Ashley Lunkenheimer
Ashley Lunkenheimer (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Pennsylvania's 5th Congressional District. She lost in the Democratic primary on May 15, 2018.
Biography
Lunkenheimer is a former federal prosecutor. She spent almost ten years working as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. She has also worked as senior counsel at AmeriHealth Caritas, working to expand Medicaid in Pennsylvania.
Lunkenheimer earned her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, her master's in social work from Columbia University, and her bachelor's degree from Amherst College.[1]
Elections
2018
General election
General election for U.S. House Pennsylvania District 5
Mary Gay Scanlon defeated Pearl Kim in the general election for U.S. House Pennsylvania District 5 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Mary Gay Scanlon (D)  | 65.2 | 198,639 |
 | Pearl Kim (R) | 34.8 | 106,075 | |
| Total votes: 304,714 | |||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. House Pennsylvania District 5
The following candidates ran in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Pennsylvania District 5 on May 15, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Mary Gay Scanlon | 28.4 | 17,220 |
 | Ashley Lunkenheimer | 15.3 | 9,291 | |
 | Richard Lazer | 15.0 | 9,095 | |
 | Molly Sheehan | 10.2 | 6,216 | |
 | Gregory Vitali | 9.4 | 5,726 | |
 | Lindy Li | 7.0 | 4,236 | |
 | Theresa Wright | 5.2 | 3,149 | |
 | Thaddeus Kirkland | 4.0 | 2,420 | |
 | Margo Davidson | 4.0 | 2,413 | |
| Larry Arata | 1.5 | 925 | ||
| Total votes: 60,691 | |||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- George Badey (D)
- David Wertime (D)
- Dan Muroff (D)
- Shelly Chauncey (D)
Republican primary election
Republican primary for U.S. House Pennsylvania District 5
Pearl Kim advanced from the Republican primary for U.S. House Pennsylvania District 5 on May 15, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Pearl Kim | 100.0 | 34,352 |
| Total votes: 34,352 | |||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Paul Addis (R)
Endorsements
- Mid-County Democratic Committee[2]
Campaign finance
The table below details the campaign finance reports of the candidates in this election who reported at least $10,000 in funds raised as of March 31, 2018.[3]
Campaign themes
2018
Lunkenheimer's 2018 campaign website highlighted the themes below.[4]
Criminal Justice Reform
As a former prosecutor I’ve seen the enormous good our justice system can do to keep families and communities safe. I’ve also seen the damage that can be done when that power is abused.
Today, there are over two million Americans incarcerated in our federal and state prisons, most for non-violent crimes.
We need to reform our criminal justice systems so that non-violent offenders, the mentally ill, and those suffering from addiction stop being incarcerated in such overwhelming numbers. This means looking at more alternatives to incarceration for non-violent first-time offenders. Overly harsh sentences should be reduced. We need to address drug addiction as a health care crisis and stop treating those suffering from addiction like violent criminals.
We need to look for better ways to help those in prison. Incarcerated populations should not be subjected to health-threatening conditions and should benefit from access to medical care. They should be armed with new skills to assist with their successful re-entry into the community.
We also need to solve the deep racial disparities and discrimination entrenched in our justice system. In Pennsylvania, over 60% of the incarcerated population are people of color, despite accounting for less than 20% of the state’s overall population. This is not a coincidence. African-Americans are more susceptible to a number of inequitable practices, including serving longer prison sentences for the same crime, more frequent arrests for non-violent drug use, or imprisonment due to an inability to afford bail.
Initiatives to fix this include the legalization and reclassification of marijuana, for which arrest for possession rose by 33 percent between 2010 and 2016 across Pennsylvania despite Philadelphia’s progress on the issue by passing a decriminalization law in 2015.
We also need to address issues in policing. Our law enforcement officials deserve praise for their willingness to face a dangerous job every day. But abuse of the system must be curbed. In Philadelphia, 60 percent of officers fired for misconduct are subsequently rehired. We need to encourage police protocol that minimizes discrimination and penalizes misconduct.
Education
Every American child deserves the opportunity to reach their full potential no matter who they are or where they are from.
