Meet Nine Freshman Primary Winners You May be Seeing on Capitol Hill this November
The following candidates have won congressional primaries this year in districts where their party is largely in control. These party nominees almost certainly will win elections in November and become House Members in the 116th Congress, which will convene in January 2019. These bios are an initial version of the profiles that will appear in the 2020 Almanac of American Politics. Let us introduce you!
Jim Baird; Indiana – 4th District (R)
- Graduated from Perdue University with undergraduate and masters degree in animal science and received Ph.D. from University of Kentucky
- First Lieutenant in the Vietnam War where he lost an arm during combat
- Owner of several businesses including a family farm and a home health-care agency
- Member of Indiana House since 2010
- Won the Republican primary in a contest with six other candidates including Steve Braun who raised more than twice as many campaign dollars
Greg Pence; Indiana – 6th District (R)
- Older brother of Vice President Mike Pence, Greg won the primary for the seat held by his brother for 12 years
- A graduate of Loyola University of Chicago
- Served in the Marines and then worked in the private sector at a local oil-supply company, owned a chain of convenience stores, and owned two antique malls in southern Indiana
- Pence won his campaign in a district where the Trump-Pence campaign won 67-27 percent in 2016.
Russ Fulcher; Idaho – 1st District (R)
- Grew up on a dairy farm in Meridian, ID and graduated from Boise State University
- Worked as a marketing executive for local technology companies, worked in the international commerce industry, then most recently as a real-estate broker
- Served 10 years in the state Senate and leader for the Senate Republican Caucus
- Won 2018 primary with 43% of the vote against 6 other candidates and was endorsed by numerous conservative activists and interest groups
Madeleine Dean; Pennsylvania – 4th District (D)
- Graduate of LaSalle University and Widener University Law School
- Executive Director of Philadelphia Trial Lawyers and opened a three-woman firm that practiced general law
- Worked as an English professor at LaSalle and as a writer, contributing to local newspapers
- Elected to the Pennsylvania State House in 2012, served as vice-chair of the Finance Committee and has co-chaired the PA Safe Caucus.
- She won 75% of the vote against two other candidates and will be one of at least three Democratic women from Pennsylvania to join what had been an all-male congressional delegation.
Mary Gay Scanlon; Pennsylvania – 5th District (D)
- Graduated Colgate University and the University of Pennslyvania Law School
- Served 14 years on the national Pro Bono Counsel at Ballard Spahr, a large Philadelphia Law Firm, where she focused on pay equality amongst female athletes and the rights of crime victims
- Local political activist, especially on behalf of public education at the Education Law Center of Pennsylvania
- Won the Democratic primary with 28% of the vote against 9 other candidates
Chrissy Houlahan; Pennsylvania – 6th District (D)
- Obtained Bachelor’s degree in engineering from Stanford and a Masters from Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Was a captain in the Air Force and worked on missile-defense systems
- Became executive of And1 Basketball and was president of a Philadelphia-based non-profit that has sought to improve literacy in inner-city schools
- Began political activism in 2017 with what the Washington Women’s March before deciding to run for Congress
- Won the Democratic nomination without opposition after the last minute decision of Rep. Ryan Costello to step down
Dan Meuser; Pennsylvania – 9th District (R)
- Graduated Cornell University and went on to become president of Pride Mobility Products
- From 2011 to 2015 Meuser served as Secretary of Revenue to Gov. Tom Corbett, where the Council on State Taxation raised the rating of his department from D to A-minus
- He won the Republican primary with 52% of the vote and was supported by the Making America Great PAC
John Joyce; Pennsylvania – 13th District (R)
- Graduated Pennsylvania State University and got his medical degree from Temple University and became a resident of dermatology at Johns Hopkins University
- After a tour of duty in the Navy during the 1991 War in Iraq, he established his practice as a dermatologist in Altoona
- Joyce ran as a political outsider and was supported by retiring Rep. Bill Shuster
- Joyce will be the first local representative since 1972 not apart of the Shuster family.
Guy Reschenthaler; Pennsylvania – 14th District (R)
- Graduated from Pennsylvania State University and Duquesne Law School
- As a member of the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General Corps, he served in Iraq, where he prosecuted terrorists from al-Qaeda
- Won a special election to the state Senate in 2018 for what had been a Democratic-held seat
- Reschenthaler won the primary against Rick Saccone, who recently lost a high-profile congressional special election in March to Democrat Scott Lamb.
These profiles were prepared by Rich Cohen with the assistance of biographical and campaign information from Ballotpedia, the Encyclopedia of American Politics. Cohen is a co-author of The Almanac of American Politics, a reference work published biennially by Columbia Books Information Services. The Almanac of American Politics contains in-depth profiles of every governor, senator, and house member in office. Order the 2018 edition today to better understand the context of the people and perspectives shaping the issues that matter to you!
