Howard announces candidacy for 167th District House seat

MALVERN » In a letter to members of the Democratic Committee in the 167th Legislative District, Kristine Howard, a local Democratic activist and Chester County child welfare worker, announced her intentions to seek the Democratic nomination for state representative.

In the letter, the single mother of three boys and four girls, told committee members, “the sweeping victories of our Chester County row office candidates in 2017 heralded a seismic shift in the political realities we previously understood as activists Democrats.” Citing elections in 2016 and 2017 within the boundaries of the 167th District, she pointed out that Democratic women received more votes in nearly every race where

their opponent was a Republican man.

“The seat is currently held by an enabler who votes for the radical Republican leaders who set the anti-woman, pro-gun, LGBTQ-discriminating, public school-defunding, climate change-denying, corporate-giveaway legislative agenda in Harrisburg. I want to change that and cast a vote as a member of a Democratic majority for a Speaker of the House who will lead us in a new direction,” Howard said.

The seat is currently held by Republican Rep. Duane Milne, of Willistown, who has held the seat since 2007.

The district is comprised of parts of Charlestown, East Whiteland, Easttown, West Pikeland, West Whiteland and Willistown Township, l along with Malvern Borough.

Howard is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and earned her law degree at Rutgers in Camden. After law school, she spent five years in New Mexico, where she ran a small legal and social services organization. Since returning to Pennsylvania, she has focused on raising her children, four of whom live with her while attending school and working. Before resuming her career as a child welfare worker, Howard worked for Philadelphia Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, was a child advocate for children in foster care in Philadelphia and was an organizer on several Democratic political campaigns including the Obama campaign in 2012.