On Wednesday, July 17 Represent PA, along with moderator State Representative Carol Hill-Evans, hosted three incredible women as they shared their experience as first-term incumbents in the House.
Here’s a snip of what they had to say during the briefing:
State Representative Lisa Borowski (HD-168, Delaware County)
Why she ran: She was asked to run, and redistricting gave her that opportunity. Then she heard House Speaker Joanna McClinton speak on the night when they tried [and failed] to pass the constitutional amendment banning abortion in PA. Her representative had voted 10 times against our rights. She said “I want to be there and be a part of this fight and help protect women’s rights.” She ran and she won!
State Representative Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz (HD-129, Berks County) - “I want to thank Represent PA for everything you do to advance the women's movement, women candidates and the women elected. I’m eternally grateful for the work you’ve done to help me get here.”
Why Johanny ran: Representation does matter, as a Latina woman running for city council she had a really tough time, but after redistricting her community asked her to run for the state legislature, and she won! For Johanny, seeing the discrepancy in education, as a mom of two kids, district to district, area to area - that created a lot of turmoil for her. It is not conducive to learning to feel like you’re going to jail while other schools feel like going to college. So for Johanny, creating equity in education was a determining factor in her run for office.
State Representative Tarah Probst (HD-189, Monroe/Pike Counties) - “Represent PA has been representing me since 2018. They knew in 2018 that I was running in a very gerrymandered district and they still supported me because we need to get out there and defend democracy. I had my opponent running scared because I beat him in Monroe County. He just crushed me in the other gerrymandered districts, which not only helped me stay a popular mayor, but it helped me in the 2022 [state legislative] race as well. That race was an open seat., Represent PA gave me so much support, we were lucky to flip it to blue.”
About [Tarah] being a first-term legislator: The 30 or so freshmen are really close; they like each other. They make up 1/3 of the Democratic Caucus and their voices are being heard!
Why Tarah ran: The tea party school board elections in 2013 - nobody cared. They closed two of their elementary schools and wanted to privatize everything. [We] voted them out by 2015 and it’s been blue ever since (since 2016). Besides education, her current State Senator, Rosemary Brown, voted 18 times against a woman’s right to her body, supported the heartbeat bill, doesn’t believe in climate change and is now taking credit for supporting our schools - she didn’t fund the schools for 14 years with a majority House and Senate republicans. Tarah said enough is enough. These people get under her skin. They vote for themselves, not for the people they represent. She calls them out for what they are and they don’t forget it.
As Rep. Probst said during the briefing, the Democratic House has passed nearly 400 bills that have stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate. If a bill does not pass the Senate, it must be reintroduced in the next session - this wastes so much time and energy for our legislators. We must flip the Senate blue!
We also heard how races are going from House candidates who were listening in to the briefing: Tina Burns (HD-124 - Berks and Schuylkill), Megan Kocher (HD-119 - Luzerne), Elizabeth Moro (HD-160 - Chester and Delaware), Rayne Reitnauer (HD-130, Berks) and Meriam Sabih (HD-131 - Lehigh, Montgomery, and Northampton).
If you’re like us and inspired by these women, watch the rest of the briefing to learn even more about what it’s been like as a freshman legislator this cycle.
- Team Represent PA