HARRISBURG - One of the biggest classes of first-time lawmakers in recent memory will be sworn in to the Pennsylvania legislature as leaders in the lower chamber grapple for power, complicating incoming legislators’ expressed desires to find common ground.

Nearly 50 new members will join the state House in January, making up a quarter of the chamber. Six people will also be sworn in to the state Senate for the first time, four of who previously served as lawmakers in the lower chamber.

Among the fresh faces for the 2023-24 session are lawyers, community activists, and the first physician to join the legislature in nearly 60 years.

“I don’t ever remember this many,” said Bill DeWeese, a former Democratic state House speaker. “This is a stupendous avalanche of new representatives.”

The first-year representatives and senators were elected under brand-new legislative maps drawn during this year’s redistricting process, which created a number of districts without incumbents and set off a wave of retirements.

Those open seats provided opportunities for new blood to join the General Assembly, though many of the successful candidates first had to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars. On average, their races were some of the most expensive in state history.

The new state senators are joining a chamber that will remain under Republican control. But in the state House, first-time lawmakers are entering a chamber with a razor-thin partisan divide that is being roiled by disputes over who controls it.

Democrats won 102 seats during the November election, giving the party a one-seat majority. But because of the death of one incumbent and the resignations of two others who won different elected offices, Republicans currently have 101 seats to Democrats’ 99.

The new members will face their first major test after being sworn in on Jan. 3, when they will be asked to elect a new speaker to lead the chamber.

“A lot of us are coming in and this is causing a bad taste because we really want to get things done for our community and that includes working with the full House,” said State Rep.-elect Tarik Khan (D., Philadelphia). “We’re also trying to figure out what is Jan. 3 going to look like.”

A divided chamber

As soon-to-be-seated state House members deal with bureaucratic tasks like finding an office and hiring staff, they’re also navigating Harrisburg’s hierarchical internal politics.

Democratic and Republican leaders are both claiming they control the chamber. State Rep. Joanna McClinton (D., Philadelphia) has said she will stand for speaker and expects all lawmakers, regardless of party, to support her as Democrats won a majority of seats in the November election.

Republican leaders, meanwhile, are playing their cards close to their chests, saying only they have a 101-99 majority. Still, at least one GOP lawmaker has said she’ll stand for speaker.

Democrats joining the state House for the first time expressed support for McClinton and denounced Republican claims to the majority despite their party winning more seats on Election Day. Their Republican counterparts echoed the party line, stating that the GOP currently has a functional majority in the state House but didn’t expand on their plans for Jan. 3.

When special elections take place (whenever that may be) to fill the three empty seats, Capitol watchers expect the 102-101 majority to return to Democrats, giving the party control for the first time in a decade.

Incoming first-time state House Democrats differ on how to handle the newfound responsibility. Some believe that the razor-thin majority will require moderation to collaborate with their Republican colleagues.

Over a dozen newly elected state House members - both Democrats and Republicans - spoke with Spotlight PA and said they could see common ground on issues such as housing accessibility, raising the minimum wage, capping insulin prices, and commonsense gun laws.

Other first-year Democrats believe that their majority is the chance to boldly push their agenda without being encumbered by their Republican counterparts.

State Rep.-elect La’Tasha Mayes (D., Allegheny) is firmly in the latter camp. Mayes, who was a community activist for 18 years prior to her election, acknowledged that the majority doesn’t give the party “carte blanche” and that collaborating with the state Senate on big-ticket items like the budget is necessary. But she called for the party to act unapologetically on issues such as abortion rights, health-care access, and LGBTQ rights.

“Your hands aren’t tied to just defending what we have won,” said Mayes. “I think there is new life, there’s new imagination, there can be greater vision for the type of legislation and policy we pass.”

First-time lawmakers in both chambers will need to garner the support of Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, to see any of their bills or policy proposals cross the finish line.

State Rep.-elect Dallas Kephart (R., Clearfield) said there are areas where the legislature can collaborate with Shapiro. He pointed to Shapiro’s stance on the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a plan that requires energy producers to purchase allowances to emit carbon dioxide and invests those profits in renewable energy. Shapiro has yet to commit to staying in RGGI, a priority of his predecessor Gov. Tom Wolf.

“What that spells to me, is there’s going to have to be some give and take on things,” said Kephart. “I don’t think a lot of hot-button issues will be getting carried forward.”

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