My member of Congress is Matt Cartwright. He is the Democratic representative from Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District. He previously served as the representative for Pennsylvania’s 17th Congressional District from 2013 to 2018, serving 3 terms. He was elected into office on November 6, 2018, serving his first term as the representative from the 8th Congressional District, and he is up for reelection in 2020 (Ballotpedia). Cartwright won 54.6% of the votes, defeating the Republican candidate, John Crin, who received 45.4% of the votes. Cartwright serves on several committees. He serves on the Committee if Appropriations, along with its subcommittees: Subcommittee in Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies and the Subcommittee in Financial Services and General Government. He is also a member of a lot of caucuses. Some of these include the Democratic Caucus, Adult Literacy Caucus, Animal Protection Caucus, LGBT Equality Caucus, Childhood Cancer Caucus, Cybersecurity Caucus, Clean Water Caucus, Public Service Caucus, and many others that reflect upon issues of his interests (cartwright.house.gov). Cartwright is committed to working across the aisle to advocate for working families. He has introduced over 60 pieces of legislation and more bipartisan bills than any other House Democrat. His priorities are creating jobs, ensuring quality health care, strengthening the middle class, protecting seniors, supporting veterans and military families, and his campaign themes were equality, defense, infrastructure, economy, and environment (cartwright.house.gov).
The representative from the 16th District of Ohio is Republican, Anthony Gonzalez. The district is rural and includes some suburbs of Cleveland. Important issues to Gonzalez include National Security, Education and the Workforce, Jobs and the Economy, Immigration, Federal Spending, and Veterans (gonzalez.house.gov). His focus on these issues somewhat reflect upon the characteristics of his district, as he focuses on jobs for American projects and strengthening the economy, but also more national issues such as federal spending, national security, and immigration. The racial demographics of the district are relatively racially homogenous. Racially, the district is 94.3% White, 2.0% Asian, and 1.6% Black, and ethnically, it is 2.0% Hispanic (Ballotpedia).
My State House Representative is Jack Rader Jr. of the 176th District of Pennsylvania. He is a Republican and has been serving as a member of the House since 2015. In the most recent election, Rader defeated Claudette Williams, a Democrat, 54.7% to 45.3% (Ballotpedia). His committee assignments are Children & Youth, Finance, Local Government, and Tourism & Recreational Development, but no caucuses were listed. His focus includes eliminating property tax, promoting economic growth and job creation, reducing government involvement in everyday life, and supporting a balanced budget. The district is rural and agricultural in some areas. These characteristics of the district are not directly reflected in the issues focused on by our representative, but some of the areas of focus may overlap onto these characterisitcs. The area is 51% female, and the demographics for race and ethnicity are 73% White, 10% Black, 1% Asian, and 14% Hispanic (censusreporter.org). In some areas it may seem diverse, but for the most part, the district is racially homogenous.