over his Republican opponent, Trump-aligned Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Franklin).

“If we could get to Shapiro-Mastriano numbers, I knew we could take this,” Stella Sexton, told the Capital-Star about the campaign’s approach to flipping the long-time Republican Senate district. ...

On Jan. 6, 2021, Robert Sanford, a 27-year veteran of the Chester fire department, hurled a fire extinguisher into a line of police officers defending the U.S. Capitol, striking two in their heads.

Riley June Williams, a 22-year-old Harrisburg woman, entered the Capitol and “led an army up the stairs” into then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office suite, where, Williams later bragged on social media, she stole Pelosi’s laptop and gavel, according to court documents.

Robert Morss, of Glenshaw, went to the Capitol wearing body armor and joined a mob that used stolen riot shields to force police to retreat into a tunnel, court documents say, where Morss entered the building through a broken window. ...

Republican U.S. Senator-elect Dave McCormick’s lawyers withdrew a request on Friday for a Philadelphia judge to intervene to prevent election officials from counting provisional ballots without adequate Republican observation, according to court records.

McCormick’s campaign filed the lawsuit Thursday after the Associated Press declared him the winner of the Senate race by a narrow margin over incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey. Casey refused to concede, with his campaign saying that up to 100,000 provisional and overseas absentee ballots remained to be counted.

“The number of provisional ballots expected from areas that favor Senator Casey, like Philadelphia and its suburbs, is further proof that this race is too close to be called,” Casey campaign spokesperson Maddy McDaniel said. “As the McCormick campaign admitted in their own lawsuit this morning, the counting of these ballots could have an ‘impact on the outcome of the election.’ With more than 100,000 ballots still left to count, we will continue to make sure Pennsylvanians’ voices are heard.” ...

The Republican National Committee and the Republican Party of Pennsylvania have asked the state’s highest court to delay a ruling that could affect thousands of voters next month while it asks the U.S. Supreme Court to hear an appeal.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the election code requires county election officials to allow voters to cast a provisional ballot if their mail-in ballot is rejected and have the provisional ballot counted as long as there are no additional disqualifying problems.

In a filing Friday morning, the RNC and Pennsylvania Republican Party argued that the ruling goes against the court’s own admonition against changing voting rules while an election is in progress. ...

Denise Alexander couldn’t remember the last time she saw her younger brother John.

Convicted in 2007 of second degree murder for a crime in which he contends he was also a victim, John Alexander is serving a life sentence in state prison without the possibility of parole.

His absence for the past 17 years has strained the siblings’ relationship, tested their parents’ marriage to the point of breaking, and left John’s two children, now adults, without a fatherly role model and provider, Denise Alexander said. ...