(2018â€“2019)>{{ushr5|5th district}} (2019â€“present)}}195930}}| birth_place = Syracuse, New York, U.S.| death_date = | death_place = Democratic Party (United States)>Democratic| spouse = Mark Stewart| children = 3Colgate University (Bachelor of Arts>BA)University of Pennsylvania (JD)| website = House websitepos=centerfilename=Mary Gay Scanlon speaks in support of extended restaurant aid following the Covid-19 Pandemic.oggtype=speech|description=Mary Gay Scanlon speaks in support of extended restaurant aid following the COVID-19 pandemicRecorded April 6, 2022}}}}Mary Gay Scanlon (born August 30, 1959) is an American attorney and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she has represented {{ushr|PA|5}} in the United States House of Representatives since 2019. The district is based in Delaware County, a mostly suburban county west of Philadelphia, and also includes parts of South and Southwest Philadelphia and slivers of Chester and Montgomery counties. Scanlon spent the final two months of 2018 as the member for {{ushr|PA|7}}. She was elected to both positions on November 6, 2018. That day, she ran in a special election in the old 7th to serve out the term of her predecessor, Pat Meehan, and in a regular election for a full two-year term in the new 5th. She was sworn in as the member for the 7th on November 13, 2018, and transferred to the 5th on January 3, 2019.

Early life and education

Scanlon was born in Syracuse, New York.WEB, SCANLON, Mary Gay {{!, US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives|url=https://history.house.gov/People/Listing/S/SCANLON,-Mary-Gay-(S001205)/|access-date=2021-02-17|website=history.house.gov|language=en}} She is the daughter of Daniel Scanlon and Carol Florence Yehle, and has two sisters, Elizabeth Maura Scanlon and M. Kathleen Scanlon. Her father was an attorney and was appointed part-time magistrate in 1971 and full-time magistrate in 1993.NEWS, Daniel Scanlon Jr., 69,weblink May 29, 2018, Syracuse Post-Standard, July 20, 1998, Her mother, Carol Florence Yehle, was an English professor at Jefferson Community College in Watertown, NY. Her maternal grandfather, Leo J. Yehle, was a family-court judge who helped write the first juvenile justice code in New York in the 1960s.NEWS, Sacharow, Fredda, Scanlon Finds Her Calling in the Family Business: Public Interest,weblink May 29, 2018, Penn Law Journal, 2009, Scanlon earned her B.A. from Colgate University in 1980 and her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1984. Upon completing her education, she became a judicial law clerk for Judge J. Sydney Hoffman of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania.WEB, Mary Gay Scanlon Pro Bono Counsel,weblink Ballard Spahr LLP, May 29, 2018, dead,weblink June 12, 2018,

Legal career

In 1985, Scanlon represented a sexually abused 11-year-old girl in a dependency case. This experience made Scanlon decide to pursue a career in public interest law. In 1994, she received the Fidelity Award, the highest award for public service from the Philadelphia Bar Association.Scanlon served as an attorney with the Education Law Center of Philadelphia, helping implement special education laws, before joining Ballard Spahr as pro bono counsel. There she helped coordinate the provision of free legal services to low-income recipients. She partnered with the Wills for Heroes Foundation, providing legal documents free of charge to first responders. She helped a young woman from Guinea who had sickle-cell disease obtain permanent residency.In 2006, she was appointed vice chair of the Tax Commission. The following year, she joined the board of the Wallingford-Swarthmore School DistrictNEWS, May 1, 2018, Watertown native runs for congress in Pennsylvania, Watertown Daily Times,weblink May 29, 2018, and served as its president from 2009 to 2011.NEWS, Holly, Otterbein, Meet Mary Gay Scanlon, the education advocate and Ballard lawyer running for Congress,weblink May 29, 2018, Philadelphia Inquirer, May 9, 2018, She continued as a member of the board until 2015.

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

2018 general

On February 25, 2018, Scanlon launched her campaign for US Congress in Pennsylvania's 5th district in the 2018 election. The district had previously been the 7th, represented by four-term Republican Pat Meehan, who had announced a month earlier that he was not running for reelection. She kicked off the campaign by giving a speech at Swarthmore Rutledge School. The seat was one of several that had been significantly redrawn by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which ruled that the previous map had been an unconstitutional partisan Republican gerrymander. The redrawn 5th covers all of Delaware County, slivers of Montgomery and Chester counties, and the southwestern corner of Philadelphia, including the areas around the South Philadelphia Sports Complex and Philadelphia International Airport.NEWS, Rose, Alex, Scanlon takes helm of 7th District in Congress,weblink November 16, 2018, Daily Times, November 15, 2018, Scanlon said that her interest in running was also piqued by the fact that Pennsylvania had no women in its congressional delegation.NEWS, Sheehan, Neil, Former Wallingford-Swarthmore school board president launches bid for Congress in the 5th,weblink weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20180315015840weblink">weblink dead, March 15, 2018, May 29, 2018, Delaware County Daily Times, February 25, 2018, She was endorsed by former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell and the Philadelphia Inquirer.On May 15, Scanlon won the 10-person primary with 16,831 votes, or a 28.4% share of the votes cast. Her closest competitor was former Assistant United States Attorney for United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Ashley Lunkenheimer, who received 9,060 votes or a 15.3% share.NEWS, Pennsylvania Primary Election Results,weblink May 29, 2018, New York Times, May 17, 2018, "Tonight we can revel in this moment," Scanlon said in her acceptance of the Democratic nomination. "You all here have once again rewritten history in Delaware County. Tonight, we made it possible for this new district for the first time to be represented by a Democrat in Congress and to be represented by a woman in Congress."NEWS, Carey, Kathleen, Scanlon wins Dem contest in race for 5th District U.S. Congress seat,weblink May 29, 2018, Delaware County Daily Times, May 16, 2018, The new 5th is more compact and Democratic than its predecessor. Had it existed in 2016, Hillary Clinton would have won it with 63% of the vote, which would have been her third-best performance in the state and her strongest outside of the Philadelphia-based districts.Presidential results by congressional district for districts used in 2018, from Daily Kos By comparison, Clinton won the old 7th with 49% of the vote.Presidential results by congressional district for districts used in 2016, from Daily Kos

