{"id":121618,"date":"2026-02-23T22:54:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T22:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/121618\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T22:54:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T22:54:13","slug":"voters-in-two-pennsylvania-counties-to-choose-new-state-representatives-in-special-elections-tuesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/121618\/","title":{"rendered":"Voters in two Pennsylvania counties to choose new state representatives in special elections Tuesday"},"content":{"rendered":"

A pair of special elections for the state House are set Tuesday in Allegheny and Lehigh counties to replace lawmakers who resigned.<\/p>\n

In the 22nd Legislative District, Democratic Rep. Joshua Siegel stepped down after he was elected Lehigh County executive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Democratic Allentown school board member Ana T. Tiburcio, who owns a tax preparation business, is running for the seat against former Allentown school board member Robert E. Smith Jr. He\u2019s a program specialist for a mental health treatment provider. The 22nd District covers parts of Allentown and Salisbury Township.<\/p>\n

Tiburcio was the second pick for Lehigh County Democrats, who initially selected Julian Guridy, an aide for state Sen. Nick Miller (D-Lehigh). But, Guridy was unable to run for the seat because he doesn\u2019t meet the state\u2019s four-year residency requirement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Smith has run for state House twice before in 2022 and 2024, losing to Siegel both times. Last year, he lost his bid for reelection to the school board after serving 16 years.<\/p>\n

Rep. Dan Miller, a Democrat who represented the 42nd District, resigned after he was elected to the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas.<\/p>\n

Dormont Borough Councilwoman Jen Mazzocco, a Democrat, will face Republican Joseph Leckenby, a lawyer who challenged Miller\u2019s 2024 reelection bid. The 42nd District includes Castle Shannon and Dormont, Baldwin and Mount Lebanon townships and part of Upper St. Clair Township.<\/p>\n

In addition to elected office, Mazzocco is a teacher at Taylor Allderice High School and a member of the executive board of the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers.<\/p>\n

Leckenby completed a law degree in 2025 at Duquesne University, where he also earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in political science and philosophy.<\/p>\n

Democrats hold a 100-98 majority in the House with five seats vacant. Republicans could take control of the House by winning both of Tuesday\u2019s elections and then at least two out of three special elections scheduled later this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Under House rules, special elections must be announced within 10 days of a vacancy but may not be scheduled sooner than 60 days after the announcement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

House Speaker Joanna McClinton (D-Philadelphia) has also scheduled elections on March 17 to fill the unexpired terms of former Reps. Louis Schmitt (R-Blair) and Toren Ecker (R-Adams). A special election to fill former Rep. Seth Grove\u2019s seat (R-York) is scheduled to coincide with the May 19 primary election.<\/p>\n

Special election candidates are nominated by their parties\u2019 local committees and the winner will serve only the unexpired portion of their predecessor\u2019s term ending this year unless they run and are elected for a full term in November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A pair of special elections for the state House are set Tuesday in Allegheny and Lehigh counties to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[57237,57235,16075,36322,57233,57234,57236,28,30,29,34225,57238,50970],"class_list":{"0":"post-121618","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-allentown-school-board-member","9":"tag-democratic-rep","10":"tag-joshua-siegel","11":"tag-julian-guridy","12":"tag-legislative-district","13":"tag-lehigh-counties","14":"tag-lehigh-county-democrats","15":"tag-pennsylvania","16":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","17":"tag-pennsylvania-news","18":"tag-special-elections","19":"tag-tax-preparation-business","20":"tag-the-state-house"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}