The way he pilloried Anita Hill from his perch of authority on the Senate Judiciary Committee helped lead to “the Year of the Woman” in 1992. California, Washington and Illinois elected female senators. In Pennsylvania, Lynn Yeakel — the daughter of a former congressman — was able to capture the Democratic nod in a primary. But she narrowly lost to Specter.

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That was the last time either major party in Pennsylvania nominated a woman for Senate or governor. Today all 20 members of the commonwealth’s congressional delegation are men.

“All women candidates have different expectations placed upon them,” said Dana Brown, executive director of the nonpartisan Pennsylvania Center for Women and Politics. “One of the greatest challenges that women have running in Pennsylvania is the incumbency advantage. We have a long history of incumbents winning time and again.”

-- Clinton’s big win in New York last week seems to have given her some meaningful momentum. Hillary’s coattails might help other female candidates down ballot.

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The 189 Democratic delegates available in Pennsylvania make it the biggest prize in the presidential race on a day when four other states are also voting. It is being called the "Acela Primary,” though some are dubbing it “the I-95 primary.” Polls close everywhere at 8 p.m.

McGinty ran for governor in 2014 and finished fourth in the Democratic primary. The man who won, Tom Wolf, hired her as his chief of staff. She was then recruited by national Democrats to take on Joe Sestak. The retired admiral and former congressman toppled Specter in a 2010 Democratic primary after the now-deceased senator switched parties. Party leaders believe Sestak would once again lose to Republican Sen. Pat Toomey in a general election. McGinty is getting heavy support from President Obama, Emily’s List and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

-- McGinty is a strong supporter of Clinton (she worked on environmental issues in the Clinton administration) and her messaging closely echoes Hillary’s. Both are running as progressive pragmatists who won’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good and can break through gridlock. Each talks a great deal about “breaking down barriers.”

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-- Clinton could also be a factor in Maryland. Both Clinton and Democratic Senate candidate Donna Edwards, an African American single mother, received 16 points greater support among likely women voters than male voters in a Washington Post poll conducted earlier this month. Clinton got 63 percent among women vs. 47 percent among men, while Edwards got 50 percent among women vs. 34 percent among men, per pollster Scott Clement.

-- State Sen. Jamie Raskin was the early front-runner to pick up the House seat in Montgomery County that belongs to the other Senate candidate, Chris Van Hollen, but an influx of suburban female voters in a fractured field may give it to Kathleen Matthews, a former Marriott executive and MSNBC host Chris Matthews’s wife. (A third candidate, wine store owner David Trone, has spent more than $12 million on ads.)

-- Maryland could be the only state currently represented by a woman in the Senate that will no longer be next year. The dean of congressional women, Barbara Mikulski, is retiring after 30 years. The demographics would seem to favor Edwards over Van Hollen, but he seems to have gotten the upper hand over the past few weeks in what remains a tight and fluid race. Martin O’Malley yesterday joined Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid in supporting CVH, as he’s known.

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Senate women are making gains elsewhere: The Democratic favorite to succeed the retiring Harry Reid is former Nevada attorney general Catherine Cortez Masto. Barbara Boxer will almost certainly be succeeded by Kamala Harris or Loretta Sanchez in California. Vulnerable Sen. Kelly Ayotte is being challenged by New Hampshire’s female governor, Maggie Hassan.

“Edwards has put race and gender at the forefront of her campaign, emphasizing that only one black woman has ever served in the U.S. Senate,” Rachel Weiner writes in a curtain-raiser on the primary. “I thought the Republican Party was full of dog whistles, but the Democratic Party has a foghorn,” the congresswoman told BuzzFeed.

Here are other things to watch as returns come in today—

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-- Will Bernie Sanders be mathematically eliminated? Last night, he predicted victory in Pennsylvania during a rally at Drexel University that drew a crowd of 3,000. “Sanders aides initially thought they could win here but are now facing polls showing Clinton with a double-digit lead,” John Wagner writes. “Sanders has been running strongest in Rhode Island, which has only 24 delegates at stake. Because Democratic delegates are awarded proportionately, a win in Rhode Island would likely only yield Sanders a pick up of a couple of delegates. The large crowds that turned out for Sanders on Sunday seem to have boosted the campaign’s spirits about its prospects in Connecticut, which has 55 delegates in play. But a win in Maryland -- with 95 delegates, the second biggest prize on Tuesday -- is probably out of reach. Meanwhile, only 21 delegates are at stake in Delaware, the other state on the calendar.”

