Pa. Congresswoman Madeleine Dean will not run for Senate
WASHINGTON » U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean will not run for U.S. Senate and will instead aim to build her career in the House, she said Tuesday, further clarifying the Democratic field in a Pennsylvania Senate race with national implications.
Dean’s decision leaves fellow Montgomery County Democrat Val Arkoosh as the only woman in the party’s 2022 Senate field, and the only major candidate from the Philadelphia suburbs, which have become a key piece of the Democratic coalition.
Last week, U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, of Chester County, announced she won’t run for a seat that both parties see as crucial to control of the Senate after the midterm elections. Democrats across the state, and in Washington, are still closely watching for a decision from U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, a Western Pennsylvania Democrat who has built a reputation for winning swing voters and tough races after prevailing multiple times in conservative-leaning territory.
“After talking a lot with my family, with my team with my political side, I’ve decided I won’t be running for Senate for now,” Dean said during an interview in her Capitol Hill office.
Dean pointed to the opportunities she has already had in the House since taking office in 2019 — she was one of the Democratic impeachment managers in the second trial of then-President Donald Trump and sits on the influential judiciary committee — and said she hopes to continue her work there. She also hopes to join the powerful House Appropriations Committee.
“I just feel like I’m just getting started here, and there’s lots of work to be done,” said Dean, elected in 2018 as part of a wave of Democratic women who helped the party take control of the House.
The 2020 election established Montgomery County as a powerful Democratic stronghold in Pennsylvania
Dean’s decision could have immediate political benefits for Arkoosh, a Montgomery County commissioner, since a Dean campaign could have split votes in the state’s third most populous county, increasingly a Democratic stronghold. Influential Democratic women’s groups are also eager to elect a Pennsylvania woman to the Senate for the first time, and while there was once the potential for three wellestablished women to run, for now there’s only one.