5 women take House seats
They win in state legislative districts now represented by men
Two female newcomers to politics who had no Republican opposition in the general election and three Republican candidates who ran against other women will diversify the Pennsylvania Legislature in January by securing five seats formerly held by men.
A sixth woman, Emily Skopov, a Democrat, lost in her bid to unseat veteran incumbent Rep. Mike Turzai.
The unopposed Democratic candidates, Summer Lee, 30, of Swissvale, and Sara Innamorato 32, of Upper Lawrenceville, won in the 34th and 21st legislative districts, respectively.
In the 30th District race to replace incumbent Rep. Hal English, R-Hampton, Republican Lori Mizgorski of Shaler defeated Democrat Betsy Monroe of Fox Chapel.
The county GOP committee selected Ms. Mizgorski, Mr. English’s district manager, to be its candidate. Ms. Monroe, a former Highmark supervisor, beat two men in the Democratic primary.
Republican Natalie Mihalek of Upper St. Clair defeated Democrat Sharon Guidi of Peters in the 40th District to take the seat currently help by state Rep. John Maher, RUpper St. Clair, who did not seek re-election.
And Republican Valerie Gaydos
defeated Democrat Michele Knoll in the 44th District race to replace retiring incumbent Rep. Mark Mustio, a Republican from North Fayette, who has held the office since 2003.
The unopposed female candidates, Ms. Lee and Ms. Innamorato, won the Democratic nomination by beating incumbents and cousins Rep. Paul Costa and Rep. Dom Costa. Both women ran to the left of the Costas with backing that included the Democratic Socialists of Pittsburgh.
Paul Costa, 58, of Wilkins, had represented the 34th District for nearly 20 years. The district includes Braddock, Edgewood, Homestead, Greenfield and part of Squirrel Hill.
Dom Costa, 66, of Stanton Heights, a former Pittsburgh police chief, was first elected to the 21st District seat in 2008. His campaign also sought the Republican nomination through a write-in effort that was unsuccessful. The 21st District includes Aspinwall, Millvale and parts of Pittsburgh’s East End.
“Now more than ever, we have a desire for more women to step up and run for public office,” Ms. Innamorato said in an earlier interview.
Ms. Mizgorski, who ran constituent services in Mr. English’s Hampton office, has been a Shaler commissioner since 2010. She asked voters to support her based on her years of community service.
Ms. Monroe said she became interested in politics with the Women’s March following President Donald Trump’s inauguration. During her campaign, she said being an outsider was a virtue.
Both candidates said they opposed a single payer health care system. Both oppose right-to-work laws and support reducing the state corporate income tax and raising the minimum wage.
Ms. Monroe supports a severance tax on natural gas extraction, which Ms. Mizgorski opposes.
While Republicans have historically held the 30th District seat, registration is split: Democrats have a narrow edge, with 44.1 percent of voters, vs. 42.4 percent who are registered Republicans.
In the race for the 44th District seat, Ms. Knoll, 62, an educator from Ohio Township, and Ms. Gaydos, 51, of Aleppo, a businesswoman, ran in a remarkably competitive legislative district. As of June, 43 percent of the district’s voters were registered as Democrats, 42 percent were Republicans, and 15 percent were another party or independents. Only a dozen of the 288 House districts had a tighter margin between Democrats and Republicans, according to state data.
In the 2016 election, most of the district went for Mr. Trump — but not overwhelmingly. Ms. Gaydos said she navigated difficult conversations about Mr. Trump by presenting herself as apart from the president’s personality.
The district spans the western and northern Allegheny County suburbs surrounding Pittsburgh International Airport, including Moon, Findlay, North Fayette, Crescent, Aleppo, Ohio Township, Sewickley and Edgeworth.
In the 40th, Ms. Mihalek will replace Mr. Maher, 59, who served 11 terms representing the district that includes Upper St. Clair, Bethel Park and Peters. He is generally credited with authoring the state’s open records law and the state’s first rules for lobbyists.
Ms. Mihalek, 38, a lawyer, defeated two men to gain the GOP nomination, and Ms. Guidi, 63, an educator, defeated a man to win the Democratic primary. Ms. Mihalek also ran as a Republican for the open state Senate race in District 37 in 2015, losing to Guy Reschenthaler.
In the 28th District, Mr. Turzai, 59, of Bradford Woods, the speaker of the House and former House majority leader, garnered nearly 55 percent of the votes cast. The district includes Pine, Bradford Woods, McCandless, Franklin Park and Marshall.
At about 10 p.m., as votes were still being tabulated, Mr. Turzai appeared at Frescos Restaurant in McCandless and, while stopping short of declaring victory, told his supporters the vote counting was heading in his direction.
With the top of the GOP ticket losing, he said, “To be this successful in this atmosphere is a testament to being a leader and my family and I being part of the fabric of this community.” He added that he won with a message of “cutting taxes, growing the economy, and creating jobs that leads to prosperity and that’s the Republican message.”
Mr. Turzai told his supporters that Ms. Skopov called him about 11 p.m. to concede.
Mr. Turzai was first elected to the House in 2001, during a special election to replace Jane Orie after she moved to the state Senate. Democrats have challenged him five times since then, losing each time by wide margins.
Ms. Skopov, 52, a political novice, was formerly a screenwriter and director in Los Angeles. She moved to Marshall with her husband and two children in 2010.
Both candidates ran unopposed in their respective primaries.
Here, Ms. Skopov launched a nonprofit, No Crayon Left Behind, that collected used crayons from restaurants that offer kids’ menus, recycling the crayons for use by children in low-income communities.
The emergence of women candidates this election cycle was significant and many would say overdue. Studies indicate Pennsylvania has suffered from a lack of female representation in the Legislature.
A May 2017 report from Chatham University’s Center for Women and Politics hypothesized that because there were so few women, there was “evidence of persistent gender inequality and policies that negatively impact women’s ability to be engaged in the workplace, provide childcare for their children, manage their health and reproductive rights, and participate in the legislative process.”