Mary Gay Scanlon

On February 25, 2018, Scanlon launched her campaign for US Congress in Pennsylvania's 5th district in the 2018 election. The district had previously been the 7th, represented by four-term Republican Pat Meehan, who had announced a month earlier that he was not running for reelection. She kicked off the campaign by giving a speech at Swarthmore Rutledge School. The seat was one of several that had been significantly redrawn by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which ruled that the previous map had been an unconstitutional partisan Republican gerrymander. The redrawn 5th covers all of Delaware County, slivers of Montgomery and Chester counties, and the southwestern corner of Philadelphia, including the areas around the South Philadelphia Sports Complex and Philadelphia International Airport.[7] Scanlon said that her interest in running was also piqued by the fact that Pennsylvania had no women in its congressional delegation.[8] She was endorsed by former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell and the Philadelphia Inquirer.[6]

On May 15, Scanlon won the 10-person primary with 16,831 votes, or a 28.4% share of the votes cast. Her closest competitor was former Assistant United States Attorney for United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Ashley Lunkenheimer, who received 9,060 votes or a 15.3% share.[9] "Tonight we can revel in this moment," Scanlon said in her acceptance of the Democratic nomination. "You all here have once again rewritten history in Delaware County. Tonight, we made it possible for this new district for the first time to be represented by a Democrat in Congress and to be represented by a woman in Congress."[10] The new 5th is more compact and Democratic than its predecessor. Had it existed in 2016, Hillary Clinton would have won it with 63% of the vote, which would have been her third-best performance in the state and her strongest outside of the Philadelphia-based districts.[11] By comparison, Clinton won the old 7th with 49% of the vote.[12]

Meehan resigned from the House on April 27, 2018, a month before the primary. Scanlon was named the Democratic candidate in a special election to succeed him.[13] As a result, she ran in two elections on November 6, a special election for the balance of Meehan's fourth term in the old 7th and a regular election for a full two-year term in the new 5th. Her Republican opponent was prosecutor Pearl Kim.

2018 election results

On November 6, Scanlon defeated Kim in both the special and regular elections.[14] The margin was much closer in the special election for the 7th district because it took place under the old district lines that had been thrown out by the state supreme court earlier in the year.

She was sworn into her 7th district seat on November 13, 2018,[15] in a ceremony attended by Hawa Salih, a Sudanese human rights activist whom Scanlon helped gain asylum in the U.S. She was one of four Democratic women elected to Congress from Pennsylvania in 2018. The others were Madeleine Dean, Chrissy Houlahan and Susan Wild. The state's congressional delegation had previously been all male.[16] She is only the third Democrat to represent this district and its predecessors since 1939.

Main article: 2020 United States House of Representatives elections in Pennsylvania § District 5

On November 3, 2020, Scanlon defeated Republican nominee Dasha Pruett with 64.7% of the vote (255,743 votes) to Pruett's 35.3% (139,552).[17]

Scanlon with her family being sworn in by Speaker Nancy Pelosi

She transferred to the 5th district in January 2019, with two months' more seniority than the other freshmen elected in 2018.

In 2021, Scanlon introduced the ACCESS Act of 2021, which would mandate data portability on major tech platforms.[18]

In 2023, Scanlon was among 50 Democrats to vote to remove American troops from Somalia by voting for H.Con.Res. 30.[19][20] Scanlon was among 56 Democrats to vote in favor of H.Con.Res. 21 which directed President Joe Biden to remove U.S. troops from Syria within 180 days.[21][22]

A member of the Irish-American community in Pennsylvania, Scanlon is a member of the Congressional Friends of Ireland Caucus and traveled with President Joe Biden to Ireland in 2023.[23]

• Committee on the Judiciary
  • Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government (Ranking Member)
  • Subcommittee on Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust
• Committee on Rules
  • Subcommittee on Rules and Organization of the House (Ranking Member)

• Youth Mentoring Caucus (Chair)
• Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth (Co-Chair)
• Friends of Ireland Caucus
• Access to Legal Aid Caucus (Chair)
• Congressional Progressive Caucus[25]
• Congressional Equality Caucus (Vice Chair)