In 187th, newcomer faces former House member who wants his seat back
Former Rep. Gary Day challenged by Democrat Stefanie Rafes
By Margie Peterson
A former state lawmaker who wants his job back and a political newcomer will square off for a two-year term in Pennsylvania’s 187th House District on Nov. 5.
The 187th is an open seat because its representative, Republican Ryan Mackenzie, is running against incumbent Democrat Susan Wild in the 7th Congressional District.
Republican Gary Day of Heidelberg Township held the 187th seat for 14 years until redistricting altered the district’s boundaries, and he lost to Mackenzie in the 2022 Republican primary.
Challenging Day is Democrat Stefanie Rafes, a physician assistant from Lower Macungie Township who specializes in cardiology.
Day said he “would be honored to serve” again in the 187th, according to a campaign announcement in the Lehigh Valley Press.
Rafes said she was inspired to run for office by her experience in dealing with aggressive breast cancer in 2015.
"It really taught me how to listen to a problem ... and these are very complex problems that we see in patients and in health care similar to the complex problems that legislators need to solve,” she said. “So it's about being able to listen to people's concerns and addressing problems with a broad outlook."
The district comprises the boroughs of Macungie and Alburtis and the townships of Heidelberg, Lower Macungie, Lynn, Washington and Weisenberg, along with part of Upper Macungie Township (Districts 03, 07 and 08).
The 187th leans Republican. It has 48,894 registered voters, with Republicans holding an edge over Democrats, 22,666-17,371, according to the state’s most recent data. The remaining voters are registered as independents or with a third party.
The race is being highly watched by both parties.
Democrats hold a one-seat majority over Republicans (102-101) after their candidates won two special House elections in Philadelphia earlier this month.
Before redistricting, slightly more than half of the district was represented by Mackenzie, so Day’s name may not be as familiar there.
That’s why Democrats consider the 187th winnable – so much so that the Pennsylvania House Democratic Campaign Committee provided Rafes with a campaign manager with $12,467 for in-kind services, according to her campaign finance reports.
Her campaign has raised more money than Day’s, according to the most recent campaign finance reports. Rafes had $68,048 in cash as of May 13 versus Day’s $20,105.
Day’s fundraising ability shouldn’t be discounted. He spent nearly $187,000 running against Mackenzie in the 2022 primary. Both Day and Rafes were unopposed in the April 23 primary.
State House members earn an annual salary of $106,422, which is adjusted annually in January for inflation.
GARY DAY
Day currently works as director of policy and director of district operations for state Sen. Jarrett Coleman, a Republican and former Parkland School Board member who ousted longtime incumbent Pat Browne in the 16th Senate District in the same primary that Day lost.
Day, who was born in Baltimore, earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Penn State in 1990. He worked as an executive assistant to Allentown Mayor William Heydt for nearly six years before leaving in 1999 to work with Service Electric Cable as director of administration.
He was elected to the 187th District in 2008 and served seven terms until he was defeated in the 2022 primary by Mackenzie, who had represented the 134th House District before redistricting moved him to the 187th.
Asked to name some accomplishments while in office, Day pointed to being the prime sponsor of a 2021 law that improved employment protections for military personnel when they get called up for active duty.
"It was the Number 1 issue of the military," Day said.
He also sponsored legislation backed by the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors that made it easier for homebuyers to get mortgages when they bought a home on a private road by requiring them to contribute to the maintenance of the road.
In the wake of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., Day spearheaded legislation that made it easier for Pennsylvania schools to have safety drills.
During his tenure, Day served on several committees, including the Aging & Older Adult Services Committee, which he chaired his last two years in office. In that role, Day said he helped lead Pennsylvania through the Covid pandemic, working on issues such as vaccinations, personal protective equipment and business shutdowns.
Day said one of his main advantages over Rafes is knowing how to cut through red tape and get things done in Harrisburg. "I know who to talk to," Day said.
Day was endorsed by the National Federation of Independent Business and the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry’s Chamber PAC. He received an 84% rating from the American Conservative Union.
Following are votes taken by Day on major issues.
Abortion
Day voted in favor of Senate Bill 3, which would have prohibited abortions beyond 20 weeks of gestational age. The bill made no exceptions for cases of rape, incest or severe fetal deformities. Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed the 2017 measure.
Day voted in favor of a constitutional amendment package, which included language clearly stating that women have no guaranteed rights to abortion or public funding for abortion. The amendment, introduced in 2022, would have limited the ability to challenge laws restricting or outlawing abortions in the state. The package failed to move on when Democrats took control of the House after November 2022 elections.
Day voted in favor of House Bill 118, which would have enabled parents whose unborn children are lost to miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy or stillbirth the right to claim their child’s fetal remains for cremation or burial at their own expense. It passed the House in 2021 but did not receive a Senate vote.
