Democrat Stefanie Rafes and Republican Gary W. Day are running for state representative in the 187th District, which includes Heidelberg, Lynn, Washington and Weisenberg townships in Lehigh County.

Day lost to Ryan Mackenzie in 2022, but the seat is open as MacKenzie now is seeking the congressional seat held by Rep. Susan Wild.

Day was the director of marketing and human resources for Service Electric Cablevision and the executive assistant to the Allentown mayor. Day did not respond to the Times News Survey.

Stefanie Rafes

Hometown: Lower Macungie

Background: Stefanie Rafes was raised in Whitehall and lives in Lower Macungie. She graduated from Whitehall High School in 1999 before attending PA school at the Rochester Institute of Technology. She has been a practicing physician assistant for the 21 years. At age 33 she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer. Her experience undergoing expensive cancer treatment inspired her to run for office to reduce health care costs and to advocate for patients.

What is the biggest issue facing the district?

The biggest issue facing our district is inflation. High prices are hurting our community’s ability to afford groceries and health care. I plan to address this by passing legislation to lower the cost of prescription drugs, lower health insurance premiums, and hold corporations and CEOs accountable for price gouging. We also need to focus on responsible tax strategy, which includes expanding tax credits for senior citizens and families with children.

What specific steps will you take to support job creation and small businesses in your district?

Some ways to promote economic growth would be to support efficient site development, reform the permitting processes, update infrastructure to best support development, and most importantly, ensure that local governments have the tools needed to appropriately support new development.

Pennsylvania’s public schools face significant disparities in funding. How do you propose addressing these inequities to ensure every student in the district has access to quality education?

I support public education funding reform. Instead of relying heavily on property taxes to fund our public schools, we should be also drawing from our $14 billion budget surplus to ensure that all students, regardless of socioeconomic status, have access to high quality education.

How will you ensure that mental health services are adequately funded and accessible?

We must ensure that access to telemedicine is protected and, ideally, expanded. Second, we can require insurance companies to cover mental health services to the same degree they cover physical health services. Third, it is important that we invest in programs to train mental health professionals and provide incentives for them to remain within Pennsylvania to practice.

How will you address housing affordability and support first-time homebuyers?

High property taxes are placing an undue burden on homeowners. Using more of our state government’s budget surplus to fund public education will give us the opportunity to lower our exorbitant property taxes. I would also help support constituents with accessing services like property tax and rent rebate programs.