In the 14th, it's Nick Miller vs. Dean Browning
The two differ on education funding, abortion, gun control, mail-in voting, among other issues.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story had an incorrect headline. It also omitted that Dean Browning supports allowing abortions in cases of rape and incest, particularly for minors.
Voters in Pennsylvania’s 14th Senate district have a unique opportunity on Nov. 8 – picking a third state senator to serve the Lehigh Valley.
Under redistricting, the twister-shaped seat covers whole or parts of 20 municipalities that span Lehigh and Northampton counties. It includes Democratic bastions in Allentown and Whitehall Township but also conservative havens in northwestern Northampton County.
Vying for the seat with no incumbent are Dean Browning, a former chairman of the Lehigh County Board of Commissioners, and Democrat Nick Miller, a member of the Allentown School Board.
Both said they want a chance to be the Valley’s voice in Harrisburg.
“I have lived in the Lehigh Valley for over 40 years, volunteering in the community and working in the private sector,” Browning of South Whitehall said. “I have had to balance budgets, meet payroll, and make the hard, necessary decisions needed to get things done both in the private and public arena. I want to put that experience to work in Harrisburg.”
Miller of Allentown said he is committed to fighting for Lehigh Valley residents.
“I would work to create an environment in Harrisburg of fiscal responsibility and strategic spending as we continue to see the economy shifting at a rapid rate,” Miller said. “This campaign is about Lehigh Valley residents and ensuring they have a strong advocate in Harrisburg. I will be that advocate.”
Both face challenges in Northampton where each lost in their May primary races but had enough votes in Lehigh to claim their party’s nomination.
Browning had $25,022 in cash on hand as of June 6. He loaned his campaign $12,500. Miller had $2,557, according to the state’s campaign finance page. He had raised $58,297 for the primary, a figure that included $20,000 he loaned to the campaign.
The 14th includes all of Hanover, Salisbury and Whitehall townships and Catasauqua, Coplay, Emmaus and Fountain Hill along with parts of South Whitehall Township and Allentown in Lehigh County. The Northampton County portions of the district are Allen, Bushkill, East Allen, Hanover, Lehigh and Moore townships and Bath, Chapman, North Catasauqua, Northampton and Walnutport.
Photo is from Dean Browning’s campaign website.
DEAN BROWNING
Background
Born in Kentucky, Browning, 66, graduated with a chemistry degree from Denison University in 1978. He then earned a master’s in industrial management at Georgia Tech and moved to the Lehigh Valley to work for Air Products and Chemicals. He went on to work at Coca-Cola Bottling, Harvel Plastics and New World Aviation, where he was the CFO for 18 years before retiring in 2018. He served on the board of the Allentown Rescue Mission for 15 years. He and his wife Cheryl have three dogs.
Foray into politics
Browning was elected Lehigh County commissioner in 2007, serving as chairman for two years. He said changes he proposed resulted in millions of dollars in savings to the county. In 2010, he made a series of votes that resulted in a 16% tax hike to close a budget shortfall.
In the 2011 primary, three Republicans, including Lisa Scheller, now the candidate in the 7th Congressional District race, targeted Browning in the primary, blaming him for the tax hike. He finished last. Browning went on to lose primaries for Lehigh County executive in 2013, county commissioner in 2015 and Congress in 2018 and 2020, when he faced Scheller in the primary.
In May, Browning faced two challengers for the GOP nomination — Cindy Miller, a Lehigh Township supervisor, and Omy Maldonado, a management consultant who lives in Allen Township. He won in Lehigh with 65% of the vote, but lost to Cindy Miller by 1,021 votes in Northampton County.
Political leanings
Browning describes himself as a “traditional conservative”and “proud Christian.” His “common sense” agenda includes combating inflation, supporting law enforcement and defending the U.S. Constitution.
He was rated as “leans conservative” by ivoterguide, a group that profiles candidates and says it “stands up for conservative principles,” and is “Grounded in God” and “Rooted in Research.”
Browning made headlines in November 2020, when, on Twitter, he sent a tweet that starts off saying “I’m a black gay guy” and goes on to downplay the accomplishments of former President Barack Obama; he later told The Morning Call he had been sharing a tweet from an earlier follower, not writing about himself and hadn’t made that clear. “I realized I had made the quote without proper context, so I corrected that.”
He told Armchair Lehigh Valley that Joe Biden won the presidential race in 2020.
Issues
Education: Browning supports giving state basic education funding directly to parents in the form of vouchers. He said the low graduation rate of Latinos from Allen High School shows the need for such measures. The Allentown School District will get about $150 million in basic education money this school year, just under half of its total budget. This year, ASD will give about $64.4 million to charter schools for tuition. Browning said the loss of the basic-ed funding “would make the Allentown School District more accountable for its failures and force it to adapt and change and provide its citizens with a better school system.”
Browning favors posting curriculum online. On teaching students about racism and diversity, he said schools should fully teach American history but not “make innocent children feel like they come from a line of racist oppressors and make other innocent children feel like they are destined to a life of oppression simply based on their skin color. We need to focus on what unites us, not what divides us.”
Browning supports reducing the state subsidy for higher education to balance the state budget, according to ivoterguide.
Abortion: Browning opposes abortion unless the mother’s health or life is threatened. He also supports exceptions for rape and incest, particularly for minors.
Gender/ sexual education: Browning believes marriage is between a man and a woman. He doesn’t think children “who are not old enough to reliably tie their own shoes” should be taught sex education. He supports House Bill 792, which would have banned transgender girls from playing girls sports at public schools and colleges. The measure was vetoed by Gov. Tom Wolf.
