In 131st matchup, incumbent Republican faces Democratic newcomer
Democrat Meriam Sabih is making her first run for office while Milou Mackenzie is seeking a third term.
Incumbent Republican Milou Mackenzie and political newcomer Meriam Sabih will face each other for the 131st state House District seat.
Sabih defeated Saucon Valley School Board member Jay Santos for the Democratic nomination in the April primary.
Sabih said she entered the race “to protect our reproductive freedoms, advocate for our public schools, and to defend our democracy.”
She believes that residents of the district “want to see a Democratic pro-choice woman on the ballot against Milou Mackenzie.”
Mackenzie, who is seeking a third term, did not respond to a request for an interview made through the House Republican Campaign Committee.
Her campaign website refers to her “as a no-nonsense legislator and one of Harrisburg's strongest watchdogs for taxpayers, focusing time and effort on controlling state spending and debt in the face of liberal efforts to take more from Pennsylvania's working singles, families, and retired seniors.”
The two candidates stand apart on many issues.
Mackenzie said she is pro-life except in the cases of rape, incest and the protection of a mother’s life. Sabih is pro-choice, saying she wants to ensure all women can safely access the care they need.
Mackenzie has voted against measures to restrict gun access, including a March bill that would ban so-called ghost guns. Sabih said she supports smart gun control, including a ban on assault weapons.
As of May 13, Sabih had $30,454 in cash on hand versus Mackenzie’s about $14,000, according to state data. The next report isn’t due until Oct. 25.
State representatives serve two-year terms and earn $106,422 this year. The salary is adjusted annually based on inflation. Democrats hold a 102-101 majority in the House of Representatives.
The municipalities that comprise the 131st are Lower Milford, Upper Milford and Upper Saucon townships and Coopersburg with part of Salisbury Township in Lehigh County; Marlborough, Salford and Upper Hanover townships and East Greenville, Green Lane, Pennsburg and Red Hill in Montgomery County; and part of Lower Saucon Township in Northampton County.
Republicans make up the majority of voters with 23,509 voters versus the Democrats’ 17,158. Independents and third party candidates make up 6,670 votes.
MILOU MACKENZIE
Background
Milou Mackenzie, 73, is a former interior designer and teacher. She grew up in the Nazareth area, graduating from Nazareth Area High School in 1968 and Cedar Crest College in 1972. Mackenzie, who lives in Lower Saucon, is the mother of state Rep. Ryan Mackenzie from the 187th District who is running for Congress in the 7th Congressional District. She is married to Kevin Brown and has another son and two grandchildren.
Foray into politics
Mackenzie is a former Lehigh County Republican Committee member. She first was elected to the state House in 2020. She is a member of the House Children & Youth, Education, Human Services and Housing and Urban Development committees.
Mackenzie defeated Democrat Kevin Branco in 2020 and 2022, posting about 54% of the vote both times.
In her 2020 campaign, Mackenzie told The Morning Call she pledged to seek no more than four terms.
Mackenzie has been the prime sponsor of 10 pieces of legislation in the 2023-24 session, none of which became law. Of bills she co-sponsored, three were enacted into law: House Bill 358, which creates the Keystone First Responder Award to recognize public servants who were killed or received a career-ending injury in the line of duty; House Bill 735, which established a flood insurance task force to incentivize local government to prioritize flood mitigation plans that would reduce consumer insurance premiums; and House Bill 1889, which will allow home heating oil delivery companies to transition to electronic billing and not be required to provide printed receipts as they are required to do under the current law.
Mackenzie’s endorsements include the National Federation of Independent Business, Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce and the Le-Hampton Lodge 35 and Montgomery County Lodge 14 Fraternal Orders of Police.
ISSUES
According to her campaign website, Mackenzie strives to rein in spending and to stop tax increases. She supports safely tapping into Pennsylvania’s energy resources to cut costs, create jobs and become more energy independent.
Mackenzie supports reforming education to promote career and technical paths as options to college; increasing access to health care and making it more affordable; pushing back on efforts to put the interests of criminals above the public; and providing treatment for opioid addiction and tough penalties for drug dealers.
Abortion/reproductive rights
Mackenzie voted yes to a constitutional amendment package that included language stating that women have no guaranteed rights to abortion or public funding for abortion. The 2022 measure failed to move on after Democrats took control of the House in 2023.
