Democrats Joshua Siegel, Saeed Georges vie for 22nd House seat that lacks incumbent
With district 70% Democratic, primary could determine November outcome
Voters in the Lehigh Valley’s 22nd House District will have a unique opportunity to pick an entirely new voice in Harrisburg.
The 22nd, which covers parts of Allentown and Salisbury, was reconfigured under a new House map that arose out of redistricting mandated every decade to account for population changes.
The district lacks an incumbent because parts of the 22nd moved to the 134th House District. Democratic incumbent Rep. Peter Schweyer now lives in the 134th and is running for reelection but faces a primary challenge from Enid Santiago.
Running on the Democratic side for the May 17 primary for the 22nd District are Joshua Siegel, an Allentown City Council member, and Saeed Georges, a political newcomer who works as a mental health case manager.
Robert E. Smith Jr., a former Allentown School Board member, is running unopposed on the Republican ticket and would face the Democratic nominee in the general election.
The race has an added importance for voters. Whoever wins in November would give Allentown a third vote in the House of Representatives where Republicans outnumber Democrats 111 to 92. Besides Schweyer, incumbent Democrat Mike Schlossberg’s 132nd District includes Allentown.
With nearly 70% of the 22nd’s residents registered as Democrats, the odds tilt in favor of either Siegel or Georges taking the crown in November.
There had been hope that Allentown could get its first Latino representative in Harrisburg from this new district, which is 53% Latino. But Democrat Norberto Dominguez Jr. dropped out of the race in the face of a petition challenge.
The district includes all of East Allentown and Salisbury Township east of South 4th Street. It also includes neighborhoods in Center City Allentown, including all areas east of 12th Street and north of Hamilton Street.
Both candidates live on the East Side. They both say helping the Allentown School District, which has a structural deficit that could grow to $55 million in five years without increases in local taxes or state subsidies, is critical.
Georges, 33, went to Dieruff High School, and his family has strong ties to the tight-knit Syrian community.
Siegel, who grew up in Bethlehem and Phillipsburg, N.J., moved to Allentown because he thinks it’s a great place to make a home.
At age 28, he has two Allentown political races under his belt and the name recognition that goes with it.
Armchair Lehigh Valley is profiling Siegel and Georges for the primary election. We will look at Smith in the fall.
Saeed Georges
Background
Georges is the youngest of four children born to Samir and Lina Georges. His father worked for Bethlehem Steel as a union laborer.
Georges graduated from Dieruff in 2007, where he was president of The Key Club, ran pep rallies and was on student council. He played volleyball and still serves as head coach of Dieruff’s girls volleyball team. He later helped found an inner-city girls volleyball club.
Georges went to Lehigh Carbon Community College, working in private security with Allied United while taking classes.
In 2013, he graduated from West Chester University with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and sociology. He said he was drawn to that major because of his father’s friendship with police officers. During college, he interned with Allentown District Judge Michael D. D'Amore.
After college, he worked eight months in a warehouse to help pay off his student loans. Then Georges, who calls himself a compassionate person, was hired as a case manager for Service Access and Management, a not-for-profit agency contracted by Northampton and Lehigh counties to help manage people receiving services for intellectual disabilities.
Georges is a volunteer in the Syrian community, helping with efforts to raise money for Zwaitini, the town where his father was born. To hear more about him, click here.
Foray in politics
Georges has never run for political office before. He was picked to serve on Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk’s transition team after Tuerk was elected in November 2021. Georges said Tuerk wanted a voice from East Allentown as he prepared for his first term in office.
Georges said he decided to run for the 22nd House seat because he cares about helping people and saw it as an opportunity to do so.
“I want to continue advocating for my neighbors and my neighborhood in Harrisburg,” he said.
He said he is skilled in identifying problems and coordinating efforts to solve them.
Issues
Education: Wants to advocate for funding for the Allentown School District. He said his job requires him to visit various schools such as Parkland and East Penn and he has seen the differences firsthand. “There’s a clear disparity in funding. It’s not just academics, it’s sports. Sports is what kept me out of trouble as a kid.”
Mental health: Would advocate for better access to mental health care and treatment, including better insurance coverage.
Allentown: Wants to fight for funding for Allentown to continue its development, including the redevelopment of the waterfront. Believes people in the East Side should have a say in development of the shuttered Allentown State Hospital.
Guns: Georges is an outdoorsman who likes to hunt. He has a license to carry a concealed weapon. He said there “is room for improvement” on existing gun laws. “We can’t sit and be lax,” he said. “Tweak things to be safe and best for all.”
Abortion: He called abortion a “sensitive topic” that he didn’t want to address. But then he said he thinks “everyone should have a choice to do what they feel is best to fit their needs.”
Joshua Siegel
Background
Siegel divided his time as a child between Bethlehem and Phillipsburg, N.J., after his parents divorced. He graduated from Phillipsburg High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in international relations in 2016 from Seton Hall University in New Jersey. He speaks elementary Russian. He is a volunteer assistant coach for the Phillipsburg High School Debate Team. He briefly served in the ROTC in college but received a medical discharge.
Siegel was the public information officer for Lehigh County from December 2017-February 2020. He then became the assistant operations manager for Lehigh County under Controller Mark Pinsley, who is running for the Democratic nomination in the state Senate 16th District. Siegel was an intern for the Democratic Committee of Bergen County, N.J., in 2016.
Foray into political office
Siegel first ran for office at age 22 in 2017, when he was among seven candidates, including then-Mayor Ed Pawlowski, seeking the Democratic nomination for the Allentown mayor’s race. Siegel finished sixth with 4.89% of the vote. Pawlowski would go on to win November but resigned the next year after being convicted in what was called a pay-to-play scheme involving city contracts.
At age 25, Siegel was elected to a four-year term on Allentown City Council on Nov. 5, 2019. He finished second in the field for three seats on council with nearly 27% of the vote. He had gotten onto the November ballot, finishing in the third and final spot by 88 votes in the May primary.
Siegel announced plans to run for Allentown mayor in the May 2021 primary but did not do so. He threw his support behind candidate and fellow city council member Ce-Ce Gerlach. The winner among the four Democratic challengers, Tuerk, went on to win the Nov. 2 election.
Progressive policies
Siegel, who goes by @Siegel4Progress on Twitter, describes himself as a visionary, progressive and strategist. He said his views have been shaped in part by his father coming out when Siegel was a child and his sister, who is “transforming.”
In July 2020, he joined a protest held by Black Lives Matters and others over a video clip showing a man being restrained with a knee to his head area during an arrest by Allentown police, who were later cleared in the matter.
In August 2020, council member Ed Zucal sought but then pulled a censure and no-confidence vote against Siegel and fellow council member Ce-Ce Gerlach for their participation and alleged inappropriate comments at the protest. Siegel denied making inappropriate remarks, but defended those who did make them, according to WLVR.
On Twitter, he said he was “disgusted and outraged” by the video and called for action. “Terminate the ones who violate use of force policy,” he tweeted, adding the hashtag #BlueLivesMatter to his post.
In November 2021, Siegel proposed an ordinance that would limit campaign contributions for candidates running for city office to no more than $2,900 from an individual or $5,000 from political action committees. The measure failed.
In August 2021, after the guilty verdict in the death of George Floyd, Siegel and Gerlach penned an op-ed for The Morning Call, asking the Allentown Police Department to invest in an alternative crisis management system.
In February 2022, Allentown Council unanimously passed a bill sponsored by Siegel that grants six weeks of paid leave to non-union employees who give birth, father children or adopt children as long as they have worked for the city for a year.
On March 30, 2022, Siegel pulled a bill he sponsored that would have required contractors on large city projects to participate in apprenticeship programs. Siegel felt the measure would guarantee a trained workforce for city jobs and improve incomes. Critics said it would have cut out many long-time contractors from bidding on jobs.
Stance on issues
Siegel said he is running for state office because Allentown is often limited in what it can accomplish by the policies of the Republican-controlled Legislature.
“The legislators just say ‘no’ to everything,” he said.
Siegel has a detailed command of issues he supports. He recently spoke about them in a YouTube interview with the Green Corn Rebellion Show.
Education: Supports flowing all basic education dollars through the state’s fair funding formula, which seeks to end funding disparities between wealthy and poor school districts. Currently, 11% flows through the formula. He supports the Pennsylvania Promise Act, which would cover tuition fees for state-owned and state-supported universities and community colleges for students with household incomes under $100,000. He supports universal pre-K.
Gift, fundraising limits: Supports a total gift ban for all elected officials in Pennsylvania and limits on campaign contributions from PACs and individuals. Believes in public financing of state elections and stronger transparency laws for political action committees.
Housing: Supports subsidizing new housing, including the construction of apartments and social housing. Also supports helping first-time homebuyers, creation of right-to-counsel programs to prevent evictions and displacements, and investment in energy-efficient homes to save families from exorbitant heating and cooling costs.
Worker rights: Supports raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour and indexing it to inflation, and paid family and sick leave for all workers. Wants to expand the rights of workers to unionize.
Abortion: Supports a woman’s right to choose and stands for reproductive rights.