As a mother of three children, I am fully committed to strengthening all of our public schools. I served as the Chair of a Montessori Pre-K school and am a strong proponent of universal, quality Pre-K education for all our children. Research has shown that access to Pre-K programs produces large academic gains, amounting to the equivalent of an extra one-fifth to one-third of a year of learning. Low-income families have seen benefits from Pre-K education, including increased high school graduation and employment and decreased incarceration rates. Expanding these programs to reach all of our children is a powerful tool to improving our country’s education system and fortifying our future economy.
President Trump’s proposed budget would cut the Department of Education budget by a higher percentage than cuts to any other federal department, removing $10.6 billion from federal education initiatives. Rather than supporting public schools, the president and Secretary DeVos are seeking to expand charter and private schools by $400 million, while eliminating over 20 critical education initiatives. DeVos has sought to empower the unscrupulous for-profit college industry while rolling back protections for those it has swindled. We cannot allow the Trump administration’s continued subversion of our school systems, and I will work hard to stop it in Congress.
Supporting our public schools is not only the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do. We need better trained workers to keep our economy growing and to attract good employers to the region.
I support raising teacher pay to make sure we retain and attract the best teachers. We need to work toward options for students to graduate from college debt-free. And for those who decide four-year college is not the best path for them, we need strong two-year colleges and better vocational training that leads directly to job opportunities.
Environment
Climate change is real. It’s a threat to our economy, national security, and way of life. As citizens and parents, it is imperative that we address it.
We must address the destruction of our green spaces and natural resources that has become standard fare for the Trump administration. Interior Secretary Zinke has announced plans to open the majority of the nation’s coastlines to offshore drilling, and in December, the administration engaged in the largest rollback of federal land protection in the nation’s history.
Economic growth at the expense of the environment is a short-term and foolish gamble, the impact of which is felt by many Americans, including those of us living in Delaware County. The Sunoco Mariner East 2 Pipeline is symptomatic of the type of projects we should abstain from funding – it poses undue risk to our children, community and lands.
We are not immune to the increasingly frequent extreme storms, the exacerbated chances of flooding, or the unseasonable weather swings. We must address the plundering of our natural spaces and preserve the limited green spaces that persist. This starts by transitioning to a clean energy economy powered by renewable energy so we can end our reliance on fossil fuels. We need to expand cost-saving energy efficiency. The federal government needs to phase out new fossil fuel leasing on our public lands and oceans. And most importantly, the United States needs to re-commit to the Paris Climate Agreement on Climate Change.
I will work hard to reverse Donald Trump’s gutting of the EPA, including his repeal of clean water and clean air regulation, both of which are choices that demonstrate his commitment to filling the pockets of fossil fuel executives rather than of protecting Americans’ health and our environment.
Health Care
All Americans should have access to affordable, quality health care and Congress needs to be doing much more to make access a reality.
During my time as an Assistant United States Attorney, it was abundantly clear to me that quality schools, jobs that provide upward mobility, and good health care are the necessary foundation for safe and thriving communities. This is why I went to work at AmeriHealth Caritas, where I helped expand Medicaid and Medicare services in Pennsylvania to thousands of underserved residents.
Unfortunately, Donald Trump and the Republicans in Congress see things very differently. Rather than helping more Americans afford health care, they are putting their own partisan agenda ahead of what is best for our country by doing everything possible to gut the Affordable Care Act.
We cannot permit them to roll back protections for pre-existing conditions, allow insurance companies to charge those near retirement five times more than others, and strip away coverage from millions of Americans.
As we examine the potential for long-term changes, such as a move toward a single-payer system, my top priority will be to protect the Affordable Care Act from these attacks and work to strengthen it. That begins by ensuring the implementation and protection of the individual mandate, the feature by which costs can be kept manageable for those most in need of health care services, including the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions. We must shore up insurance exchanges and stop the political game of reducing cost-sharing. We also need to stop the Trump administration from allowing insurance companies to sell “junk policies.”
More than 2.8 million Pennsylvanians are enrolled in our state’s Medicaid expansion as of June 2016. Medicaid expansion’s statewide implementation helped to drop the uninsured rate in Pennsylvania from 9.7% in 2013 to 6.4% in 2015. Governor Wolf further increased enrollment by raising the eligibility requirements from 50 percent, instituted by ex-Governor Corbett, to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. I support this measure and would support similar bills on a national level.