Four closed primaries work against Bernie: “Throughout the race, Sanders has performed far better in states that allow independent voters to participate in their Democratic primaries. Only one of the five on the calendar on Tuesday -- Rhode Island -- falls into that category. Clinton has routinely outpaced Sanders among registered Democrats, while Sanders … cleans up with unaffiliated voters,” Wagner adds.

-- Donald Trump is poised to sweep all five states today, but how many delegates will he get? “Depending on results, Rhode Island and Connecticut could end up awarding delegates to a mix of contenders while the final results from Pennsylvania may not be known until votes are cast on the convention floor,” Ed O’Keefe reports. Here is Ed’s state-by-state breakdown of how it works:

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PA : The 14 at-large delegates all go to the winner of the state. The 54 congressional district delegates are directly elected by voters and are officially unbound to a candidate. Winners do not need to announce their intentions, but in most cases, the candidates have said they’ll vote for whoever wins their district.

MD: Like Pennsylvania, the 24 Maryland delegates from the congressional districts are also directly elected. But they must vote for the winner in their congressional district. The 11 at-large delegates will be chosen at the Maryland Republican State Convention on May 13 and 14.

DE is winner-take-all.

CT: A candidate gets all 13 at-large and the RNC/leader delegates if he wins a majority statewide. If not, delegates are doled out proportionally to candidates getting at least 20 percent. Congressional district delegates are awarded to whoever wins the district.

RI: This is an open primary – independents can participate. It’s also proportional for anyone who gets more than 10 percent, which means all three candidates should get some delegates.

-- How many states will John Kasich finish second in? It is harder and harder for Ted Cruz to say that he’s in a two-way race with Trump each time he finishes third behind the Ohio governor, as he did in New York last week. A few of these Mid-Atlantic states fit Kasich’s politics better than Cruz’s. He may not come away with a ton of delegates, or a win, but it will give him an added rationale to fight on through the convention in Cleveland.

Before every previous election, including the March 15 primary in his home state of Ohio, Kasich was pretty far down the list of candidates getting buzzed about on social media. Yesterday, however, our analytics partners at Zignal Labs relay that he was second only to Trump in total mentions. (To be sure, some of this might be a result of the front-runner attacking him over his pact with Cruz.)

-- Will any congressional incumbents go down? Despite the outsider, anti-establishment mood in both parties, no sitting member has lost a primary yet this year. Two Pennsylvanians are vulnerable today.

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House Transportation Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R) is dating Airlines for America lobbyist Shelley Rubino. He denies wrongdoing or a conflict of interest, but his tea party challenger has made hay of this and other issues to portray him as an out-of-touch creature of Washington.

Rep. Chaka Fattah, an 11-term Democrat, is going on trial in the coming weeks for 29 criminal counts, from bribery to racketeering and mail fraud, related to his 2007 run for mayor of Philadelphia. This has obviously made him vulnerable, But he faces three primary challengers so may be able to win with a plurality.

-- Does Obama have juice? I wrote yesterday about the president’s efforts to help McGinty beat Sestak in the Democratic primary. Joe Biden campaigned with her yesterday in the Keystone State. The president has also endorsed Josh Shapiro for Pennsylvania attorney general. The White House was also widely seen as tipping the scales in Van Hollen’s favor when it strongly condemned an attack ad against him that used the president’s image – but did not say anything about his response ad, which also used the president’s image.

-- How Democrats get out the vote in Philadelphia: A pub crawl through “the Gayborhood.” I spent Saturday night going with McGinty to four gay bars. It’s actually a four-decade-old tradition in the City of Brotherly Love, begun by Ed Rendell when he was a 33-year-old looking to topple an incumbent district attorney. Read my full account of the experience here.

