Madison Kwiecinski – Editor-in-Chief 

Mvk5945@psu.edu 

On Tuesday, the hotly contested Pennsylvania House majority was officially won by Democrats in a special election. PA is a highly competitive swing state, where Democrats have not held control of the House in several years. 

Three seats were open during this special election, with Democratic candidates winning in all three areas and securing their majority. The majority of the P.A. House has been left undetermined since November’s election when Democrats held a technical majority. Still, Republicans were unwilling to select a Speaker due to their technical ability to stop a Democratic majority in the special election possibly. 

Republicans still hold a majority in the state Senate, while Democrats have officially taken the House. With a Democratic House and Governor yet a Republican Senate, there may be some challenges when it comes to lawmakers creating bi-partisan legislation. 

To further elaborate on why this particular election caused an excess of drama among the legislature, it is essential to understand why this year was different. Last year, Republicans held a 113-90 majority in the House. However, redistricting, which occurs once a decade, changed the base of the electorate allowing for the Democratic sweep in the state. 

After last year’s November election, Democrats held a House majority of 102-101 seats. However, three of those Democratic seats became vacant shortly following the election. Had Republicans won seats in this particular election, the House may have held a different majority. 

One of the three vacant seats was previously held by Austin Davis, who resigned from his seat early this year to fill the Lieutenant Governor of PA position. 

Summer Lee, who had previously held a seat in the state House also vacated her position due to winning an election for another office. Lee will be moving into the congressional House and therefore had to resign. 

The final open seat up for reelection was previously held by Representative Tony DeLuca, who died of cancer last October. DeLuca had won reelection; therefore, his seat was still technically a Democratic seat, but he also had to face the special election. 

When the 2023 session opened, despite Democrats having a majority of seats, Republicans had more voting members in the House until a special election could be called. This created a political impasse when opening the session and picking a speaker. 

Democrat Mark Rozzi was eventually elected as Speaker of the PA House, but it was only plausible after GOP leadership and members moved to the side with them on the vote. Since then, the House has been frozen. 

The House would not pass the new internal operating rules for this session, nor could it then approve any legislation or assign members to committees. Rozzi has stated he hopes to retain the Speakership after the special elections. 

The seat DeLuca formerly held was won by Joe McAndrew, age 32, the former Executive Director of Allegheny County’s Democratic committee. Summer Lee’s heart was filled by Democrat Abigail Salisbury, age 40, a member of the Swissvale Borough Council and a lawyer. Davis’ seat was filled by Matthew Gergley, a Democrat who works for the McKeesport city government, the same town Davis was originally from. 

Keep an eye out in the coming weeks to see how the P.A. House handles this change and what new operating rules are for this year’s legislative session.