Democrat Rep. Madeleine Dean (PA) announced she would not run for Pennsylvania’s open U.S. Senate seat in the midterm election.
Dean said she would instead look to “build her career in the House.”
The decision to stay in the House will leave Val Arkoosh, a Democrat from Montgomery County, as the only woman in the party’s 2022 Senate field, according to a report.
Dean told the Philadelphia Inquirer during an interview, “After talking a lot with my family, with my team with my political side, I’ve decided I won’t be running for Senate for now.”
The two-term congresswoman continued, “I just feel like I’m just getting started here, and there’s lots of work to be done.”
Last week, another Democrat, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), told the Inquirer that she will also not be running for the open seat but instead seek reelection for her House seat.
With Houlahan and Dean’s announcement to not run for Senate, this will draw more attention on Rep. Conor Lamb (D-PA), as he has reportedly been gearing up for the Senate race. Last month, Lamb allegedly told some of his donors to start contributing to the campaign as he will start to ramp up his fundraising and have a formal launch.
Dean told the Inquirer she also hopes to join the powerful House Appropriations Committee as she currently sits on the House Judiciary Committee and was an impeachment manager during one of former President Donald Trump’s impeachments. In addition, she reportedly wanted to “continue working on fighting gun violence, opioid addiction, and climate change.”
Allegedly, Dean said she originally thought about a run at the statewide office in late 2020 after Republican Sen. Pat Toomey (PA) announced his retirement. But, the seat has been expected to be one of the most competitive in the nation, and Dean only had roughly $575,000 in her campaign at the end of March, according to her Federal Election Commission filing.
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