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GET SMART FAST:​​

MORE ON THE REPUBLICAN RACE:

-- The Cruz-Kasich alliance quickly hit speed bumps and seems to be falling apart. “In their unconventional last-ditch scheme, Kasich said he would clear the way for Cruz to face Trump in Indiana while Cruz would return the favor in Oregon and New Mexico … But less than 12 hours after the pact was announced, Kasich undercut the idea by declaring that his supporters in Indiana should still vote for him. The Ohio governor also plans to keep raising money in the state and to meet Tuesday with Republican Gov. Mike Pence," Sean Sullivan and Dave Weigel report. “’I’ve never told ’em not to vote for me,’ Kasich said. ‘They ought to vote for me. But I’m not over there campaigning and spending resources.’ Just hours earlier, Kasich’s campaign co-chair in Indiana was saying the opposite."

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The tumult did nothing to soothe the worries of voters and Republican elites, who worry that Cruz and Kasich have handed Trump a “ready-made argument” that the establishment is plotting against him. And Trump said as much in a series of stump speeches Tuesday: “Honestly, it shows such total weakness, and it’s pathetic when two longtime insider politicians … have to collude, have to get together to try to beat a guy that really speaks what the people want."

-- The GOP front-runner will appear at party conventions in California and Virginia later this week to personally court activists and address gatherings. “Trump will stop by the Hyatt Regency hotel near the San Francisco International Airport on Friday for the opening day of the California GOP’s state convention. A day later, he will visit Harrisonburg, Va., for the Republican Party of Virginia’s convention," Robert Costa reports. "The stops are part of an evolving strategy with Trump’s inner circle about how to counter the Texas senator’s highly organized efforts at recent state Republican conventions, where [Cruz] accumulated a growing number of delegates because of his team’s ability to navigate the events and rules. Alarmed by Cruz’s success in states where Trump has done well, Trump is said to have personally requested his high command to add these two state conventions to his schedule, confident that his presence and overtures could convince some delegates to get behind his campaign.”

-- Trump agreed to a one-on-one interview on May 17 with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, who he has routinely attacked since the first debate. (Callum Borcher)

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-- Trump hired former Chris Christie campaign manager Ken McKay as a senior adviser. (Bloomberg Politics)

-- The Trump campaign quietly opened a new office in Alexandria, Va. High-ranking staffers gathered there Monday morning for the first time. (Robert Costa)

-- Bobby Knight, the legendary Indiana University basketball coach, will appear with Trump tomorrow at an Indianapolis rally. (Watch The Post's John Feinstein talk on C-SPAN about the time that Knight told him maybe Hitler was right about the Jews...)

-- The Two Trumps: Walter Pincus wonders which Trump will show up at the National Press Club tomorrow for what’s being billed as “a major address on foreign policy.” The vicious campaigner or the guy who keeps promising to become presidential? On April 21, Trump called in to Laura Ingraham’s radio program to say, “I’ll be presidential at the right time, and I have my presidential moments, but people are going to be so bored.” Then, two days later in Connecticut, Campaigner Trump was back. He openly mocked the idea of being “presidential.”

Putting more meat on the bones of his rhetoric is the only way to be taken more seriously, Pincus argues in his column for Cipher Brief: “Will Presidential Trump put some figures to how big the military ought to be…Will he continue the $1 trillion makeover of the strategic nuclear forces? What’s his plan for Cyber Command? How much will all this cost and how is he planning to pay for it? … Does he realize Saudi Arabia is the second-largest source of U.S crude oil imports?”

-- Cruz's team let it be known that they are vetting Carly Fiorina for vice president. The Weekly Standard reports that the former Hewlett Packard CEO has turned over financial disclosures and other documents. Cruz is trying to expand his appeal with women, and he wants to seem like he's preparing to be the nominee -- not just engaged in some last-ditch effort to block Trump.

From Cruz's manager:

MORE ON THE DEMOCRATIC RACE:

-- Billionaire Democratic donor Tom Steyer announced that his super PAC will spend $25 million this year to mobilize young voters in battleground states. The campaign represents a new focus for NextGen Climate Action, which hopes to use global warming as a galvanizing issue on college campuses. It could help Clinton activate college-aged Sanders supporters in a general. (Matea Gold)

-- A Harvard poll of Americans between 18 and 29 suggests that millennials are taking Sanders' ideas to heart:

The number of millenials who agreed that "basic health insurance is a right for all people" increased from 42 percent in 2014 to 48 percent in the survey released Monday.

The share who agreed that "basic necessities, such as food and shelter, are a right that government should provide to those unable to afford them" increased from 43 percent last year to 47 percent.

