ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Allentown City Council member Ce-Ce Gerlach picked up a series of endorsements Friday in her bid for the Democratic nomination in Pennsylvania’s 22nd House District, with Lehigh County Executive Josh Siegel, multiple progressive organizations and a county commissioner rallying behind her campaign at an event in Allentown.
The endorsements from Siegel, the Pennsylvania Working Families Party, Make the Road Action Pennsylvania, Lehigh Valley DSA and Lehigh County Commissioner Jon Irons set up a primary challenge to state Rep. Ana Tiburcio, who won a special election just three days earlier to fill the remainder of Siegel’s term.
The May 19 primary will determine the Democratic nominee for a full two-year term beginning in January 2027.
Siegel, who represented the 22nd District for two terms before being elected county executive, used his endorsement speech to criticize his own party, calling on Democrats to reclaim their credibility with working-class voters.
“That’s what’s wrong with the Democratic Party. That’s what’s sick in the Democratic Party is we’ve lost our fight. We’ve lost our courage. We’ve lost our spirit,” Siegel said.
He added that the party has lost credibility with working-class families: “Nobody believes we will truly fight with the courage of our convictions. Nobody believes we’ll actually deliver for them.”
Siegel pointed to his time serving alongside Gerlach on Allentown City Council, citing their work on campaign finance reform and reproductive rights protections after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision.
Siegel said Gerlach could help restore the party’s standing with working families.
“The only way we are going to prevail is if we stand up and we fight back and we show working people that when we stand in solidarity and we fight for a better world and we make the wealthy pay their fair share, we can all do better,” Siegel said.
The event, held at Make the Road Action PA’s Allentown Organizing Center on North Seventh Street, drew supporters from organized labor, community advocacy groups and elected officials.
Ce-Ce Gerlach poses with supporters after receiving endorsements in her bid for Pennsylvania’s 22nd House District on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (Jai Smith / Lehigh Daily)
Speakers included Make the Road’s political director, Aya Mohammed; Commissioner Irons; Leo Atkinson, co-chair of Lehigh Valley DSA; and Dr. Kelly Kenny, a Working Families Party member and retired higher education professor.
Gerlach framed her candidacy as a grassroots movement built over a decade of organizing in the Lehigh Valley.
“This campaign didn’t start in some back room. This campaign didn’t start in a marble hallway and in a prestigious building,” Gerlach said. “This campaign started on front porches. This campaign started in living rooms, food banks, under bridges.”
She pledged to focus on lowering housing costs, fully funding public schools, raising wages and addressing what she called corporate price manipulation that drives up the cost of groceries and rent.
Gerlach cited more than 100 bills and resolutions she has introduced on Allentown City Council, including measures on anti-discrimination protections, immigrant rights and decriminalizing homelessness.
Irons, in his remarks, called the 6.9 percent voter turnout in the Feb. 24 special election a sign that the party needs to rebuild trust with its base.
“Seven percent voter turnout in a deep blue district, a Democratic district in a special election is embarrassing for the Democrats,” Irons said. He added that the groups gathered Friday “are serious about a new politics that doesn’t just win votes, but builds power.”
Lehigh County Commissioner Jon Irons speaks in support of Ce-Ce Gerlach’s state House campaign at an event in Allentown on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (Jai Smith / Lehigh Daily)
In a post-event interview, a visibly emotional Gerlach said she has kept her focus on the May 19 primary rather than the special election process, which she has previously criticized.
“Our focus has always been May 19th and that will continue to be our focus,” Gerlach said. “We want the people of this district to come out and support us. That’s who matters.”
The 22nd District covers much of Center City and East Side Allentown and parts of Salisbury Township. More than 60 percent of the district’s residents are Latino, and over half of registered voters are Democrats.
Tiburcio, who won the special election with 67 percent of the vote, became the first Latina to represent the Lehigh Valley in the state House. She is expected to run in the primary as well.
Gerlach, who was first elected to Allentown City Council in 2019, previously served eight years on the Allentown School Board. Originally from Maryland, she moved to the Lehigh Valley to attend Cedar Crest College in 2004.
She said her background — raised by a single mother on welfare, with a father who immigrated from Jamaica — shapes her approach to public service.
Siegel, in a separate interview, said he sees Gerlach as a partner on housing and homelessness policy if elected. He said candidates like Gerlach are how the Democratic Party will restore its credibility with voters.
Petitioning for the May 19 primary is underway.
This is the part where we ask.
No billionaire owner. No paywall. Just you keeping local news free.
$5 keeps us going
100% funds local journalism.
Jai Smith is a lifetime Lehigh Valley resident on a mission to empower local underserved communities and inform the public while providing journalists and storytellers a platform to develop the next generation of news media.