What’s at stake: District 34 includes Wilkins Township and stretches into Pittsburgh’s eastern suburbs, including Edgewood, Swissvale, Wilkinsburg, Churchill, and North Braddock. The district is heavily Democratic and also one of the most racially balanced in the region — slightly more than half of its residents are white, and more than 40% are Black. Ashley Comans is challenging Abigail Salisbury, a first-term state House member who won a 2023 special election. Both candidates are progressives and have stressed the importance of the diversity they bring to the House — Comans is a Black woman, and Salisbury is a Jewish woman, bisexual, and on the spectrum for autism. While Allegheny County Democrats in the state legislature have lined up behind Salisbury’s reelection, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, County Executive Sara Innamorato and U.S. Rep. Summer Lee have endorsed Comans.
Further reading: “Gainey, Innamorato endorsement in House contest raises eyebrows along with challenger's hopes” (Chris Potter, WESA)
"Comans seeks to challenge Salisbury in state House race next year" (Chris Potter, WESA)
"Ashley Comans vows to represent House District 34, announces campaign run" (Rob Taylor Jr., New Pittsburgh Courier)
District map:
Ashley Comans
Comans is a member of the Wilkinsburg school board and previously sought the Democratic nomination in the 2023 special election. (Party committee members chose Salisbury instead). Comans works for a nonprofit family-advocacy group, and her husband is Wilkinsburg’s mayor. As the upcoming primary marks the first open election since Summer Lee resigned from the seat, Comans says she wants to give district residents the chance to choose their representative. At a gathering of the 14th Ward Independent Democratic Club in March, Comans was unable to identify a vote Salisbury had taken to which she objected, but she told WESA later that she would advocate for an $18 statewide minimum wage and a ban on fracking.
Party: Democratic
Place of residence: Wilkinsburg
Education: B.A., Clarion University of Pennsylvania
Current occupation: Nonprofit manager with Healthy Start
Related experience: Wilkinsburg School Board Director, (2017 - 2019 and 2022 - present); program manager, Alliance for Police Accountability (2020 - 2021); project coordinator, Hill Youth Partnership for Enrichment (2017 - 2020)
Supporters/endorsements: ATU Local 85, IUPAT DC 57, Working Families Party, Pennsylvania United, One Pennsylvania, Run for Something, Young Democrats of Allegheny County, local elected officials including U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, and Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato.
Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Total fundraising (as of 4/8/24):
Total raised (2024): $138,562.97 (plus $11,963.80 from previous campaigns)
Total spent (2024): $57,042.39
WESA Candidate Survey
What should be the state legislature's top priority in the next term, and how would you address it?
The state legislature’s top priority should be making life easier for poor and working families. This means a fighter and organizer in this seat that will take on corporate greed and polluters to deliver clean air and water, paid family and medical leave, fully funded public schools, raising the state minimum wage to $18 an hour, and making it easier to join a union. I see these struggles as connected, and know that they will be big fights, and in order to make significant progress, we will need someone who is an organizer first.
Pennsylvania's system for funding public education has been found to violate the state's constitution, and there are perennial complaints about school district property taxes. What approaches do you favor to address those concerns, and what changes, if any, should be made to funding for alternatives to traditional public schools, such as charters and private schools?
Public education is what got me involved in local politics, and I am a current Wilkinsburg School Board Director. As a product of the public schools in my district and the proud mom of a public school student, fully funding our schools is paramount to creating healthy and thriving communities. This will require us to reject school vouchers, and move away from property taxes being the only source of funding for our schools because someone’s zip code should not predetermine their opportunities. We have to fight so that every public dollar goes to public schools because that is what our communities need.
This year, the governor is pressing to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, an issue that may well still be on the table when the winners of this year's election take office. Are you in support of legalization, and if so, who should be allowed to sell marijuana?
I am in support of legalizing recreational cannabis here in PA to go along with expunging the records of those who have been convicted of cannabis related charges. I believe adults over the age of 21 should be allowed to grow at their homes, up to a certain amount, as they are in other states who have legalized recreational, and even medical, cannabis. When it comes to issuing the licenses to allow for recreational cannabis, I believe strong considerations should be given to those who have been directly harmed by our failed war on drugs so that they can be the first to benefit from this industry.
Pennsylvania's participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a multistate compact to limit greenhouse-gas emissions, is tied up in court and opposed by many in the energy sector. Should the state participate in RGGI going forward? And what other legislative or regulatory steps, if any, do you support to limit those emissions?
