State Rep. La’Tasha D. Mayes, D-East Liberty, is in line to return to Harrisburg for a third term.
Unofficial tallies show the Democratic incumbent collected nearly 88% of the votes counted in Tuesday’s primary to defeat challenger Will Anderson of Homewood in the 24th state House District.
No Republicans appeared on Tuesday’s ballot. The combined number of GOP write-in votes — 45 — also falls below the threshold needed for a candidate to be added to general-election ballots.
“I am so excited to keep doing the critical work to improve the lives of my constituents and neighbors,” Mayes said in an email to voters Wednesday. “I will continue delivering for the people of the 24th every day.”
The 24th District covers multiple Pittsburgh neighborhoods, from the Hill District and parts of Oakland in the west to Highland Park, East Liberty, Larimer and Homewood in the east.
A Philadelphia native, Mayes moved to Pittsburgh in 1999 and holds degrees from the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. She is the founder and former president of New Voices for Reproductive Justice.
Mayes, the first out lesbian in the state legislature, told TribLive before Tuesday’s primary she was proud to run on her record. Mayes became a vocal advocate for the CROWN Act after being elected to office in 2022. The legislation, which prohibits discrimination based on hair and hairstyles, passed the Senate in a 44-3 vote in November.
Mayes also helped form the PA Black Maternal Health Caucus, which tries to unravel cultural disparities about infant and maternal mortality. Black women in the U.S. are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than their white peers, according to the Network for Public Health Law.
“Nothing moves quickly in Harrisburg — and nothing gets bipartisan support in Harrisburg,” Mayes said last week. “But maternal health has been the issue that’s unified our General Assembly.”
State Rep. Lindsay Powell, D-Lawrenceville, a vocal supporter of Mayes, said her Pittsburgh colleague excels at picking apart big issues and also in running a district office heavily dedicated to constituent services, including organizing food drives and diaper giveaways in the wake of cuts to food-stamp programs and other federal aid.
“I think she’s incredibly responsive to those community needs,” Powell said earlier this month.
Anderson, a national Democratic Party insider who runs a Homewood auto-body shop, thinks Mayes is part of the problem in Harrisburg.
He maintains many city neighborhoods in Mayes’ district still suffer from abandoned homes, poorly aging infrastructure and vacant lots that don’t attract developers or policymakers.
“You’re not there to fight Republicans. You’re there to get the job done,” Anderson, 53, told TribLive before the primary. “Despite all the talk and all the rhetoric, the job isn’t getting done.”
Anderson, the grandson of a Democratic National Committee member, started volunteering in politics 30 years ago.
In Pittsburgh, he formed and still leads the Allegheny County Black Caucus. When he travels to Washington and elsewhere in the United States, he serves as a chief of staff to the DNC’s national Black caucus. Anderson’s cellphone is filled with selfies with his daughter but also Democratic heavyweights like former Vice President Kamala Harris and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker.
The Homewood native said he ran for state representative this year to increase the state’s minimum wage, aggressively fight unemployment and give the state Department of Environmental Protection more regulatory power.
Anderson said Mayes’ drive to endorse legislation — the incumbent told TribLive she’s cosponsored more than 450 bills since heading to Harrisburg — makes her “a rubber-stamp for the party.”
“It’s about the illusion you’re actually doing something,” Anderson said. “I’m absolutely sure I can do better. And I’m from Pittsburgh — I’m home-grown.”