And those who agreed that "the government should spend more to reduce poverty" increased from 40 to 45 percent.

-- Sanders ripped Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy (D), a Hillary supporter, for recent cuts to mental health services. “Now I don’t want to get too involved in local government here in Connecticut, but I understand that your governor has been cutting mental health treatment,” he said, eliciting a round of boos. It’s another signal that he is nowhere near ready to become a unifying figure in the party. (John Wagner)

-- Clinton and Sanders sat down for back-to-back town halls on MSNBC last night:

Clinton called her 2008 battle with Obama “so much closer” than her race with Sanders: “I have a bigger lead in pledged delegates than Senator Obama, when I ran against him in 2008, ever had over me,” she told “I have a bigger lead in pledged delegates than Senator Obama, when I ran against him in 2008, ever had over me,” she told Rachel Maddow . Clinton knocked Sanders for suggesting it's up to her to win over his voters, again drawing a comparison from eight years ago. “We got to the end in June and I did not put down conditions. I didn’t say, ‘You know what, if Sen. Obama does W, Y, and Z maybe I’ll support him.”

Sanders admitted he’s “unlikely” to flip superdelegates: "At the end of the process, frankly, if we are behind in the pledged delegates, I think it's very hard for us to win," Sanders conceded to : "At the end of the process, frankly, if we are behind in the pledged delegates, I think it's very hard for us to win," Sanders conceded to MSNBC’s Chris Hayes . The Vermont senator reiterated his pledge to stay in the race through the California primary in June, however: "Hundreds of hundreds of superdelegates, parts of the Democratic establishment, voted for Hillary Clinton, or chose to come on board her campaign, before I even announced my candidacy.”

-- In a new line of attack, the millionaire Clinton knocked the billionaire Trump as out of touch: "At some point, if you want to be president of the United States, you’ve got to get familiar with the United States," she said. "Don’t just fly that big jet in and land it … go make a big speech and insult everyone you can think of and then go back, get on that big jet and go back to your country club house in Florida or your penthouse in New York.” (Abby Phillip)

WAPO HIGHLIGHTS:

-- “Obama, who once stood as a party outsider, now works to strengthen Democrats,” by Juliet Eilperin: “Obama rose to prominence as a different kind of Democrat, an outsider who was not part of the establishment and who would chart a separate course. Eight years later, the president finds himself working hard to restore a party from which he was once eager to stand apart … Between 2008 and 2015, Democrats lost 13 Senate seats, 69 House seats, 913 state legislative seats, 11 governorships and 32 state legislative chambers."

-- “As McDonnell awaits Supreme Court, another governor watches from prison,” by Robert Barnes: “Along with the state officials and law professors who are happy that the Supreme Court this week is reviewing the corruption conviction of former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell, add … Don E. Siegelman, the former governor of Alabama, whom many of those same people supported when the justices decided — twice — that his conviction did not warrant an extended review. The longtime Alabama officeholder was the cause celebre — still is, really — for those who believe vague federal corruption laws give politically ambitious prosecutors too much leeway in deciding what and whom to investigate. ‘There was no personal benefit,’ [Siegelman said], ‘not a penny of any financial gain. There wasn’t any self-enrichment scheme.’ Andrew P. Miller, a former Virginia attorney general, agrees with Siegelman, a Democrat, and McDonnell, a Republican. The similarity he sees is that both men were rising stars in their respective parties brought down by prosecutors appointed by the president of the opposite party.”

POLLING ROUNDUP:

-- Half of Americans say they are "REPULSED" by the language being used on the campaign trail. A GWU Battleground Poll finds an additional 36 percent saying the heated rhetoric makes them “less likely” to vote for a particular candidate.

Only Sanders and Kasich have unfavorable ratings below 50 percent, with Sanders at 44 percent and Kasich at 29 percent. BUT majorities of voters also say they would not consider voting for either of them.

Obama’s job approval rating rose above 50 percent for the first time since a Battleground poll in 2012.