Mackenzie voted in favor of 2021’s House Bill 118, which would require the burial or cremation of abortion remains by hospitals or clinics with penalties for failure to do so. While approved in the House, it was not taken up by the Senate.
Mackenzie voted no to 2023’s House Bill 1786, which would prevent public officials in Pennsylvania, where abortion is legal, from cooperating with authorities in other states from trying to prevent their residents from seeking abortions in Pennsylvania. The measure passed the House but did not receive a Senate vote.
Mackenzie voted in favor of House Bill 1140, which would require insurance companies to cover all contraceptive drugs, devices, and other products and services at no cost to the consumer. The measure passed the House 133-69 in June but has not been taken up in the Senate.
She voted in favor of a June resolution recognizing July 25 as World IVF Day.
Mackenzie voted in favor of House Bill 1405, which would create a universal, in-home maternal nursing program. The bill cleared the House in July and was sent to the Senate.
Budget
Mackenize voted no to the passage of the 2024-25 state budget, which contained no tax increases, included a $1 billion increase in K-12 funding and used a new school district formula to make funding more equitable.
Education
In June, before the state budget vote, she voted against House Bill 2370, an education package that included the new funding formula. A 2023 Commonwealth Court decision mandated the state come up with a new funding formula to make sure economically distressed schools districts were receiving their fair share of state dollars.
Mackenzie voted in favor of Senate Bill 1154, which would create a Performance-based Funding Council to develop a new system to distribute funding to the state-related universities. It was signed into law in July.
Mackenzie was a sponsor of 2023 House Bill 1094, which allows school districts to enroll students from military families before residency is fully established.
She is a sponsor of House Bill 2514, which would require school districts to mail financial information to residents that has only been posted on their websites. She also is a sponsor of House Bill 2519, which would create a higher education accountability tool and require institutions post their endowment information online.
Voting rights
Mackenzie’s website says she is fighting for “common sense” voting reforms. She supports guaranteeing timely election results and enacting “a fair Voter ID system (with numerous ID options) to ensure only those eligible to vote can vote.”
She yes on the GOP's 2021 election reform bill, which would require voter identification at the polls, changed the voter registration deadline from 15 to 30 days before an election and created earlier deadlines for mail-in voting. Wolf vetoed the measure.
In February 2024, responding to problems with Northampton County voting machines in the 2023 election, which she called “continued failures,” Mackenzie said county Executive Lamont McClure, a Democrat to resign over the matter. McClure did not step down.
She also became a sponsor of House Bill 2053 and House Bill 2054, which would strengthen the certification requirements of voting machines, increase accountability and hold manufacturers responsible for defects in existing machines. The bills are now in committee.
Environment
Mackenzie is a sponsor of House Bill 55 which went to the environmental committee in March 2023. It aims to reduce dependence on Russian oil by providing for the leasing of subsurface rights on state forest and park property for oil and natural gas development.
She voted against 2024’s House Bill 2241, which would create a stewardship program for the disposal of batteries. It is now in the Senate.
She voted against Senate Bill 831. Enacted into law in July, it creates guidance for and promotes “geologic storage” of carbon dioxide in underground reservoirs with guidelines more stringent than those required by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Guns
In 2021, she voted against allowing a procedural vote on House Bill 770, which would have banned owning, selling or making high-capacity, semi-automatic weapons. She voted yes on Senate Bill 565, which would have allowed anyone to conceal-carry a weapon without a background check or permit. It was vetoed by Wolf.
Mackenzie voted yes to House Bill 979, which would have restricted municipalities from regulating firearms and allow aggrieved parties to sue municipalities. It was also vetoed by Gov. Wolf.
In March, she voted against House Bill 777, which would ban the purchase, sale and production of untraceable gun parts, so called ghost guns. After passage, it was referred to the Senate.
LGBTQIA+
In July, Mackenzie voted yes to House Bill 2269, which changes the definition of marriage in Pennsylvania from a civil contract between a man and a woman to one between two individuals. The bill was referred to the Senate.
Mackenzie was a sponsor of 2022’s House Bill 2813, which sought to prohibit classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through 5th grade and require public schools to adopt procedures for notifying parents if there is a change in services from the school regarding a child’s mental, emotional or physical health or well-being. No votes were taken.
Mackenzie supported House Bill 972, which sought to ban transgender girls from female sports teams in public schools, colleges and universities. It was vetoed by Wolf.
MERIAM SABIH
Background
Sabih, 44, is a daughter of Pakistani immigrants who was born in Queens and raised primarily in New Jersey.
She has a bachelor’s degree in English and psychology from Rutgers University and a master’s degree in political science from Lehigh University.
Sabih is a freelance journalist who has written about the Middle East, education and democracy. According to her LinkedIn profile, her articles have appeared in Huffington Post, Al Jazeera, and South Asia magazine.
In a recent phone interview, she said she and her husband moved to Upper Saucon Township more than 15 years ago because of its “great public schools and beautiful green spaces.” They have three sons.
Foray in politics
Sabih has been a longtime volunteer, committee precinct person, poll greeter, community organizer, canvasser and outreach coordinator for the Southern Lehigh Democrats.
She said she was not planning to run “right now” but felt the 131st needed a strong candidate to challenge Mackenzie. She also feels more women need to be in elected office.
“Politics has for too long been dominated by men and we need more women to contest in elections. We also want to work together to build momentum and flip this seat blue,” she said.
Sabih’s endorsements include the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania, Moms Demand Action and Conservation Voters of Pa.
ISSUES
Sabih considers herself a “compassionate moderate” who cares deeply about democracy.
“I am so grateful to be born in the United States and I do not take our freedoms for granted,” she said. “Jan. 6 taught us that we cannot do that and that we need to elect public officials that will protect our democracy and rights.”
Sabih said she has researched the issues at hand in this election, using her skills as a journalist.
“From promoting education and good governance to creating policies that support women's rights and diversity, my focus is on helping Pennsylvania thrive as a state that works for everyone,” she said.
Abortion
Sabih said the majority of people she has met going door-to-door told her they “want to see a Democratic pro-choice woman on the ballot against Milou Mackenzie.”
Sabih said she supports the protection of women's reproductive rights in Pennsylvania, which includes ensuring that all women can safely access the care they need.
Banning all abortions with no exceptions for medical situations or incest/rape is “extreme,” she said.
Women in both parties have long fought for the right to abortion, Sabih continued, and the government should not be able to take that away.
She said abortion is part of women’s health care when it comes to those facing miscarriage, fetal abnormalities and high-risk pregnancies.
“Lack of care could be deadly,” Sabih said.
Education
Sabih listed poor school building conditions, outdated textbooks and disparities between school districts as situations throughout the state that put some students at a disadvantage.
“I would support the initiative to increase school funding so students have the chance they deserve to succeed irrespective of where they reside,” she said. “It also means encouraging intellectual debate, and freedom of expression, while respecting one another.”
She added that her parents worked hard and picked where they lived based on walking distance to good public schools (and the train station for their work commute).
She built her home in the Lehigh Valley to provide her sons with the same access to quality public schools.
With fairly funded public schools, she said, residents could see some relief on their property taxes.
Voting rights
Sabih said she is “deeply grateful to be born in the United States of America, a country that is known around the world for democracy and freedom.”
“Yet today there are election deniers in the Pennsylvania General Assembly. We must elect people in public office who respect those American values. I will be an unwavering supporter of those rights because I know what it means for those around the world who do not have them,” she said.
Environment
Sabih supports smart-growth policies that protect the environment while fostering a strong local economy.
“My mother who has never smoked was recently diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. We do not yet know all the consequences that pollution has but we know it is affecting us and our world in far too many ways,” she said.
“I am committed to addressing climate change and preserving a cleaner world for our families both today and for generations to come. I believe in protecting our air, water, and greenspaces, and in promoting responsible stewardship of our natural resources.”
She said smart growth can attract businesses to the district while still respecting the environment and green spaces.
“My vision includes preserving our beautiful parks and recreational spaces, preserving our farmland, protecting the rights of all individuals to a clean and sustainable living environment, and keeping Pennsylvania beautiful,” she said.
Guns
Sabih said she would support an assault weapon ban and that elected officials have a responsibility to prevent gun violence, especially in schools.
“As a mom it is heartbreaking to know that some people are afraid to send their kids to school,” Sabih said.
Sabih said she supports “smart” gun laws aimed at keeping guns away from those who should not have them.
 | A guest post by
|