{"id":85714,"date":"2026-01-13T18:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T18:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/85714\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T18:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T18:21:09","slug":"democrat-drops-out-of-special-pa-house-race-for-lehigh-valley-seat-due-to-residency-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/85714\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrat drops out of special Pa. House race for Lehigh Valley seat due to residency issue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Armchair Lehigh Valley content is published on lehighvalleylive.com<\/a> as part of a partnership with the website, which aims to give voters nonpartisan factual information. Armchair Lehigh Valley is run by publisher Katherine Reinhard and editor Robert H. Orenstein. For more information, or to subscribe, visit armchairlehighvalley.substack.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Democrat Julian Guridy dropped out of running in the Feb. 24 special election in the 22nd House District<\/a> because he did not live in Pennsylvania for four years as required under state code.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as I realized it I quickly wanted to make things right and withdrew from the race,\u201d Guridy told Armchair Lehigh Valley on Monday night. \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate and I was honored to have a lot of support behind me and pray that support continues if I decide to launch another campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guridy, 31, unexpectedly bowed out with the Pennsylvania Democratic Party Executive Committee announcing Saturday that he was replaced by Ana Tiburcio, an Allentown School Board member. Personal reasons were cited as the reason for his departure.<\/p>\n

Under the state code<\/a>, persons running for the state House of Representatives must have been residents of Pennsylvania for four years and lived in their districts for one year.<\/p>\n

Guridy confirmed he lived and worked in Florida from mid-2021 until returning in 2023. The reason for his withdrawal was first reported by Lehigh Valley News.<\/a><\/p>\n

The 22nd District covers East Allentown and parts of Center City Allentown and Salisbury Township. The seat became vacant when Democrat Josh Siegel resigned his position to become Lehigh County executive.<\/p>\n

Bob Smith Jr., a former Allentown School Board member who faced Siegel in 2022, was selected by the Lehigh County Republican Committee to be its candidate.<\/p>\n

The winner of the Feb. 24 election will serve until Nov. 30, when Siegel\u2019s term would have expired. An election for the two-year term starting in 2027 will also be held.<\/p>\n

Guridy, a son of former Allentown City Councilman Julio Guridy, was chosen on Jan. 3 by an ad hoc committee of county precinct captains in the 22nd. He received 17 of 19 votes.<\/p>\n

Allentown City Councilwoman Ce-Ce Gerlach, who earned one of the votes, had been critical of the selection process.<\/a> She plans to seek the Democratic nomination in the May 19 primary. Tiburcio also plans to run in the primary.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Guridy said, \u201cI will continue showing up for my community and giving back.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Armchair Lehigh Valley content is published on lehighvalleylive.com as part of a partnership with the website, which aims…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":{"0":"post-85714","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-headlines","10":"tag-allentown-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85714","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=85714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}