SOCIAL MEDIA SPEED READ:

The Huffington Post ran this photo with its piece, "Trump at War":

Sanders said his supporters might not listen if he backs Clinton:

Clinton allies were angry:

Cruz and his daughters enjoyed ice cream on the campaign trail:

Amal Clooney met with Ben Cardin:

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) sponspored a chili cook-off:

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) threw out a "Miss Congeniality" joke:

Bryce Harper spent the day at the Natural History Museum:

HOT ON THE LEFT: “Bangladesh LGBT editor hacked to death,” from BBC: “Bangladesh police say a top gay rights activist and editor at the country's only LGBT magazine is one of two people who have been hacked to death. The US ambassador to Bangladesh condemned the killing of Xulhaz Mannan, who also worked at the US embassy. Homosexuality is technically illegal in Bangladesh and remains a highly sensitive issue in society.” HOT ON THE RIGHT: “Michelle Obama Lunch Rules Ban Fried Foods, Frosted Flakes in Daycare,” from Washington Free Beacon: “New rules stemming from the school lunch law championed by the first lady are banning popular children’s cereals like Frosted Flakes in daycare centers. The [USDA’s] Food and Nutrition Service issued a final rule Monday that will affect more than 3 million kids ... The regulation will only allow daycare centers to serve juice once a day, will ban fried foods, and encourages centers to not add honey to a child’s yogurt.”

DAYBOOK:

For planning purposes: We expect exit polling from Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Maryland.

On the campaign trail: Here's the rundown:

Clinton: Hammond, Mishawaka, Ind.; Philadelphia, Pa.

Sanders: Huntington, W.Va.

Trump: New York, N.Y.

Cruz: Knightstown, Ind.

At the White House: President Obama has no public events scheduled. Vice President Biden holds meetings with Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili and Inter-American Development Bank President Luis Alberto Moreno. In the afternoon, Biden administers the ceremonial swearing-in of Secretary of Education John King.

On Capitol Hill: The Senate meets at 10 a.m. to work on the energy bill. The House meets at 2 p.m. for legislative business, with 15 suspension votes expected around 6:30 p.m.

Coming May 4 at The Post: We're bringing in Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell, White House drug czar Michael Botticelli and those on the front lines of addiction to discuss the opioid crisis in the U.S. It's our latest Coffee@WaPo event. Details here.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I have never seen a human being eat in such a disgusting fashion," Trump said of Kasich. "This guy takes a pancake, and he’s shoving it in his mouth. It’s disgusting! Do you want that for your president? I don’t think so." (Jose A. DelReal)

NEWS YOU CAN USE IF YOU LIVE IN D.C.:

-- Warm morning temps with some PM showers. The Capital Weather Gang forecasts: “Partly to mostly sunny skies greet us this morning with temperatures starting much warmer than yesterday, but we’ll have a touch more humidity in the air too (actually a good thing for allergy sufferers..!) Temperatures ascend to the very warm middle to even upper 80s by the afternoon skies gradually become mostly cloudy. A line or two of showers and storms sweeps the area by mid to late afternoon.”

-- Investigators said the track fire on Metro’s Red Line this weekend was caused by a “foreign object” touching the rail. Metro said it has eliminated power cables as a contributing factor. (Paul Duggan)

-- Fairfax County firefighter Nicole Mittendorff killed herself in Shenandoah National Park, and some believe cyberbulliying from her coworkers may have played a part. (Petula Dvorak)

-- “The Washington Redskins asked the Supreme Court to review their appeal of a federal judge’s ruling upholding the cancelation of their trademark. But they only want the court to consider its case if it takes up a one involving a band called 'The Slants,'" Des Bieler reports. “In December, a federal appeals court ruled that a provision of the 1946 Lanham Act, which holds that trademarks could be canceled if they ‘may disparage … persons, living or dead, institutions, beliefs, or national symbols …’ was an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment. That ruling came about after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) rejected a trademark for the Oregon-based band because it felt that ‘The Slants’ disparaged Asian Americans. Monday’s petition wants the Supreme Court, if it takes up Tam, to also hear the Redskins’ case because that would allow the justices to consider the question of the Lanham Act provision’s unconstitutionality ‘presented in a wider range of circumstances’ … and avoid piecemeal review.’”

VIDEOS OF THE DAY:

College Humor poked fun at Sanders supporters trying to figure out his path forward:

Is Captain Kirk a Republican or a Democrat? Here's William Shatner's answer:

Watch a sinkhole open up in the middle of a Chinese street during rush hour: