The Pennsylvania Primary is on Tuesday, April 23.

Democrat and Republican candidates are vying to see who will represent their party in the General Election in November.

When voters look at their ballot, they will see a plethora of candidates ranging from county positions to the President of the United States (though that race has essentially already been decided as Biden vs Trump).

BUT THERE ARE A TON OF OTHER LOCAL AND STATE ELECTED OFFICIALS TO VOTE FOR!!

We asked candidates for state-wide offices to answer a series of questions. Below you will find full interviews with those candidates, as well as a general description of the office for which they are competing.

 

Auditor General

The state’s auditor, called the Auditor General, is an elected official who leads to the Auditor General's office.

An auditor is someone authorized to examine and then verify financial accounts.

A state auditor has authority to examine the finances of all the state departments. They guard against embezzlement and other financial crimes. But the office can also examine how a department or entity is spending money, and make recommendations to improve efficiency.

Republican Tim Defoor is the current Auditor General in Pennsylvania. He is running unopposed in the Primary on Tuesday. Which means Democrats must choose their candidate to go against the incumbent in November.

There are two Democrats running for Auditor General in Tuesday’s Primary election: Mark Pinsley and Malcolm Kenyatta.

 

 

Malcolm Kenyatta

Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta has served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives since 2019. He has earned the endorsement of the Democrat party, labor unions, and Democrat county controllers from across the state.

Kenyatta spoke of growing up in a working class family, watching his parents divorce, and knowing first hand the tension that comes with stretching a budget.

He has listed education, labor, and community help programs as his priorities for if he gets in office.

 

 

Mark Pinsley

Mark Pinsley is the Controller for Lehigh County (a controller manages and organizes finances for an entity). He has a bachelors & masters in finance. His priorities for office are tackling dark money, education, and healthcare.

He was inspired to run for this state office after he published a study on a doctor in the county who was mislabeling medical abuse.

He ran and won the race for Lehigh County Controller in 2019, and retained his seat in the 2023 election. He has also run for State Senate District 16 in 2018 and 2022, winning the primaries but losing to Republicans in the General Election.

He shares that while he lacks the number of endorsements that Malcolm Kenyatta has, his life long experience in finance- from controller to managing million dollar budgets for businesses- qualifies him to execute the role well.

 

Of Note

Both candidates critiqued Tim Defoor’s for closing the school audit bureau.

Both also had commentary on a recent report the Auditor General’s office released on Philadelphia school districts. Those comments are at the end of the interviews.