Mary Gay Scanlon

Democrat Representative of Pennsylvania's 5th district

  • Representative

    Pennsylvania, district 5

    January 3, 2023 - January 3, 2025

4

Congresses Served

4

House Terms

August 30, 1959 (65 years old)

Birthday

  • American attorney and politician
  • Served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives since 2019
  • Initially represented Pennsylvania’s 7th congressional district for the final two months of 2018 before transitioning to the 5th district
  • Elected to both the 7th and 5th districts on the same day, November 6, 2018
  • Born in Syracuse, New York, to a family with a legal and academic background
  • Earned a B.A. from Colgate University and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School
  • Worked as a judicial law clerk and pursued a career in public interest law after representing a sexually abused child
  • Received the Fidelity Award from the Philadelphia Bar Association for public service
  • Served as pro bono counsel at Ballard Spahr, coordinating free legal services for low-income individuals
  • Appointed vice chair of the Tax Commission and served on the board of the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District, including as its president
  • Launched her congressional campaign in 2018, motivated by the lack of female representation in Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation
  • Won the 2018 primary and general elections, contributing to breaking the all-male composition of Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation
  • Defeated Republican nominees in both the 2018 and 2020 elections for the 5th district
  • Introduced the ACCESS Act of 2021 to mandate data portability on major tech platforms
  • Voted with President Joe Biden’s stated position 100% of the time in the 117th Congress
  • Supported removing American troops from Somalia and Syria
  • Member of several caucuses, including the Congressional Friends of Ireland Caucus, and traveled with President Biden to Ireland in 2023
  • Holds committee assignments on the Judiciary and Rules Committees
  • Advocates for fair elections, free speech, access to healthcare and education, human rights, gun control, and environmental protection
  • Supports universal pre-K, marijuana decriminalization, and a cautious approach to implementing a $15 minimum wage
  • Lives in Swarthmore with her husband and has three adult children
  • Victim of a carjacking in December 2021 but was physically unharmed