State Sen. Scott Wagner won a three-way battle in Tuesday’s primary to secure the Republican nomination for Pennsylvania governor.
With 93 percent of precincts reporting, the York County senator had captured 44 percent of the vote, outpacing two first-time candidates in health care systems consultant Paul Mango and attorney Laura Ellsworth.
Wagner teamed up with Berks County attorney Jeff Bartos in the primary campaign to be his unofficial running mate for lieutenant governor. Bartos easily won the GOP nomination from a field of four lieutenant governor candidates.
Wagner and Bartos will now face Democratic incumbent Gov.Tom Wolf and lieutenant governor candidate John Fetterman in November. Wolf was uncontested in the primary, while Fetterman won the nomination among a field of five candidates.
Both Wagner and Bartos topped the vote totals for their races in Centre County as well.
After building a fortune as a waste-hauling and trucking mogul, Wagner became the first write-in candidate to win a state Senate seat in 2014. In the run-up to the 2018 gubernatorial primary, he earned the state Republican party’s endorsement and spent $10 million of his own money on the campaign.
‘I don’t need this job. I want this job,’ Wagner said in his victory speech. ‘I want it because I’m a down to earth guy, and I’m a results guy. I know what can be done and how to get it done for hard working people like you and me.’
Watch StateCollege.com editor Geoff Rushton’s C-NET interview with Scott Wagner below.