I fully support Governor Shaprio’s appeal of these court rulings that have prevented us from joining RGGI and collecting an estimated $1.5 billion in revenue and removing millions of tons of greenhouse gasses like carbon, sulfur, and nitrogen. RGGI is a necessary step in holding polluters accountable who are literally profiting off of our communities health and it must be combined with a larger picture of climate justice. This to me means large investments in renewable energies, retrofitting homes and businesses, and ensuring that the green jobs that our environment demands provide family sustaining wages that come with a union card.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe in 2022, there have been discussions both about limiting abortion access and expanding it. What changes, if any, would you favor to the state's current abortion laws?
I fully support all women and birthing people’s right to have an abortion and understand the important space that we occupy as residents of Western PA. The overturning of Roe v Wade has made us the only option for many in surrounding states and we must continue to be a beacon in our region for reproductive justice until we once again have abortion protection across the country. Pennsylvania should codify in our constitution access to abortion because abortion is healthcare.
Abigail Salisbury
Salisbury, the incumbent candidate, first garnered the Democratic party nomination during the 2023 special election to replace now-U.S. Rep Summer Lee after Lee ran for Congress. Salisbury beat her Republican challenger and has held the seat since then. She told WESA her top priorities include education, and she co-sponsored legislation meant to reform charter school funding. Salisbury sits on the House Appropriations, Commerce, Environmental Resources & Energy, Liquor Control, and Local Government committees, as well as the Committee On Committees. Prior to joining the House, Salisbury was a lawyer whose clients included a number of small nonprofits.
Party: Democratic
Place of residence: Swissvale
Education: B.A., Case Western Reserve University; J.D., University of Pittsburgh; M.P.P.M., University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs
Current occupation: State representative for District 34 (2023 - present)
Related experience: Swissvale Borough Council, (2018 - 2023); Salisbury Legal, (2015-present); nonprofit executive director at JURIST.org
Supporters/endorsements: Support from Allegheny-Fayette Central Labor Council, Allegheny County Democratic Committee, Steel City Stonewall Democrats, LPAC, LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP), among others
Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Total fundraising (as of 4/8/24):
Total raised (2024): $86,091.99 (2023 ending cash balance: $25,564.32)
Total spent (2024): $103,799.53
WESA Candidate Survey
What should be the state legislature's top priority in the next term, and how would you address it?
Our system of public education has been declared unconstitutional and correcting that deficiency needs to be our top priority. At the root of the problem is that we fund public education in large part based on local property taxes, which means that if a child’s parent/guardian can afford to live in a high-end zip code, they get a more expensive and potentially better education. This is not only unconstitutional, but unconscionable. In my capacity as a member of the Appropriations Committee, I will be working to further a fair system of public education funding in Pennsylvania, one that invests in our children’s educations and their school infrastructure.
Pennsylvania's system for funding public education has been found to violate the state's constitution, and there are perennial complaints about school district property taxes. What approaches do you favor to address those concerns, and what changes, if any, should be made to funding for alternatives to traditional public schools, such as charters and private schools?
I addressed this a bit in my previous response, so I will focus on the response to the charter school question. I am proud to be a cosponsor of legislation that would reform the funding of charter schools to make the money they take away from our public schools actually match up with the value of the education they provide by tying their compensation to their real costs, particularly for cyber charters.
This year, the governor is pressing to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, an issue that may well still be on the table when the winners of this year's election take office. Are you in support of legalization, and if so, who should be allowed to sell marijuana?
I support the legalization of both marijuana and psilocybin. I believe that we must either sell it through (a) a state system like that used in our wine and spirits stores or (b) small businesses licensed by the state. In the case of (b), we must not exclude those who have convictions for selling marijuana, lest we be hypocritical with the legalization process.
Pennsylvania's participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a multistate compact to limit greenhouse-gas emissions, is tied up in court and opposed by many in the energy sector. Should the state participate in RGGI going forward? And what other legislative or regulatory steps, if any, do you support to limit those emissions?
We will have to wait and see what happens with RGGI in its current form, but what is clear is that we must participate in something to limit greenhouse gas emissions, whether it is RGGI or another program. Allegheny County does not participate in the state’s regulatory system for air quality now, as the areas around Pittsburgh and Philadelphia have had that authority delegated to County Health Departments. That system makes no sense to me, as air does not stay stationary above a county. We witnessed the consequences of the fires in Canada as the smoky air wafted down over us in Pennsylvania.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe in 2022, there have been discussions both about limiting abortion access and expanding it. What changes, if any, would you favor to the state's current abortion laws?
I am pro-choice. We must ensure reproductive freedoms in all forms. We must guard against any stripping away of our access to a safe abortion in Pennsylvania, and we must fight to ensure that nothing like the IVF restrictions visited on other states can ever occur here.
