Who is Rep. Mark Rozzi, the surprise Pa. speaker of the House?

Pennsylvania state Rep. Mark Rozzi, a Democratic lawmaker from the Reading area, was elected the speaker of the state House Tuesday and announced he will govern as an independent, pledging to members that he will put “the institution before ideology.”

“I pledge my allegiance and my loyalty to no interest in this building, to no interest in our politics,” he said during a speech on the House floor. “I pledge my loyalty to the people of the commonwealth.”

The bipartisan vote Tuesday represented a stunning elevation for Rozzi, a six-term Berks County legislator who wasn’t serving in the leadership of the Democratic caucus. He’s perhaps best known for being the loudest voice in Harrisburg advocating for changes to state law that would make it easier for victims of child sexual abuse to sue perpetrators.

Here’s what to know about Pennsylvania’s new House speaker.

Rozzi, 51, was a longtime businessman in the Reading area, where he led his family’s window and door installation company, before running for state representative in 2012. He won a three-way Democratic primary on a generally centrist platform focused on job creation and small-business growth, then went on to win 70% of the vote in the general election.

Today, he represents Berks County’s 126th District, which leans Democratic and includes parts of Reading, Lower Alsace, Muhlenberg Township, and Exeter Township. In November, he beat Republican challenger James Oswald by a nearly 2-to-1 margin.

“I can’t believe 10 years have passed so quickly,” he told the Reading Eagle about his time in office. “Time has really moved quickly, and it’s been my greatest joy and honor serving the people.”

Rozzi has made a point of emphasizing his independence and desire to work with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, and his campaigns have featured some positions considered more aligned with Republicans, including being in favor of eliminating school property taxes and cutting business payroll taxes.

He was nominated on the House floor Tuesday by a Republican: Rep. Jim Gregory (R., Blair), who said Rozzi “has a proven history of making tough decisions for people over politics.” A handful of members of the Republican leadership, including now-former speaker Bryan Cutler (R., Lancaster), joined him and the Democratic caucus to vote for Rozzi.

Still, Rozzi has been a generally reliable vote for Democrats. Rozzi has voted against efforts to curb abortion access, wants to raise the state minimum wage from $7.25 to $10 an hour, and favors increased spending on public education.

In an interview with The Eagle in November, Rozzi said he wants to move legislation that would tackle the state’s shortage of teachers, and wants to increase funding for mental health services for children.

But by far his biggest issue has been advocating for victims of child sexual abuse. Rozzi is himself a victim of priest abuse and has said it’s the reason he got into politics.

Rozzi was for years the leading voice in Harrisburg pushing for changes to state law that would grant victims of childhood sexual abuse a two-year window to bring lawsuits, even if the civil statute of limitations had expired.

The measure gained momentum in 2018 after a grand jury report made public decades of sexual abuse and coverups in Catholic dioceses across the state. The office of attorney general Josh Shapiro, who is now the Democratic governor-elect, led the release of the grand jury report.

Rozzi, backed by outspoken victims of child sexual abuse, rallied for the legislation that would have opened the civil suit window, but advocates couldn’t reach a compromise with Senate Republican leadership. So Rozzi proposed a constitutional amendment that would allow for such a window and would require the approval of voters.

Some of Rozzi’s allies in the survivor community said they felt blindsided by the move because it would have meant they’d likely have to wait several years for a change to the law.

The amendment passed the General Assembly with bipartisan support and was set to go to voters in 2021 — but the Pennsylvania Department of State did not advertise the amendment as required by law, an error that led the then-secretary of state to resign. The amendment would need to pass the legislature again before it could appear on ballots.