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Pennsylvania State House 20th District: A guide to the 2022 primary and candidates

90.5 WESA

What's at stake

The 20th is dominated by Democratic voters, but first-term incumbent Emily Kinkead may be one of the few Democrats with reason to complain about this winter’s redistricting process. The district once included her North Side city neighborhood with Lawrenceville and suburban areas nearby. But many of those urban communities have been drawn out in a map now dominated by a newly reunified Ross Township — home of Kinkead’s challenger. It also includes the Ohio Valley boroughs of Avalon, Bellevue and West View. There are no Republicans on the ballot.

Note: Campaign finance fundraising totals include contributions raised in 2021 and 2022. Data updated 5/12/22.


Democrats

Emily Kinkead

 Emily Kinkead
Courtesy the Kinkead campaign
Emily Kinkead

Kinkead is an attorney who previously served as a clerk to Commonwealth Court Judge Michael Wojcik, and who has a background in advocacy for such causes as voting rights and climate justice. The 34-year-old is among a crop of younger female progressives to be elected from the area in recent years, and in Harrisburg she has been a voice for criminal-justice reform and a supporter of efforts to reduce greenhouse -gas emissions, among other causes. In Harrisburg, she serves on the influential appropriations committee, and she holds a seat on the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority (ALCOSAN).

Party: Democrat  
Experience: 
Pennsylvania House of Representatives – 20th District (2021 – present)
Education:
Bloomsburg State University (B.A./B.S.); University of Pittsburgh (J.D.)
Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn
Candidate Surveys: League of Women Voters
Major endorsements: SEIU State Council, Pennsylvania State Educators Association (PSEA), Young Democrats of Allegheny County, Steel City Stonewall Democrats, 314 Action, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald; Pennsylvania AFL-CIO; more here.
Fundraising Total: $118,123
Worth reading: "Facing a new political landscape, Kinkead draws challenger in 20th state House district" (Chris Potter, WESA)


Nick Mastros

Nick Mastro
Courtesy the Mastros campaign
Nick Mastro

Mastros is a first-time candidate who owns a landmark sandwich shop in Pittsburgh’s Allegheny West business district, but he hails from Ross. Although he entered the race well into the spring, he had time enough to secure the endorsement of Democratic committee members in the region. He says he wants to make the office responsive to infrastructure and other needs from its suburban communities in particular.

Party: Democrat  
Experience: 
Owner/operator, Allegheny Sandwich Shoppe (1981 – present)
Education: Peabody High School
Links: Website | Facebook
Candidate Surveys: League of Women Voters
Major endorsements: Allegheny County Democratic Committee
Fundraising Total: $10,200
Worth reading: "Facing a new political landscape, Kinkead draws challenger in 20th state House district" (Chris Potter, WESA)

A primer on voting information and who is running in the 2024 election for offices in the Pittsburgh metro area and Pennsylvania.

Nearly three decades after leaving home for college, Chris Potter now lives four miles from the house he grew up in -- a testament either to the charm of the South Hills or to a simple lack of ambition. In the intervening years, Potter held a variety of jobs, including asbestos abatement engineer and ice-cream truck driver. He has also worked for a number of local media outlets, only some of which then went out of business. After serving as the editor of Pittsburgh City Paper for a decade, he covered politics and government at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He has won some awards during the course of his quarter-century journalistic career, but then even a blind squirrel sometimes digs up an acorn.
Emily Previti is a podcast producer and data journalist, and executive editor and co-creator of Obscured from Kouvenda Media.