{"id":25817,"date":"2025-11-05T18:13:04","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T18:13:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/25817\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T18:13:04","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T18:13:04","slug":"erica-deuso-makes-trans-history-elected-as-pennsylvania-mayor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/25817\/","title":{"rendered":"Erica Deuso Makes Trans History, Elected as Pennsylvania Mayor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for The Agenda<\/a>, Them\u2019s news and politics newsletter, delivered Thursdays.<\/p>\n

Voters in Downington, Pennsylvania elected Erica Deuso as mayor on Tuesday night, making her the first out transgender mayor in state history amid a night of major wins for pro-LGBTQ+ Democrats across the country.<\/p>\n

Deuso, who works in management at the pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson, defeated Republican Rich Bryant with 64% of the vote, the Philadelphia Inquirer<\/a> reported. As mayor, Deuso will oversee the Philadelphia suburb\u2019s police department and cast tie-breaking votes on the policymaking Borough Council.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing elected as Pennsylvania\u2019s first openly transgender mayor is deeply meaningful, and I carry that responsibility with pride and humility,\u201d Deuso wrote in a Facebook post<\/a> on Wednesday morning. Her victory made her the fourth known trans person to become mayor of a U.S. city. \u201cI hope it reminds anyone who has ever felt unseen, unheard, or underestimated that your voice matters, and that you belong in the room where decisions are made.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement obtained by WHYY<\/a>, Bryant said he extended \u201csincere congratulations to my opponent and wish them wisdom and success in leading our borough forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deuso \u2014 who is also bisexual \u2014 is a member of the Chester County Democratic Committee and the treasurer of the Pennsylvania Equality Project<\/a>, a statewide LGBTQ+ advocacy nonprofit. Her campaign largely did not focus on LGBTQ+ issues, however, instead prioritizing<\/a> infrastructure development and a plan for \u201cenvironmental resilience\u201d (a similar tactic to the 2017 campaign of Danica Roem<\/a> in Virginia, who rode to office on a platform of fixing highway infrastructure). She has also pledged<\/a> that under her leadership, local police would not cooperate with federal immigration agents \u201cexcept for where legally obligated.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for The Agenda, Them\u2019s news and politics newsletter, delivered Thursdays. Voters in Downington, Pennsylvania elected Erica…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[139,28,30,29,50,6275,5695],"class_list":["post-25817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-politics","tag-splitscreenimagerightfullbleed","tag-web"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25817","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=25817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}