Siegel declares victory in Democratic primary
Easy win in redrawn 22nd House District
Allentown City Council member Josh Siegel declared victory, and Saeed Georges conceded early Wednesday in the Democratic primary in the 22nd House District.
In unofficial returns about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, Siegel had 1,700 votes and Georges 959, a margin of about 64% to 36%.
Siegel said it was “quite clear” he was going to be the winner of the contest, and he attributed it “an extremely professional and datadriven campaign” as well as his belief that his message resonated with voters.
Georges conceded that Siegel had won, and said, “As a newcomer, as a firsttimer, I think I held my own against somebody with experience.”
Siegel is 28 and has lived in the city five years. He ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2017 and won a seat on City Council in 2019.
A lifelong East Side resident who has never run for public office, Georges is 32. He describes himself as “a born and bred kid who wants to make a difference.”
The newly drawn 22nd includes the eastern end of Allentown.
The district, which also includes part of Salisbury Township, was mentioned repeatedly during the months the Legislative Reapportionment Commission spent redrawing legislative maps.
Seeking to improve election chances for minority legislative candidates — only about 1% of the 250-plus lawmakers in Harrisburg, for instance, identify as Latino — the commission redrew the 22nd to be what it called a “majority-minority” district.
Its voting-age population is more than 67% minority and more than 53% Hispanic. That, combined with the fact it has no incumbent inside its borders, led the commission to present it as a district with great potential for minority candidates.
The only Latino candidate, Democrat Norberto Dominguez, dropped out of the race after he realized there were problems with signatures on his nominating petitions.
Georges, whose parents were born in Syria, considers himself a minority community member as a first-generation Syrian-American.
The voting-age population is about 70% Democratic and 30% Republican. The only Republican seeking the seat is Robert Smith, a former longtime Allentown School Board member.
Among the differences between the two Democrats were their views on dealing with crime.
Georges said he sees more breakins, more robberies and more petty crimes in his part of the city than there were five year ago. At the same time, he said the Allentown police have at times had their image unfairly tarnished.
“Sometimes the public opinion of them is skewed by what they see in a video or what they read in an article,” Georges said. “We don’t always get the background of what happened.”
Siegel said the city is safer than it has ever been, but he acknowledged a spike in “violent crime.”
Siegel said he wanted to see more collaboration between police and social workers, specialists who connect people with jobs, and those who connect people to support services. Crime, he said, is often confined to small areas, and those pockets are where resources should be concentrated.
Georges identified community input in major decisions as a pressing issue. The ongoing overhaul of the former Allentown State Hospital property, he said, is an example.
Siegel was passionate about the need for affordable housing.