{"id":158371,"date":"2026-04-06T10:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T10:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/158371\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T10:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T10:21:10","slug":"heres-who-is-running-to-represent-berks-in-harrisburg-reading-eagle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/158371\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s who is running to represent Berks in Harrisburg \u2013 Reading Eagle"},"content":{"rendered":"

The May primary election will include four contested races in Berks County \u2014 three for state House seats and one for the Senate.<\/p>\n

In 2026, all 203 state House seats and half of the state Senate seats in Pennsylvania are up for election. That includes eight House seats and three Senate seats on ballots in Berks.<\/p>\n

There are no races on either the Republican or Democratic sides of the ballot for seven of those seats. There will be contested races on the Republican side for a Senate seat and two House seats, while the Democratic side will see one contested House race.<\/p>\n

Three of the contested races will feature challenges to sitting state lawmakers.<\/p>\n

In the 48th Senatorial District, Lebanon County horse farmer Clovis Crane is seeking to unseat incumbent Republican Chris Gebhard. The district includes northern and western Berks County as well as parts of northern Lancaster County and all of Lebanon County.<\/p>\n

In the 126th Legislative District, Laureldale resident and Reading codes enforcement officer Joshua Caltagirone is challenging incumbent Democrat Jacklyn Rusnock. The district includes parts of Reading and Exeter Township as well as Laureldale, Mount Penn and St. Lawrence, and Lower Alsace and Muhlenberg townships.<\/p>\n

In the 128th Legislative District, former Exeter Township Supervisor David Hughes is running against incumbent Republican Mark Gillen. The district includes Birdsboro and New Morgan as well as Amity, Caernarvon, Cumru, Douglass, Exeter, Robeson and Union townships.<\/p>\n

One race will see two newcomers vying to replace a longtime House member who has decided not to run for reelection.<\/p>\n

In the 130th Legislative District, Republican newcomers Mitch Micale and Melissa Brewer will compete to replace David Maloney. The district includes Bally, Bechtelsville, Boyertown, Fleetwood, Lyons and Topton; and Alsace, Colebrookdale, District, Earl, Hereford, Longswamp, Maidencreek, Oley, Pike, Richmond, Rockland, Ruscombmanor and Washington townships.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a complete list of who\u2019s running in each of the legislative and senatorial districts that include communities of Berks.<\/p>\n

Incumbents are denoted by an asterisk.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Pennsylvania House districts in Berks County.
\n5th Legislative District<\/p>\n

Democrat<\/p>\n

Andres R.F. Santiago<\/p>\n

Republican<\/p>\n

*Eric Weaknecht<\/p>\n

99th Legislative District<\/p>\n

Democrat<\/p>\n

Ethan Gabrick<\/p>\n

Republican<\/p>\n

*David Zimmerman<\/p>\n

124th Legislative District<\/p>\n

Democrat<\/p>\n

Tina Burns<\/p>\n

Republican<\/p>\n

*Jamie Barton<\/p>\n

126th Legislative District<\/p>\n

Democrats<\/p>\n

*Jacklyn Rusnock<\/p>\n

Joshua Caltagirone<\/p>\n

Republican<\/p>\n

Miguel Vasquez<\/p>\n

127th Legislative District<\/p>\n

Democrat<\/p>\n

*Manny Guzman<\/p>\n

128th Legislative District<\/p>\n

Republicans<\/p>\n

*Mark Gillen<\/p>\n

David Hughes<\/p>\n

Democrat<\/p>\n

Andy Wagner<\/p>\n

129th Legislative District<\/p>\n

Democrat<\/p>\n

*Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz<\/p>\n

130th Legislative District<\/p>\n

Democrat<\/p>\n

Erik Bonnett<\/p>\n

Republicans<\/p>\n

Mitch Micale<\/p>\n

Melissa Brewer<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Pennsylvania Senate districts in Berks County.
\n24th Senatorial District<\/p>\n

Democrat<\/p>\n

Chris Thomas<\/p>\n

Republican<\/p>\n

*Tracy Pennycuick<\/p>\n

44th Senatorial District<\/p>\n

Democrat<\/p>\n

*Katie Muth<\/p>\n

Republican<\/p>\n

Melissa Dicranian<\/p>\n

48th Senatorial District<\/p>\n

Republicans<\/p>\n

*Chris Gebhard<\/p>\n

Clovis Crane<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The May primary election will include four contested races in Berks County \u2014 three for state House seats…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,836,3612,182,883,139,28,50,128,130,129,706],"class_list":["post-158371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-election","tag-election-2026","tag-local-news","tag-local-politics","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-politics","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158371","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=158371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}