HERSHEY — Pennsylvania’s Democratic Party committee members went through a divisive process of buttonholing, cajoling and promising Saturday but ultimately could not deliver endorsements in contested primary races for U.S. senator and state attorney general.

As a result, the candidates will run without the party’s explicit backing in the April 26 primary election to pick nominees to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey and keep a Democrat in the attorney general’s office since the embattled Democrat Kathleen Kane is not seeking re-election.

The party’s endorsement does not guarantee a nomination, but it can plug a candidate into fundraising and volunteer networks and provides a useful campaign slogan as the party-endorsed candidate.

The tone was set early in Saturday’s process when party members rejected chairman Marcel Groen’s call to support an open primary, rather than taking the endorsement votes.

In floor comments challenging Groen’s motion, former chairman Jim Burn said the timing of Groen’s motion “calls into question the motivation” to do it.

Afterward, Groen said the process is too divisive and means little more than bragging rights.

“And, frankly, we’ve been ineffective,” he said, noting fewer than half of the party’s endorsed candidates win contested primaries.

Ultimately, Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala, whom Burn supports, fell just shy of winning the endorsement over Montgomery County Commissioner Josh Shapiro, a close friend of Groen’s.

With heavy support from the Allegheny County and Philadelphia delegations, Zappala won 63 percent in the attorney general’s race, just shy of the 67 percent needed for the endorsement.

Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli’s name was not entered for consideration after he, like Groen, called for an open primary.

For U.S. Senate, Katie McGinty came closest to winning the endorsement vote for U.S. senator, scoring 173 votes to Joe Sestak’s 149 on the second ballot that did not include the names of the other two, lesser-known candidates, John Fetterman and Joe Vodvarka. Her strongest support also came from the Philadelphia and Allegheny County delegations.