Constitutional Amendment: Browning said it’s up to voters to decide if they want to support a proposed amendment package that would clearly stated that women have no guaranteed rights to abortion or public funding for abortion. The other amendments would require voter ID, mandate the auditor general to audit elections, allow gubernatorial nominees to pick their running mates, and allow the Legislature to reject regulations, such as environmental rules, without facing governor vetoes.
Guns/safety: Browning said, “We need to make sure our kids are safe in their schools, and we need to reduce the number of murders and crimes that involve guns.” Browning said existing gun control laws, such as concealed carry permits law, aren’t working. “All these laws are doing is negatively impacting and restricting the rights of law-abiding citizens while doing nothing to change the actions and behavior of those who ignore laws concerning firearms.” Browning supports making it more difficult and costly for criminals to possess or use a firearm and expanding mental health services available to disaffected youth.
Voting: On ivoterguide, Browning said he would eliminate mail-in voting and require photo IDs at the polls. He would extend the period for in-person voting to include the Saturday before the Tuesday election. He would ban local governments from using third party funding for the actual conduct of the election.
Vaccinations: Browning supports allowing governmental bodies, schools and employers to require vaccinations in cases where the disease is extremely communicable and there is a high mortality rate associated with contracting the disease,according to ivoterguide.
Economy/energy: Browning said stricter environmental regulations cost jobs and hurt the economy. He supports hydraulic fracking to extract oil and natural gas to turn Pennsylvania into a leading producer of energy. He wants to lower the state corporate income tax.
Photo from Nick Miller campaign website.
NICK MILLER
Background
Miller, 27, grew up in Allentown and graduated in 2013 from Allentown Central Catholic High School.
He graduated with a degree in finance in 2017 from Penn State then worked as a project management consultant for IMB from 2017 to 2021.
Miller, who is a residential and commercial property owner, became a part-time Realtor with Full Circle Realty and Property Management in Allentown in January 2021.
Miller earned a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Pennsylvania in May 2022 and expects to earn a master’s in law in December.
Miller is a board member of the Penn State Lehigh Valley Alumni Society and an advisory board member of Lehigh Valley Launch Box, a small business incubator affiliated with Penn State.
He has been an ambassador for the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce
An avid traveler, Miller has visited 48 countries, saying you need a global perspective to understand local issues.
Over the December 2021 holidays, he went to Tanzania in east Africa, where he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. He used the trip to raise $25,000 to replace old and rusted equipment at the Allentown School District’s two high school weight rooms.
Foray into politics
Miller said he was inspired to enter public office by his mother, Lehigh County Judge Michelle Varricho. His father Patrick Miller died when Nick was 9.
At age 24, he won a four-year term in November 2019 on the Allentown School Board. With 18% of the vote, he finished second out of a field of six candidates for five open seats. Longtime incumbent Republican Robert E. Smith Jr. lost his seat. Smith is now running for the Republican nomination for the 22nd House District.
Miller served as vice president of the school board for one year. He has advocated for upgrading the district’s aging facilities, including building a new Harrison-Morton Middle School.
Miller faced three challengers in May, winning Lehigh by 4,116 votes, but losing in Northampton to Tara Zrinski by about 4,074 votes. He won in Lehigh by 4,116 votes. The 42-vote difference led Zrinski to ask for a recount and led a group of residents to file a lawsuit over uncounted mail-in ballots. The lawsuit resulted in a settlement and Miller the winner.
Political leanings
Miller describes himself as a “moderate Democrat.” He was rated as a conditional liberal on ivoterguide.com, meaning the group is 85-94% confident the candidate will vote liberally.
Miller said he decided to run for the newly created 14th Senate District because he sees it as an opportunity to fight for fair education funding, advocate for small businesses and support economic development.
“I’m a lifelong resident of Allentown, raised in a family dedicated to public service,” he said. “In this new Democratic-learning district, there is an opportunity for the Lehigh Valley to send an effective and unifying leader to the state Senate.”
Issues
Education: Miller says he has seen the impact of underfunding first-hand. He feels all basic education dollars should flow through the state’s fair funding formula, which seeks to end funding disparities between wealthy and poor school districts. Currently, 11% of it passes through it. He does not support posting curriculum online, saying the state has a process for creating an age-appropriate curriculum. Miller does not support giving basic education dollars in the form of vouchers to parents, saying “We need to invest in our public schools and ensure every child has access to high-quality, well-funded public schools.”
Abortion: Miller supports a women’s right to choose. “Family decisions are with the family, not some politician out in Harrisburg.”
Guns/safety: Miller said community safety is a top priority. He said he met with area police chiefs and community leaders to discuss the issue. He said there needs to be “bi-partisan, coalition building to address” the issue. He said the issue will take financial resources to tackle. “We need to invest in communities to keep families safe.”
He supports banning the sale of assault weapons outright, banning them to persons under age 21, expanding background checks, allowing municipalities to create their own gun control laws, requiring gun owners to report lost or stolen weapons and requiring proper storage of guns. He opposes expanding concealed carry permits.
Voting: Miller supports Act 77, which allowed no-excuse, mail-in voting. He believes pre-canvassing mail-in ballots – getting ballots ready to count before 8 p.m. on election day – is a simple solution to getting vote results on election day.
Economy: Miller supports small businesses and wants to increase capital to invest in them. He supports Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposal to incrementally increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
Environment: Miller believes that protecting the environment should be a priority in Pennsylvania. He supports working with the energy sector, environmentalists and workers to come up with a plan to gradually move toward renewable resources.
Constitutional amendment: Miller does not support a proposed amendment package, saying such amendments bypass the traditional legislative process. The proposed amendment package would clearly stated that women have no guaranteed rights to abortion or public funding for abortion. The other amendments would require voter ID, mandate the auditor general to audit elections, allow gubernatorial nominees to pick their running mates, and allow the Legislature to reject regulations, such as environmental rules, without facing governor vetoes.