“As a woman under 40 in a body that’s less than 18 percent women,” Krueger-Braneky said, “it’s hard not to look around the House floor and realize there’s not a lot of folks who look like you.” Leanne Krueger-Braneky, who won a seat in the state House last year in a special election in Delaware County, said it’s hard to not notice the dearth of women in Harrisburg. “I think we have changed the culture,” he said, “and I think there’s a fundamental understanding that, politically speaking, women candidates do well in the suburban areas.”Ĭulture change or not, if any of these women were to win, they’d be walking into a state House where women make up a small percentage of the representation. But it’s women in the southeast who could pick up a seat or two.Ĭhair of the Pennsylvania Democrats Marcel Groen said the concentration of female candidates in Southeastern Pennsylvania is part design, part coincidence. They could lose incumbents in the west, where the GOP is polling better.
When it comes to the state House, Democrats are focused on retaining incumbents and targeting pick-up opportunities. (In 2012, redistricting was still going through the court system and those senators up for re-election ran on the old maps.) State senators up for re-election are, for the first time, running on the latest district maps that are highly gerrymandered and favor the GOP. Half of the state Senate seats are on the ballot this year, and if Republicans pick up three of them, they’ll secure that two-thirds majority. But it’s politically symbolic and shows the strength the Republican party has in Harrisburg. The state GOP is focused on securing what could be a veto-proof majority in the state Senate where the current make-up is 31-19 in favor of Republicans. For what it’s worth, that veto-proof means - in a practical sense - nothing without a veto-proof majority in the House, which won’t happen this year. The state Democrats have a chance to send a younger, decidedly more female delegation to Harrisburg this year.
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