Massive New Crop Of PA Legislators Prepares For A New Harrisburg

HARRISBURG, PA — An enormous crop of new legislators is poised to be sworn into office Tuesday as Democrats position themselves in power in the Pennsylvania general assembly for the first time in over a decade.

Six new state senators and nearly 50 new state representatives will take their respective offices for the first time.

Former Democratic speaker of the state House described it to PennLive as "a stupendous avalanche of new representatives" unprecedented during his career.

As Attorney General and Governor-elect Josh Shapiro prepares to take office, the new-look body could bring a new dynamic to Harrisburg, a capitol characterized by some of the nation's most tenacious and partisan politicking and a hotbed of both election challenges in the age of Trumpism and COVID-19-related debates. Few states bore quite the animosity that the outgoing Republican-heavy session and outgoing Gov. Tom Wolf had for another, though the two mended things enough for 2022 to be the most lawmaking productive year of Wolf's tenure.

Shapiro will work with a body that is split nearly dead-even, and while leaders in both parties remain as far away as ever as numerous key issues, there's a chance for the enormous new crop of legislators to set a new and more productive standard of governing in Pennsylvania.

While Democrats made more gains during November's midterms, new lawmakers come from both parties. And from a broad diversity of backgrounds.

Actual leadership of the General Assembly is uncertain. While Democrats won the needed 102 seats to have a majority, one of those seats was a person who was dead. Longtime State Rep. Tony DeLuca died shortly before the election, too late to have his name removed from the ballot. While a special election is underway there, the nonpartisan Pennsylvania Legislative Reference Bureau says that Democrats technically only have 101 seats, and that therefore neither party has an official majority or right to leadership.

Special elections will determine a replacement for both DeLuca and Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, who resigned from his seat in the state House following his and Shapiro's victory.

Republicans have had a grip on the general assembly for 23 of the past 27 years, with the last span of prolonged Democratic control coming in the mid-1990s. A Democratic victory in 2022 would give Shapiro an ability to enact the type of sweeping legislation the left hasn't been able to do since Ed Rendell was in office in 2010. Shapiro would also have influence that Wolf has never been able to command, as the last Republican body firmly was entrenched against most of his major policy endeavors.

The stakes for the Keystone State could not have been higher during the midterms. Huge policy issues like abortion hung in the balance, as a Doug Mastriano victory in the governor's race likely would have meant passage of his abortion-outlawing Heartbeat Bill. With Pennsylvania remaining a key battleground state and controversy over mail-in ballots continuing, the midterms also decided what party would preside over the looming 2024 Presidential election.

New state legislators are listed below, along with a link to their profile on the elections website Ballotpedia.

• Jake Banta
• Marla Gallo Brown
• Stephenie Scialabba
• Robert Matzie
• Joshua Siegel
• Latasha Mayes
• Tim Brennan
• Andrew Kuzma
• Joe D'Orsie
• Ismail Smith-Wade-El
• Jill Cooper
• Greg Scott
• Dallas Kephart
• Jesse Topper
• Jamie Flick
• Paul Takac
• Wendy Fink
• Tom Jones
• John Schlegel
• Dave Madsen
• Justin Fleming
• Joanne Stehr
• Robert Leadbeter
• Dane Watro Jr.
• Michael Cabell
• Kyle Donahue
• James Haddock
• Alec Ryncavage
• James Barton
• Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz
• Joseph Adams
• Joseph Hogan
• Donna Scheuren
• Melissa Cerrato
• Christopher Pielli
• Carol Kazeem
• Lisa Borowski
• Patrick Gallagher
• Kristin Marcell
• Jose Giral
• Benjamin Waxman
• Tarah Probst
• G. Roni Green
• Tarik Khan
• Anthony Bellmon