HARRISBURG — This year, every member of Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives and half of the state Senate will be on the ballot.
These races receive less media attention than top-of-the-ballot ones, such as for the U.S. House or governor. That’s why Spotlight PA has compiled this guide to help you evaluate which candidates you want to send to or keep in the state legislature.
State House and Senate seats come with a base salary of six digits, perks such as per diems, and the ability to hire full-time staff. In return, legislators are expected to act as a front door to state government. They also work with their elected colleagues to shepherd bills into law, watchdog state agencies’ performance, and be a voice for their constituents' interests and values.
Keep reading to learn more about how to vet both incumbent lawmakers as well as candidates hoping to newly win office.
Use this tool to find out who your legislators are. Reminder: All state representatives will stand for election this year, while only state senators in even-numbered districts will be on the ballot.
Where to start
The best way to start your research is through the search engine of your choice.
A candidate’s official campaign website or Facebook page often includes a bio, information about their priorities, and noteworthy endorsements from politicians and organizations. Those pages may also include announcements of their own public events, which let you meet a candidate face to face.
Also, look for organizations that may publish non-partisan candidate questionnaires. Those include the League of Women Voters Education Fund and Ballotpedia, an online database of election information.
Local chapters of the League — as well as news outlets, business groups, and local political committees — may also host candidate forums or debates. These events allow you to see candidates interact in real time and may allow you to meet them in person.
How to vet incumbents’ records
Each state House and state Senate lawmaker has a web page that lists every bill proposal memo they’ve circulated (under “co-sponsorship memoranda”) and bill they’ve signed on to this session (under “sponsored legislation”).
Alex Garlick, a University of Vermont professor who studies American legislatures, previously told Spotlight PA you can understand a lawmaker’s priorities by looking at the legislation they back.
There are a few other ways to evaluate lawmakers, though all have pros and cons, Garlick said.
For instance, you could count how many bills introduced by a lawmaker became law. But that method alone isn’t sufficient, Garlick said, “because a lot of bills fail along the way.”
Bills that move through the Pennsylvania legislature are often rewritten, meaning what becomes law may be completely unrelated to what was introduced. Also, sometimes a lawmaker's bill gets absorbed into a larger measure.
Most rank-and-file lawmakers — especially those in the minority party — don’t have the power to ensure their bills are considered. That ability belongs to committee chairs and members of the majority leadership team, who make these decisions based on their own priorities.
Still, some academics try to quantify legislative ability. Take the Center for Effective Lawmaking, which published a report card for the Pennsylvania legislature last year, measuring how effective a legislator is at moving their “sponsored bills through the legislative process.”
However, even the academics who create those stats say they are an incomplete assessment of how legislators can use their role.
“For people to take [a grade] out of context and say, ‘OK, someone's a totally ineffective lawmaker because they score low,’ … I would not feel comfortable endorsing that,” Alan Wiseman of Vanderbilt University, co-director of the center, told Spotlight PA last year. “Because frankly … elected officials have many aspects to their jobs, all of which can be deemed quite important to them and their constituents. And in some cases, that involves lawmaking the way we define it.”
How a lawmaker votes on bills can also be informative. Do they buck party lines? Do they abstain from politically tricky measures? Do they prioritize unity?
Both chambers have advanced some weighty proposals over the past year. You can see how your lawmakers voted by clicking the links below.
