Pennsylvania state Sen. Patrick Browne has conceded the primary election to his challenger Jarrett Coleman. Just 19 votes separated the two candidates vying to represent the Republican Party for the 16th state Senate District.

According to unofficial election results for Lehigh County and certified results from Bucks County, Coleman led with a combined total of 17,041, while Browne had 17,022 votes. The voter turnout rate was about 32% in both counties.

“After a thorough review and careful consideration, we are confident that all votes cast in the Republican primary election for the 16th Senatorial District were counted properly. I want to congratulate Jarrett Coleman in securing the nomination and wish him the best of luck in the fall general election,” Browne said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

“It has been an honor and a privilege to serve the citizens of the 16th Senatorial District as their senator for the past 17 years and the commonwealth as a member of the General Assembly for 28 years. I look forward to finishing my service by delivering a budget this year, which places Pennsylvania in its strongest financial position in decades.”

The district includes Slatington and Washington, Lynn and Heidelberg townships.

Longtime senator

Browne was first elected as senator in 2005 in a special election to succeed the former U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent, who had resigned from the state Senate to take his seat in Congress. Had Browne won the primary, he would have been running for his fifth four-year term as senator.

Currently, he is serving as the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee for the 2021-22 Legislative Session. The committee plays a crucial role in the development of the state budget because it reviews legislation for its fiscal impact. Browne has served as chairman since 2014.

Browne also serves as a member of four Senate committees including finance, vice chair, law and justice, local government, and aging and youth, and various other memberships including the Public-School Employees’ Retirement System and several other education-related organizations.

Challenger

Published reports have stated that Coleman received more than $376,885 in campaign donations and contributions from a political action committee backed by school choice advocates.

The funds came from the Citizen Alliance for Pennsylvania political action committee. In turn, Citizen Alliance received funds from the political action committee Students First, which is funded by Pennsylvania billionaire Jeffrey Yass.

Yass supporters told Spotlight PA that he is a “single-issue voter” who cares about school vouchers and charter schools.

Coleman is new to the political scene. He was elected to the school board for the Parkland School District in November 2021.

A Lehigh Valley native, Coleman left the area to pursue and receive his bachelor’s degree from the Florida-based Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2016 in aeronautics, aviation, aerospace science and technology.

He stayed with the university and earned a master’s degree in business administration in 2019.

Since 2013, he has worked as a pilot with the title of first officer with CommutAir in the New York City area and then with Compass Airlines in the Los Angeles and Minneapolis-St. Paul areas.

He went on to be captain and domicile chief pilot with Compass Airlines, according to LinkedIn.

Coleman returned to the East Coast to fly for JetBlue Airways out of New York City in 2019.

Coleman has been outspoken about critical race theory and was a featured speaker on the subject at a community forum in October at the Chrin Community Center in Easton.

Coleman gave a brief statement about education on his website for Senate.

“Let’s refocus back to our core academic principles while teaching kids to respect one another without a racial lens. Give parents their voices back while developing curriculum with full transparency,” he said.

“Provide a rich, fundamental education for all children, free from unnecessary sexualization strategies, that encourages our children to respect our country and with a focus on exceeding national standards in the foundations of reading, math, science and history.”

On the Democratic ticket

Coleman will now go up against the Democratic candidate Mark Pinsley.

Pinsley supervises the fiscal affairs of Lehigh County as controller.

His viewpoints on education are fiscal-based.

According to his website, he wants equitable funding distribution for public schools; the base-salary for public school teachers to be raised from $18,500 to at least $45,000, property taxes reformed to ease the burden on lower classes, and supports the ideas of student loan forgiveness up to $50,000 per student, free public college, and capping student loan interest rates.

“Investing in public education means more than increasing spending - it means investing in our teachers, students, and all educational professionals,” Pinsley said on his website.

Pinsley is also president of Dermamed Solutions. He has a bachelor’s degree in finance from Northeastern University and a master’s degree in business administration from Indiana University in 2002 and served in the U.S. Army Reserves.

The general election will be held Nov. 8.