It wasn’t a great election day for everyone who sought office in this year’s cycle, but local Jewish candidates fared well in their 2024 campaigns.
As the votes for the most consequential race in Pennsylvania — between Senator Bob Casey and challenger Dave McCormick — are still being counted as of this writing, Keystone State residents begin to take in the results for settled races from the federal to local level.
Across the state, candidates were tasked with questions related to support of Israel, antisemitism, treatment of Jewish students on college campuses, and other issues that matter to Jewish voters. Three Philadelphia-area candidates in particular that are either practicing Jews or have Jewish lineage were reelected to office last week.
Jared Solomon (Democrat, District 202), Ben Waxman (Democrat, District 182) and Mike Schlossberg (Democrat, District 132) each won in 2024, with all three running unopposed in heavily liberal districts. Solomon and Waxman represent various wards within Philadelphia County, while Schlossberg was elected by voters in Lehigh County, north of Philadelphia.
Solomon has been in office since 2017, after defeating incumbent Democrat Mark Cohen in the 2016 primary. Since then, he has run unopposed in each subsequent primary and general election, winning another two-year term in 2018, 2020, 2022, and this year. Prior to politics, he served in the Army Reserves as a JAG officer, served as the president of a civic group, and worked as a lawyer. The neighborhood in Northeast Philadelphia that he represents is the same one he grew up in.
Waxman took office in 2023 after winning the 2022 election against Republican Albert Robles Montas. The upcoming term will be his second representing District 182, which largely consists of areas of Center City. Waxman had previous careers in public relations and journalism before he ran for the office he currently holds for the first time — unsuccessfully — in 2016. He lost in a close race to incumbent Brian Sims, who vacated the District 182 office in 2022 to run for Lieutenant Governor. Waxman’s next campaign came when he won in 2022, with endorsements from State Representative Morgan Cephas and Philadelphia City Councilman Kenyatta Johnson, among others.
Schlossberg is the longest-serving of the three, as he has been representing District 132 since 2013 after winning office in 2012. He replaced longtime representative Jennifer L. Mann, who endorsed him as he ran unopposed in the primary and general elections. He has won subsequent elections every two years since then. Prior to serving in the House, he was a city councilman in Allentown, becoming the youngest person to ever serve on that body in 2009 as a 26-year-old.
Waxman said in a statement to the Exponent that he is happy with the results.
“I was honored to receive more votes than any other Jewish candidate running for the state house during this cycle, and the third-highest number of votes overall,” he said. “I will keep fighting for our values in Harrisburg, despite the difficult environment that we find ourselves in.”
Waxman is a practicing Jew who observes Shabbat and attends synagogue at Beth Zion-Beth Israel in the city. Solomon is also practicing and attends Congregation Rodeph Shalom, the oldest Ashkenazi synagogue in the western hemisphere. Schlossberg is the grandson of Holocaust survivors, although his campaign did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication in regards to his current Jewish identity and practice.
All three men serve on the Pennsylvania Jewish Legislative Caucus, which includes a host of representatives from across the state who are either Jewish, represent heavily Jewish areas, or have otherwise strong ties to the Jewish community.
Solomon preaches a rejection of special interests in politics, prioritizing community relations instead. He has worked to improve community centers and invest in communities impacted by gun violence while in Harrisburg.
Schlossberg’s resume as a legislator includes working to create a statewide suicide prevention task force, as well as advocating for workforce development and equal educational access. In 2013, he introduced a bill to the floor that required rapists to pay child support for children they illegitimately fathered. This bill was endorsed by the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape.
Waxman has worked on legislation that expands the shield law of Pennsylvania and provides more funding for security for nonprofits and religious institutions, and a bill that eliminates a state tax on reparations paid by the German government to Holocaust victims.
He said in an interview last month that the Jewish value of Tikkun Olam, or repairing the world, guides much of the work he does as a legislator.