Part 3 – Pennsylvania’s Representation in DC
In addition to the top office in Pennsylvania, which I wrote about in last week’s post,[1] Pennsylvanians will soon be choosing who is going to represent our state in Washington DC, both in the Senate and in the House of Representatives. And it is Pennsylvania’s role as a continual battleground state that has placed us at the center of national political coverage in the run-up to elections on November 8.
Image credit: [2]
US Senate Race
The race to watch, as you will see if you turn on any national news outlet, is the one for the open Pennsylvania Senate seat. (Shameless self promotion time: I was recently quoted in an article about the race by a publication with national readership![3]) With a technical balance between the two major parties in the Senate since the 2020 election, there is a lot of pressure from both sides to get out the vote and establish control this year. And these races are a big commitment for us: senate terms are six years long, and incumbents have amazing chances of getting reelected once in office – and staying there, as there are currently no term limits.[4] US Senate elections take place every two years, with one third of the seats (and majority rule) up for grabs in any given cycle. These races are usually contentious, but this year NPR lists Pennsylvania at the top of the 10 biggest senate races to watch, followed by Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, and Colorado.[5]
“If only we had some good candidates to vote for,” I hear from friends and family. Well, one might argue, if you don’t see something you like, you can get involved and make it happen yourself. The job pays well at $174,000 per year. Should you desire to improve the field, you should know that senate candidates are required to be at least 30 years of age and a citizen of the United States for at least nine years. They must also be a resident of the state in question at the time of the election.[6] There is no requirement for prior residence, which has resulted in accusations of carpet-bagging on both sides of the aisle over the years, as potential candidates change residence to capitalize on an open seat.
That is the case for one of the candidates this time, who allegedly used his in-laws’ residential address to register to vote in Pennsylvania, despite the fact that his primary residence for the past several years had been in New Jersey.[7] While there is no legal residency requirement prior to election time, the practice of crossing borders for senate races does beg the question of how effectively a given candidate will be able to represent his/her constituents if he/she doesn’t actually live there.
If a candidate’s information is not available (as is the case with one here), it is because he/she did not respond to their request for information.
Image credit: [8]
The United States Senate is currently made up of 100 members – two from each state, but none from any sovereign territories. There are currently 50 Republicans, 48 Democrats, and 2 Independents within the Senate.[9] The Independents have identified with the Democrats for the purposes of determining majority, and the (currently Democratic) Vice President presides over the Senate, casting a vote in case of a tie. With those last two technicalities, there is currently a whisper-thin majority in favor of the Democrats, but that means essentially nothing when it comes to how these people will vote. And position on the issues is what I try to examine, not the party listed next to a candidate’s name.
Similar to the governor’s race, there are members of five different parties on the Pennsylvania ballot this year – see Part 1 of this series for a refresher or introduction to them all.[10] These candidates represent a range of views on a number of hot topics, such as education, law enforcement, and reproductive rights, all of which you can examine more closely in the candidate spreadsheet at the bottom of this post. Because of the wealth of options available, I am actively encouraging my friends and family to become familiar with all of their candidates if they (as I am) are feeling increasingly discouraged with or distanced from a longstanding political identity.
US House of Representatives Races
With senate races happening every two years, you will never not hear me telling people to pay attention and vote for accurate representation on the federal level, but it’s not just the senate that represents us in Washington. Getting less attention, but still critically important this fall, are the 17 races taking place across the state in each of our districts sending someone to the US House of Representatives. These individuals are also in charge of representing our priorities as they make laws on the federal level, and they can’t do that effectively if we don’t tell them what we want.
Because these aren’t statewide races, they get less coverage in statewide press (and in small, independent blogs) because it means tracking 17 races instead of one. However, if it matters to you which of the major two parties controls the house, you should know that the Democrats currently only hold two seats more than the threshold for a majority,[11] and nothing should be taken for granted in these races either. If you’ve read any of my political posts, you know that I am not a fan of the two-party system that dominates our government, but I mention it here as a reminder of what we’re saddled with – at least for the time being.
Image credit: [12]
The number of Representatives sent to the House from each state is proportional to the population, making it a much more accurate representation of the will of the people than what we see in the Senate, which sends two from each state, regardless of the population numbers. The House also includes non-voting representation from DC, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the US Virgin Islands.[13] Based on a count of Pennsylvania’s population in the 2020 census, we are now down to 17 Representatives. (Our total has been on a consistent downward trend for the last century – we had more than twice as many at the height of Pennsylvania’s population 100 years ago.)[13]
Should you decide that the Senate isn’t for you, you could consider a run for the House of Representatives (as a few people I know have), which has shorter terms of two years but still pays $174,000 per year. In order to run, a candidate must be 25 years old and have been a citizen of the United States for the past seven years. Similar to the Senate requirements, a US Representative must be a resident of the appropriate state (but not the district) at the time of the election (but not prior to that).[14] While I can understand why there is no restriction about living in the relevant district at the time of the election (I think I’ve been in three different districts, now, just in the time I’ve lived in this house), I would argue again that constituents may not feel sufficiently understood by someone who is not a part of their community.
Other Considerations
Of course you will have more down-ballot races to examine on your own, and I cannot stress how crucial small races are. I strongly recommend doing some research on your own ballot at Vote411.org, a nonpartisan site managed by the League of Women Voters.[15] Representative democracy does not function if people do not participate – and that means getting involved at all levels, in every election. We are seeing an increasingly centralized, winner-take-all system that plays to extreme special interest groups and not to the majority in the middle. That trend is only exacerbated when people only vote in presidential elections.
To drive home the point about how critical this next election is, next week’s post will cover some of the issues that our newly elected officials will decide, given the Supreme Court’s inclination to push decisions back to the states. Until then, take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the candidates on the Pennsylvania ballot and in Pennsylvania’s District 12, where I live.
Thanks for reading!
[1] https://radicalmoderate.online/november-2022-elections-part-2/
[2] https://www.fanpop.com/clubs/the-hunger-games/images/33101085/title/district-12-photo
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Term_limits_in_the_United_States#Congress
[5] https://www.npr.org/2022/08/22/1118389494/top-10-us-senate-seats-pennsylvania-georgia-arizona
[7] https://www.businessinsider.com/oz-pennsylvania-residence-spelling-campaign-form-2022-6
[9] https://www.senate.gov/history/partydiv.htm
[10] https://radicalmoderate.online/november-2022-elections-part-1/
[11] https://pressgallery.house.gov/member-data/party-breakdown
[12] https://www.politicspa.com/cook-political-report-moves-pa-12-to-likely-democrat/109168/
[13] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-voting_members_of_the_United_States_House_of_Representatives
[14] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_congressional_delegations_from_Pennsylvania
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