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Ce-Ce Gerlach poses with supporters after receiving endorsements in her bid for Pennsylvania\u2019s 22nd House District on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (Jai Smith \/ Lehigh Daily)<\/p>\nALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 Allentown City Council member Ce-Ce Gerlach picked up a series of endorsements Friday in her bid for the Democratic nomination in Pennsylvania\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s term.<\/p>\n
The May 19 primary will determine the Democratic nominee for a full two-year term beginning in January 2027.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what\u2019s wrong with the Democratic Party. That\u2019s what\u2019s sick in the Democratic Party is we\u2019ve lost our fight. We\u2019ve lost our courage. We\u2019ve lost our spirit,\u201d Siegel said.<\/p>\n
He added that the party has lost credibility with working-class families: \u201cNobody believes we will truly fight with the courage of our convictions. Nobody believes we\u2019ll actually deliver for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019s Dobbs decision.<\/p>\n
Siegel said Gerlach could help restore the party\u2019s standing with working families.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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,\u201d Siegel said.<\/p>\n
The event, held at Make the Road Action PA\u2019s Allentown Organizing Center on North Seventh Street, drew supporters from organized labor, community advocacy groups and elected officials.<\/p>\n
Ce-Ce Gerlach poses with supporters after receiving endorsements in her bid for Pennsylvania\u2019s 22nd House District on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (Jai Smith \/ Lehigh Daily)<\/p>\n
Speakers included Make the Road\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Gerlach framed her candidacy as a grassroots movement built over a decade of organizing in the Lehigh Valley.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis campaign didn\u2019t start in some back room. This campaign didn\u2019t start in a marble hallway and in a prestigious building,\u201d Gerlach said. \u201cThis campaign started on front porches. This campaign started in living rooms, food banks, under bridges.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeven percent voter turnout in a deep blue district, a Democratic district in a special election is embarrassing for the Democrats,\u201d Irons said. He added that the groups gathered Friday \u201care serious about a new politics that doesn\u2019t just win votes, but builds power.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Lehigh County Commissioner Jon Irons speaks in support of Ce-Ce Gerlach\u2019s state House campaign at an event in Allentown on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (Jai Smith \/ Lehigh Daily)<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur focus has always been May 19th and that will continue to be our focus,\u201d Gerlach said. \u201cWe want the people of this district to come out and support us. That\u2019s who matters.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 22nd District covers much of Center City and East Side Allentown and parts of Salisbury Township. More than 60 percent of the district\u2019s residents are Latino, and over half of registered voters are Democrats.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
She said her background \u2014 raised by a single mother on welfare, with a father who immigrated from Jamaica \u2014 shapes her approach to public service.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Petitioning for the May 19 primary is underway.<\/p>\n
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