The Pa. House is tied 101-101 for the first day of the legislative session after a Democratic state rep suffered a health emergency

A Democratic state representative from Western Pennsylvania suffered a health emergency and is expected to be absent from the first day of the legislative session on Tuesday, putting the party’s one-seat majority in the state House in jeopardy after Democrats narrowly hung on to control of the chamber in the 2024 election.

Rep. Matt Gergely (D., Allegheny) is not expected to attend Tuesday’s swearing-in ceremony as he recovers, said House Majority Leader Matt Bradford (D., Montgomery). Democrats do not expect Gergely to return to the chamber “for some foreseeable time thereafter,” he added.

Gergely’s absence means Democrats will be tied with Republicans at 101-101. Any measure requires at least 102 votes to pass the chamber, so House Democrats will need to lean on at least one Republican to reelect House Speaker Joanna McClinton (D., Philadelphia) as leader of the chamber and to approve their operating rules for the legislative session.

“Everyone has their eye on the most important thing, which is our colleague getting well and getting the chamber to do the people’s business, in short order,” Bradford said.

Once members are sworn in, a House speaker is nominated and voted on by the full chamber. After that, lawmakers vote on the chamber’s operating rules for the two-year legislative session, including which committees will exist, the ratios of the members of each party on those committees, and more. This year, Democrats intend to create three new standing committees, including communications and technology, intergovernmental affairs, and energy, Bradford added.

House Democrats continue to negotiate with Republicans and the office of House Minority Leader Jesse Topper (R., Bedford) ahead of Tuesday’s session, Bradford said, but declined to say whether he was confident Democrats would be able to gather the needed GOP support to reelect McClinton as House speaker.

“This is an unprecedented set of affairs,” Bradford said. “We’re all trying to give each other enough grace, recognizing those unique circumstances. We recognize that there is going to have to be concessions on both sides.”

This is not the first swearing-in day in which Democrats in the Pennsylvania House won a one-seat majority, but unprecedented circumstances stood in the way of controlling the chamber.

In 2023, McClinton had been poised to become the first woman and second Black person elected House speaker in Pennsylvania. But a series of vacancies — two members had to resign because they won higher office, and another member died — meant that Democrats were in a numeric minority on the first day of the legislative session, despite having won a one-seat majority.

Republicans instead at the time struck a surprising deal with former House Speaker Mark Rozzi (D., Berks) to serve as an “independent” House speaker, though it was not initially clear whether he intended to change his political party. Rozzi remained a Democrat, but disagreement with Republicans led him to block members from meeting in legislative session until special elections could take place. Democrats retained their majority, and Rozzi eventually stepped down to hand the gavel to McClinton in her history-making rise.

Traditionally, all members would support the speaker’s election to leader of the chamber, including those from a different political party. That was not the case in 2023, at McClinton’s election as House speaker, in which she was appointed to the rostrum along party lines.

House Democrats spent more than $18 million to retain their narrow majority in a red-wave election year.

A spokesperson for Topper, the GOP House leader, declined to comment on whether his party would try to appoint its own speaker or make demands to improve the chamber’s operating rules for the GOP minority. House Republicans’ thoughts and prayers are with Gergely and his family, said House GOP spokesperson Jason Gottesman.

Gergely represents parts of Allegheny County, including the city of McKeesport outside Pittsburgh. Gergely won the seat in 2023 as part of three special elections that took place to fill vacancies in Western Pennsylvania House districts. Before Gergely’s election, the 35th Legislative District was represented by Lt. Gov. Austin Davis until he resigned to be Gov. Josh Shapiro’s No. 2.

In recent years, legislative leaders have allowed their members to vote by proxy under some circumstances, but they must be sworn in first — a process that will take place Tuesday — meaning Gergely would be ineligible.