Major initiatives considered by the state House over the past year include:
The 2025 state budget deal and an accompanying bill ending the state’s participation in a regional program to cap carbon emissions from power plants
A bill to increase the amount of state sales tax revenue that funds public transit agencies
A proposed constitutional amendment to ensure Pennsylvanians’ right to abortion
Bills that would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour or create a wage tier based on county population
Bills that would implement universal background checks for gun purchases, allow courts to issue extreme risk protection orders, ban untraceable gun parts, and ban Glock switches
A bill to repeal a state law defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman
A bill to create a state paid family and sick leave program
A bill to enact stricter rules for data centers
A law allowing hunting on Sundays
A law codifying anti-discrimination protections for individuals based on hairstyles associated with a person’s race, such as locs or braids
A law reducing the number of vapes available for sale in the commonwealth
Major initiatives considered by the state Senate over the past year include:
The 2025 state budget deal and an accompanying bill ending the state’s participation in a regional program to cap carbon emissions from power plants
A bill to fund state public transit agencies using transferred capital funds and gaming revenue
A bill to ban trans girls from playing women's K-12 and collegiate school sports
A bill to require additional legislative review of regulations with an economic cost of over $1 million
A bill to ban safe injection sites in Philadelphia
A bill to require that state prosecutors inform federal immigration authorities if they apprehend an undocumented immigrant
A bill to create a legal process for citizens to force their local governments to clear encampments
A bill to preempt local governments from banning gas utility connections
A law allowing hunting on Sundays
A law codifying anti-discrimination protections for individuals based on hairstyles associated with a person’s race, such as locs or braids
A law reducing the number of vapes available for sale in the commonwealth
Making sense of endorsements
You can also understand a candidate’s values by looking at the organizations that support them. As of April 7, the following notable organizations have endorsed candidates in some races:
The National Federation of Independent Businesses, an advocacy group representing the interests of small businesses
Planned Parenthood PA PAC, a statewide advocate for reproductive and sexual health care providers, including abortion services
AFT Pennsylvania, the statewide affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers, a labor union that represents education workers mostly in urban school districts
The Working Families Party, a left-wing political party active in Philadelphia and other urban areas
Other groups do not endorse candidates. Instead, the groups recommend or do not recommend a candidate based on their position on a particular issue. That means they may recommend multiple candidates in a single race:
- Pennsylvania State Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union.
Other organizations issue “report cards” that grade lawmakers on their votes. These report cards inherently reflect the issuing organization and its values. Groups in the same advocacy space, such as gun rights, also may issue different grades to the same lawmaker. Some report cards note which votes the organizations considered. Some of the prominent organizations that make these report cards are:
The ACLU, a civil rights group that advocates for structural changes to the criminal justice system, free speech, and the right to privacy.
Americans for Prosperity, a libertarian free-market and limited government advocacy group with ties to the Koch family.
CeasefirePA, an anti-violence group that advocates for stricter gun laws.
Gun Owners of America, a growing gun rights group that has criticized the NRA for being “too liberal.”
The PA Chamber of Business and Industry, a pro-business advocacy group that supports lower taxes and fewer regulations.
Other groups, such as the conservative Pennsylvania Family Institute, skip endorsements or grades, and instead publish surveys in which candidates, both incumbents and nonincumbents, are asked questions about their priorities.
The organizations referenced above may also endorse candidates based on internal interviews or questionnaires.
Local parties will likely also make endorsements. Such a nod usually means that the candidate has the support of local elected committee people, or each party’s rank-and-file representatives. However, the exact process for each party’s endorsement varies county to county.
Take a deeper dive with public records
Following the money will take even more work, but it’s just as important. Donations from political committees, other organizations, or even individuals can indicate who influences the candidate, and the policies they might support once elected.
All of this information is available to you — in theory.
The Federal Election Commission website and platforms such as OpenSecrets allow you to search for donations to national campaigns. In Pennsylvania, state-level candidates file their campaign finance information with the Department of State, which lists those reports online. The best way to find a candidate's committee is to search by last name.
Donations are divided by size on the report, and by whether the money came from an individual or a political action committee associated with a corporation, union, or other interest group.
Legislators are required to file their first campaign finance report for the cycle by May 8.
You can repeat this same process with any political advertisements you see, which are required by law to say who paid for them. Just plug the sponsor’s name into any of the above databases. If they don’t show up, it may just reveal a loophole in Pennsylvania’s lax and opaque campaign finance laws.
Candidates for state offices also have to file forms with the state Ethics Commission that list any gifts, businesses, and other sources of income. You can search for those here.
EXCLUSIVE INSIGHTS… If you liked this reporting from Stephen Caruso, subscribe to Access Harrisburg, a premium newsletter with his unique insider view on how state government works.