2018 special

Meehan resigned from the House on April 27, 2018, a month before the primary. Scanlon was named the Democratic candidate in a special election to succeed him.NEWS, Carey, Kathleen, Dems tap Mary Gay Scanlon as candidate for 7th District special election,weblink May 29, 2018, Daily Local News, May 26, 2018, As a result, she ran in two elections on November 6, a special election for the balance of Meehan's fourth term in the old 7th and a regular election for a full two-year term in the new 5th. Her Republican opponent was prosecutor Pearl Kim.

2018 election results

On November 6, Scanlon defeated Kim in both the special and regular elections.NEWS, Carey, Kathleen E., Scanlon makes history as Delco's first congresswoman,weblink November 16, 2018, Daily Times, November 7, 2018, The margin was much closer in the special election for the 7th district because it took place under the old district lines that had been thrown out by the state supreme court earlier in the year.She was sworn into her 7th district seat on November 13, 2018,NEWS, Martin, Jacquelyne, Mary Gay Scanlon sworn in as first woman in Pennsylvania delegation since 2014,weblink November 16, 2018, Daily Times, November 14, 2018, in a ceremony attended by Hawa Salih, a Sudanese human rights activist whom Scanlon helped gain asylum in the U.S. She was one of four Democratic women elected to Congress from Pennsylvania in 2018. The others were Madeleine Dean, Chrissy Houlahan and Susan Wild. The state's congressional delegation had previously been all male.NEWS, Olson, Laura, Pennsylvania once again has a woman in Congress,weblink November 16, 2018, The Morning Call, November 14, 2018, She is only the third Democrat to represent this district and its predecessors since 1939.

2020

On November 3, 2020, Scanlon defeated Republican nominee Dasha Pruett with 64.7% of the vote (255,743 votes) to Pruett's 35.3% (139,552).WEB,weblink Pennsylvania's 5th Congressional District election, 2020, Ballotpedia, 2022-08-01,

File:Representative Mary Gay Scanlon Sworn into Office.jpg|thumb|Scanlon with her family being sworn in by Speaker Nancy Pelosi Nancy PelosiShe transferred to the 5th district in January 2019, with two months' more seniority than the other freshmen elected in 2018.

Tenure

In 2021, Scanlon introduced the ACCESS Act of 2021, which would mandate data portability on major tech platforms.WEB, Ghaffary, Shirin, 2021-06-11, What you need to know about the House's opening bid to rein in Big Tech,weblink 2022-03-13, Vox, en, Scanlon voted with President Joe Biden's stated position 100% of the time in the 117th Congress, according to a FiveThirtyEight analysis.WEB, Bycoffe, Aaron, Wiederkehr, Anna, 2021-04-22, Does Your Member Of Congress Vote With Or Against Biden?,weblink 2023-11-15, FiveThirtyEight, en,

Foreign Policy

In 2023, Scanlon was among 50 Democrats to vote to remove American troops from Somalia by voting for H.Con.Res. 30.WEB,weblink House rejects Gaetz resolution to remove US troops from Somalia, April 27, 2023, Roll Call, WEB,weblink H.Con.Res. 30: Directing the President, pursuant to section 5(c) of â€¦ -- House Vote #201 -- Apr 27, 2023, GovTrack.us, Scanlon was among 56 Democrats to vote in favor of H.Con.Res. 21 which directed President Joe Biden to remove U.S. troops from Syria within 180 days.WEB,weblink H.Con.Res. 21: Directing the President, pursuant to section 5(c) of â€¦ -- House Vote #136 -- Mar 8, 2023, NEWS,weblink House Votes Down Bill Directing Removal of Troops From Syria, March 8, 2023, Associated Press, A member of the Irish-American community in Pennsylvania, Scanlon is a member of the Congressional Friends of Ireland Caucus and traveled with President Joe Biden to Ireland in 2023.WEB,weblink Mary Gay Scanlon on 'protecting the guardrails of democracy' in US and Ireland, June 19, 2023, weblink websiteUS House of Representatives, access-date10 September 2023, ">

Committee assignmentsWEB, titleMary Gay Scanlon - Committees and Caucuses, urweblink websiteUS House of Representatives, access-date10 September 2023,

Committee on the Judiciary
- Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government (Ranking Member)
- Subcommittee on Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust
Committee on Rules
- Subcommittee on Rules and Organization of the House (Ranking Member)

Caucus memberships

Youth Mentoring Caucus (Chair)
Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth (Co-Chair)
Friends of Ireland Caucus
Access to Legal Aid Caucus (Chair)
Congressional Progressive CaucusWEB, Caucus Members,weblink January 3, 2021, US House of Representatives,
Congressional Equality Caucus (Vice Chair)

Electoral history

{{Election box begin no change | title=Democratic primary results, 2018 (regular)}}{{Election box winning candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)
|candidate = Mary Gay Scanlon
|votes = 16,804
|percentage = 28.4
}}