{"id":43996,"date":"2025-11-25T08:25:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T08:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/43996\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T08:25:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T08:25:11","slug":"media-has-a-new-mayor-meet-joi-washington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/43996\/","title":{"rendered":"Media has a new mayor. Meet Joi Washington"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Delco to Chesco and Montco to Bucks, what about life in Philly\u2019s suburbs do you want WHYY News to cover? Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

For the first time in more than three decades, \u201cEverybody\u2019s Hometown\u201d in Delaware County will have a new mayor.\n<\/p>\n

Media Borough Mayor Bob McMahon, a Democrat, will leave office on Jan. 1 as one of the longest-serving mayors in Pennsylvania, if not the entire U.S., having first assumed the office in 1992.\n<\/p>\n

Replacing McMahon is a candidate slightly older than his mayoralty: Joi Washington. She ran unopposed in the Democratic primaries and defeated Republican Kevin Kellogg in the general election. Washington, 39, will become Media\u2019s first Black mayor and its first woman mayor.\n <\/p>\n

Washington is a familiar face for Media residents. She has served as a member of the Borough Council since 2022. During the day, she is a freelance illustrator and graphic designer.\n<\/p>\n

She said she is passionate about pedestrian safety. She spends some of her free time casually gaming. Her Street Fighter 6 \u201cmain,\u201d meaning the character she plays the most, is Chun-Li \u2014 and she said she envisions a Media where everyday people can afford a home again. Washington will be sworn in in January. Here\u2019s what she has in store for Media:\n<\/p>\n

The transcript of the full interview has been shortened and edited for brevity.\n<\/p>\n

Kenny Cooper: You\u2019re listening to WYYY. I\u2019m Kenny Cooper and I report on the Philly suburbs for WHYY News.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Media, Pennsylvania \u2014 is a small Delaware County town where it feels like everyone knows your name. For the last 33 years, the town has had the same mayor. Mayor Bob McMahon has finally decided to step away from politics, making way for Democrat Joi Washington.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Joi is 39 years old, but she\u2019s not new to local politics. She has served on Media Borough Council since 2022 \u2014 and she\u2019ll enter the new year with a new title. Joi, welcome to WHYY. How are you?\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Joi Washington: I\u2019m great. Thank you so much for having me.\n<\/p>\n

Kenny: Media hasn\u2019t had a woman mayor before. Media hasn\u2019t had a black mayor before. Now the borough will have both. How have you digested the historic nature of your campaign?\n<\/p>\n

Joi: After Election Day, I think I cried a little bit because when you\u2019re campaigning and knocking doors \u2026 my thing was like, \u201cAll right, I got to talk to everybody, ask them what they need, ask them about what they need, and I think I just it just didn\u2019t hit me until after the election.\n<\/p>\n

So, I think what I\u2019m looking forward to is continuing the the legacy of Bob McMahon and just be visible, be helpful in any ways that I can and I just know that people are going to be watching me a little bit more with like out of curiosity, so I do have to be like, \u201cAll right, you know, I\u2019m out here.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

I just have to make sure that I\u2019m out there meeting people where they are. That\u2019s basically I just kind of am looking forward to just continuing to be a good neighbor throughout town.\n<\/p>\n

Kenny: Now, Joi, tell us about yourself. Who are you and where are you from?\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Joi: I\u2019m Joi Washington, a current resident of Media Borough. I am a Philadelphia girl. I\u2019m a Philly girl. I was born and raised in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. I moved to Media around 12 years ago for an old job that I used to have in town and I was really attracted to the town because of how close-knit everything was and the ample public transportation access. I didn\u2019t have a car back then, so it was really attractive for me to move there.\n<\/p>\n

Kenny: What drew you to local politics?\n<\/p>\n

Joi: I think the issues that I cared about and listening to my neighbors talk about pedestrian safety and road safety that was one of the reasons I got into politics, well to local politics, because that\u2019s a local issue, which is great. I am really thankful for the neighbors and voters who chose me as a councilwoman and now as mayor-elect to continue working on those issues.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Delco to Chesco and Montco to Bucks, what about life in Philly\u2019s suburbs do you want WHYY…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[212,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-43996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-delaware-county","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43996","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=43996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}