He voted in favor of House Bill 321, which would have prohibited abortions because of a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome. The 2019 measure passed the House and Senate and was vetoed by Wolf. It was reintroduced in the House in 2021, with Day as a co-sponsor, and passed. The bill was sent to the Senate, where it was withdrawn for consideration in 2022.
Day voted in favor of Senate Bill 857, which provided for telemedicine, authorizing the regulation of telemedicine by professional licensing boards and providing for insurance coverage of telemedicine. An amendment barred the use of telemedicine to prescribe mifepristone, which is used to induce medical abortions. Wolf vetoed the 2019 bill.
Guns
Day voted for House Bill 979, which would have restricted the ability of municipalities to regulate firearms and allow aggrieved parties to sue those localities in court. He also voted for Senate Bill 565, which would have permitted anyone who wanted to carry concealed firearms to do so without going through a background check or getting a permit. Wolf vetoed both 2021 bills.
In 2022, he also voted against allowing a vote on House Bill 770, which would have banned owning, selling or making high-capacity, semi-automatic weapons. The procedural vote failed.
Elections and voting rights
Day was a yes vote with the Republican majority on 2019’s Act 77, which legalized no-excuse mail-in voting.
He was among the group of Republican Pennsylvania legislators who sought to temporarily withhold Electoral College votes from Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
The group filed an amicus curiae brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in a lawsuit filed by the state of Texas against Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin over a decision by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that, among other rulings, upheld Wolf’s decision to extend the deadline for receipt of mail-in ballots by three days over pandemic-related concerns.
He sponsored a package of bills related to elections and voting — HB 29, to require that paper ballots contain timing marks and/or QR codes and also have specific size requirements and watermarks; HB 30 to require any mail-in ballot application include a sworn affidavit attesting to the voter’s residence and identity, and counties must be able to track mail-in ballot problems; HB 31 to add security measures to ballot drop-off boxes, such as recording the date and time the ballot was delivered. The bills were referred to the House State Government Committee, where they have stayed without action since June 2021.
STEFANIE RAFES
Rafes grew up in Whitehall Township and attended Whitehall schools before getting bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the physician assistant program at Rochester Institute of Technology in 2003.
She works for Du Cardiology, a California-based medical practice. Since the coronavirus pandemic, Rafes said she has worked remotely, seeing her patients via telemedicine.
She said she got a crash course in the weaknesses and strengths of the American health care system when she saw it up close as a patient with an aggressive form of breast cancer in 2015.
"I was fortunate we had the Affordable Care Act," she says. "Because trying to get insured after a cancer diagnosis would be either impossible or so expensive that I would not have been able to afford it."
Rafes said there are only a few lawmakers in the state House who have a medical background. She said she would be able to add legislative insight given her experience as a medical provider and a cancer patient.
She said her work has made her a better listener and team player, traits that she would bring to her work with constituents, she says.
Rafes said she has a lot of flexibility in her job, and if elected, would like to work a few hours a week to keep her skills up.
Rafes has racked up endorsements, including from Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro and Planned Parenthood PA PAC.
She’s also received endorsements of several labor unions, including the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, and local chapters of the UAW, UFCW, IBEW, IBT and Insulators Local 23.
Abortion
Rafes said she is pro-choice and in favor of making sure women continue to have access to in vitro fertilization and birth control.
"Women and girls should have the final say in what goes on inside their own bodies," she says. "No one should be forced to carry a pregnancy or give birth against their will. The concept of lawyers and judges overriding the care of board-certified physicians is illogical and dangerous. Removing a woman's right to bodily autonomy is antithetical to the freedoms that our country stands for."
Guns
Rafes said the Second Amendment has codified a constitutional right to keep and bear arms and people choose to exercise those rights for a variety of reasons.
“Most people are responsible gun owners who prioritize proper training and safety, which I agree with," she said.
Rafes said she favors safe storage efforts to keep firearms away from children in the home. She said she also supports commonsense solutions such as red flag laws and background checks.
Elections and voting rights
Rafes said she opposes Republican-led lawsuits seeking to invalidate the state law permitting mail-in ballots and to declare mail-in ballots that are missing dates invalid.
"It should be easy and accessible for every American citizen who is eligible to vote," she says. "I don't believe in unnecessary barriers that prohibit or make it more difficult for eligible voters to cast their ballots, and mail-in voting is a secure method of voting which has made it easier for people who may be homebound, for people with disabilities, or people who can't leave work and take time to go vote."
She said the current systems that audit election results are secure.
Education
Rafes said public education is predominantly funded by property taxes despite the state having a nearly $14 billion surplus as of June 30. “Instead of relying on property taxes, we need to fully fund public education by utilizing our surplus,” she said on her campaign website.
Open space
Rafes said open space and farmlands are integral to the Lehigh Valley and pledged to promote smart growth and development while preserving such land.
“Over the past few years, we have had the issue of overdevelopment with the proliferation of warehouses,” she said on her campaign website. “We need to ensure that all development that does occur makes sense and won’t cause any damage to our environment.”