Blue Pennsylvania: Eliminating Communities of Color to Expand Communities of Red

By now you’ve all read how the conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court has disenfranchised a significant portion of our citizenry by deciding that political boundary maps are only in violation of the Voting Rights Act when there is an established motive to discriminate.

The important takeaway from this decision is that Congressional maps in a number of states will most likely be redrawn to dilute the political power of communities of color.

Sensitivity to racial discrimination has been used as a factor in drawing Pennsylvania’s most recent political maps, and although there is little chance that such maps will be redrawn in the commonwealth over the next several years, Republicans know that the design of our commonwealth’s political boundaries in 2032 will be determined by who is in office in 2030.  Many of us remember that back In 2010, under the code name of Redmap, conservatives poured resources into the legislative races of fifteen swing states, and won in ten of them, including Pennsylvania.  That enabled those legislatures to gerrymander both the state and federal boundaries in favor of Republicans.

Since then, Democrats have clawed back a significant number of those seats, but, unless we are careful, history can repeat itself.

While it may be difficult to prove intent to discriminate in order to attain fair political maps, we can get a pretty good idea about how legislators voted on bills concerning race over the last year, and campaign wisely moving forward.  Since 2025, three bills stand out:

HB 439: The Crown Act:  According to the ACLU, “this act would prohibit racial discrimination of hair texture and protective hairstyles historically associated with race without infringing on an employer's right to implement otherwise valid workplace health and safety rules or policies.            

Signed into Law on 11/25/2025

HB 1825:  Workplace Protection Act – This legislation mandates that employers adopt written policies to prevent workplace discrimination, harassment, and retaliation, and enables the Human Relations Commission to investigate violations and issue fines ranging from $500 to $5,000.

Passed the House on December 16, 2025

HB 2103: Housing Discrimination Prevention – This bill would close a loophole that might currently allow individuals or organizations to create private clubs that might only sell or rent housing only to members of certain races, colors, religions, and national origins and deny equal access to housing, employment, and public accommodations to others.

Passed the House on April 28, 2026

How Can You Make a Difference?

The tables below show the breakdown of votes on these three bills, according to those legislative seats that we are most concerned about in this election cycle. 

So far, the state senate has only voted on one of these bills.  Also, please note that Jarrett Coleman’s name has been added to the senate list because this is a race that we may be interested in after the primary, when we know who Coleman’s challenger will be.

Also, if you click on the challengers’ names, you will have access to the most recent actions that you can take to campaign for these candidates

	Joe Emrick     HD 137 Northampton	Joe Hogan HD 142  Bucks	Craig Williams HD 160      Chester & Delaware	Final Vote
HB 439	Y	Y	Y	193-Y         9-N
HB 1825	N	N	Y	110-Y       93-N
HB 2103	N	N	N	101-Y     100-N
Challenger	Jeff Warren	Kristin Egan	Elizabeth Moro

	Frank Farry     SD 6 Bucks	Jarrett Coleman  SD 16 Bucks, Lehigh	Tracy Pennycuick SD 24     Berks, Montgomery	Rosemary Brown        SD 40 Lackawanna, Monroe, and Wayne	Final Vote
HB 439	Y	N	Y	Y	44-Y   3-N
Challenger	Eileen Harnett Albillar	TBD	Chris Thomas	Brian Wrightson

What Else Can You Do?

There are other ways to assure that your vote counts at the ballot box.  On the Blue Pennsylvania page, please check out our joint venture with March on Harrisburg to support HB 123 - the bill that would bring rank choice voting in Pennsylvania.  Rank Choice Voting assures that those candidates who have values most in line with your own have a better chance of winning an election.  As you already know, rank choice voting helped Zohran Mamdani to ultimately win New York City's mayoral race.  If you follow the links, you will be able to write to your state representative to demand hearings on the bill.

Thanks,

Coleman