NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY, Pa. — After redistricting, the Pennsylvania House 107th District now includes parts of Northumberland and Schuylkill Counties.
Republican Kurt Masser has held this seat since 2010 but decided not to run for reelection. Two Republicans hope to win the seat — Joanne Stehr and Ron Tanney.
Stehr is from Pitman and has worked in the home health field for more than 30 years.
"I was a home health aide. I put myself through nursing school. I went to night school, worked full time, went four nights and every other weekend to be one of the first vocational school evening class graduates," said Stehr.
Tanney is from Mount Carmel and has worked in the juvenile justice industry for 24 years.
"Working with program development, business development, and ultimately, admissions for youth into treatment facilities in our area," said Tanney.
Both candidates had a lot to say about why they want your vote on Tuesday.
"I think it's also important that we support our seniors. During the last two years, we saw how these mandates and closures forced a lot of these senior care programs to close, which is a crucial part to some of our seniors and their everyday living in our area," Tanney said.
"Our farmers are struggling to get their crops in. What cost $50,000 is now costing $105,000 in fertilizers and diesel fuel that it's costing them to run their tractors, and this is a bad time of the year to have prices like we've had—the nurses who went from hero to zero real quick with their vaccine mandates. I think we the people need to step up to the plate and say mandates are not laws," Stehr said.
Stehr tells Newswatch 16 that she wants to be a voice for the people who feel they've been left behind.
"We're all wondering what happened to the COVID money for the small businesses that lost everything, and I think I would be a bigger voice in Harrisburg to try and figure some of these things out. I want to know what happened to election integrity, what laws are now being enacted as far as voter ID and cleaning the voter rolls."
Tanney stressed his desire to help small business owners.
"The last two years has really put a lot of stop to being able to grow their business as well as put a lot of businesses, made them close their doors. I want to be a voice for small business owners. I think working with the corporate tax and ending some of the mandates is crucial for them."
There are no Democrats on the ballot, so whoever wins the primary will likely be the next state representative in the 107th District.
Check out WNEP’s YouTube channel.