Pennsylvania Senate picks first woman as top-ranking member

HARRISBURG, Pa. – Kim Ward, the GOP’s majority chief of Pennsylvania’s state Senate, will turn into the primary girl to function the chamber’s highest-ranking member, Republicans mentioned Tuesday.

Republicans chosen Ward to function interim president professional tempore whereas the Senate is out of session in December. She is on monitor to be elected by the chamber’s members as president professional tempore when the subsequent two-year legislative session begins in January.

Ward, 66, of Westmoreland County, turned the primary feminine majority chief within the chamber final yr and underwent surgical procedure for breast most cancers whereas main the caucus. She was first elected in 2008, when she was a Westmoreland County commissioner, and is serving her fourth time period.

Republicans will return in January with a 28-22 majority within the chamber. Democrats picked up one seat within the midterm elections. The 50-member chamber can have six new faces to interchange members who have been crushed or determined towards operating once more.

She is going to succeed Sen. Jake Corman, R-Centre, who’s ending a 24-year profession within the Senate after a failed run for governor this yr.

Freshman Sen. Joe Pittman, R-Indiana, was elected by the caucus to succeed Ward because the GOP’s majority ground chief. Pittman, 45, was a longtime Senate aide earlier than he ran in 2019 to succeed his retiring boss, Sen. Don White.

Democrats reelected Sen. Jay Costa, D-Allegheny, as minority ground chief. Costa, 64, was first elected to the Senate in 1996 and have become minority chief in 2011.