“There are two different kinds of people in elected office,” says Rep. Leanne Krueger. “Those who were planning to run from the time they were in second grade, and folks who get activated on an issue and decide to run later.”
“I was in the second category,” she adds. “As a kid, I never ran for class president.”
Today, the Wallingford, Pennsylvania, resident represents Pennsylvania’s 161st district – the first woman ever to do so – and is currently running once more for re-election for a seat she’s held onto since first winning it in 2015. A career in politics may not have been her childhood aspiration, but it was the best way to address the glaring financial and social inequities she observed through years of dedicated economic development work.
For example, she helped with enacting the Solar for Schools Program earlier this year, which dedicates $25 million in state funding toward installing energy-saving, cost-saving solar panels in schools while creating jobs – a win for both environmental and labor activists, Krueger noted. She has also fought for business grant programs, tax reductions for senior citizens and cost transparency mandates for medical care providers while in office.
To keep her job, Krueger, 47, will have to best Republican candidate and local small business owner John Mancinelli. Her long-standing incumbency, her past roles in the legislative committees on Children & Youth, Environmental Resources & Energy and Labor & Industry, and recognition as a rising star by pro-choice PAC Emily’s List could well help her once again emerge victorious.
But maintaining her seat holds meaning beyond what she hopes to do for her constituents – Krueger is also part of a very slim Democratic majority in the state House, a margin just wide enough to grant them control of the governing body’s agenda. And she knows all too well how close electoral calls can get, how easily that advantage could be lost. She first won her office in 2015, in a close special election – her victory was secured by just 786 votes, in a district with almost 64,000 residents. In 2016, she won re-election for the first time by only 597 votes.
Now, in addition to holding on to her own office, and Democratic House control, Krueger wants to make sure her state votes blue across the board. “We need to make sure Pennsylvania goes for [Vice President Kamala] Harris, like we did in 2020 for [President Joe] Biden, and not for [former President Donald] Trump, like what happened in 2016.”
Staring Truth in the Face
Kreger grew up in North Brunswick, New Jersey, a middle-class upbringing spent attending good community public schools, she recalls. She then attended Rutgers University, where she participated in programs that serve low-income communities in the New Brunswick area. She also spent her collegiate summers everywhere from the Bronx borough of New York City to parts of Costa Rica and Nicaragua, helping those in poverty through a variety of outreach initiatives. While pursuing her master’s degree, she did similar work in South Africa.
They were formative times. “Those experiences opened my eyes and broadened my horizons to the fact that everybody is dealing with a different kind of playing field,” Krueger says.
After finishing her bachelor’s degree in 1999, she moved to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and worked for the American Red Cross for two years. Then, after earning a master’s degree in urban economic development from Eastern University in 2003, she moved to Philadelphia, where she worked at the Sustainable Business of Greater Philadelphia, then the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, two economic development organizations that support locally owned businesses.
That’s when “I started to pay attention to public policy at a state level,” she says. Krueger was, at the time, especially interested in cultivating clean-energy partnerships between local government and local companies. She attempted to secure such opportunities for some of these firms – only to find that opportunities to do so simply didn’t exist. “The woman on the phone [at the Department of Economic Development] said they were doing really good work, but it doesn’t fit into any of our boxes.” So, Krueger thought, “We need to change the boxes.”
And that’s what led her to consider running for office – that, and the people who had encouraged her to turn her outreach and collaboration experience into public service work. Years after first winning her seat, she takes seriously the role she plays in helping Democrats maintain power in Pennsylvania – in fact, she served as co-chair of the House Democratic Campaign Committee from 2019 until 2023, the first woman ever to hold the role.
“Being in the majority by one seat is precarious,” she says. But it’s allowed Democrats to expand birth control access, push for renewable energy alternatives and union job creation, and overall “advance issues our neighbors care about.” Ensuring reproductive freedom is a significant priority for her moving forward, too, she says. “Abortion is still safe and legal in Pennsylvania, but that’s not guaranteed post-Roe. There are lots of barriers to reproductive healthcare that we can remedy through public policy changes.”
It’s taken a lot to maintain the footing Democrats have, she says – but all of that output has been worthwhile. “We’re working hard to help [Democrats in the state legislature] be as successful as possible in their own work.” With tangible results, she adds. “Every single rank-and-file member has gotten a bill passed.” ◼️