In order to bring down costs, Medicare should be allowed to negotiate prescription drug prices just like the Veteran’s Administration can. Additionally, people aged 55-64 who are priced out of the private insurance market should be allowed to buy into Medicare.
Health care services should not be limited to insurance solutions. We have pressing national health crises, including a rampant opioid epidemic and high obesity rates. We should strive for holistic solutions to these problems by providing greater access to non-traditional medical services and counseling. We need to continue to empower consumers by requiring clear point-of-purchase nutritional information from food providers. We need to increase access to physical activity—through our schools, recreation departments, and communities. And we should encourage greater community engagement, an essential component of well-being for successful, late-life aging. Such expansive thinking and doing was what I was most proud of at AmeriHealth Caritas, and we need to do it more broadly for all of us and our unique health care needs.
These are issues I care passionately about and are chief motivators in my decision to run for Congress. I will fight to help my fellow citizens realize their healthiest lives.
Immigration
Immigration makes our country stronger. When Donald Trump attacks immigrant families with hateful rhetoric and uses federal agencies to tear apart families based solely on immigration status, he undermines the fabric of our country. As a federal prosecutor, I did not charge undocumented immigrants with unlawful reentry into the United States after deportation unless they had committed other crimes. It is appalling to watch the president use DREAMers’ lives and well-being as a political bargaining chip; these are law-abiding residents who pay taxes and are expected to contribute nearly half a trillion dollars in GDP over the next decade.
In Congress I will work to fix our broken immigration system and pass comprehensive immigration reform that provides a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million law abiding undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States, including the 2.1 million DREAMers who were brought to this country as children.
Jobs and Economy
As someone who grew up and is raising my family in Delaware County, I understand the region’s potential to become a national leader in economic growth and development, allowing people to work in better jobs and more comfortably raise their families.
Stabilizing the healthcare market by reversing the Republican partisan repeal of the individual mandate is not only a health priority but an economic one. Working families and individuals cannot afford for their premiums to continue to rise while their options fall, and fixing this will be my first priority.
While Republicans and the Trump administration have prioritized lining the pockets of their wealthiest donors, I believe that the economy needs to work for everyone, not just the richest citizens. Despite Republicans’ claim that their unnecessary tax giveaway would benefit all workers, less than 15 percent of corporate savings have been put toward employees. Meanwhile, more than $21 billion has been spent on stock buybacks and dividend increases. It’s clear that Republicans’ priority is enriching the rich, rather than going to work for all of America’s citizens. I will put the government back to work for all of us.
We must also invest in growth by better capitalizing on the potential of our educational institutions, and by creating economic empowerment zones. The Philadelphia region has one of the largest concentrations of colleges in the nation, while Delaware County Community College provides more than 40 certificate and apprenticeship programs. We should embrace and foster educational opportunity and business growth that provide our citizens increased upward mobility.
I support gender pay equality—in Delaware County, male employees made 1.35 times as much as female employees in 2015. This is unfair and unsustainable. I will work to reduce the pay gap, and I support raising the minimum wage so that all our citizens can earn a sustainable living from full-time work.
I am a strong proponent of unions, which protect and empower our workers, and my voting record in Congress will reflect that belief. The deterioration of protections for unions has coincided with a rise in healthcare costs and a stall in pay, making costs untenable. Unions deserve support from the government to empower their workers to pursue protected careers.
I am running for Congress because I believe government can and should foster economic opportunity for all people.
National Security and Foreign Policy
Our country is facing international threats that must be taken seriously and dealt with responsibly.
North Korea’s dictator is rapidly developing a nuclear arsenal capable of striking the United States. Russia is actively undermining our democracy while supporting Bashar-al-Assad’s brutal atrocities against the Syrian people. And Iran remains a serious security threat.
Now, more than ever, we need strong, measured leadership to deal with these threats. Yet, our president is making the threats worse while isolating us from the world. Donald Trump’s recklessness has inflamed the situation in North Korea; it has undermined our ability to investigate Russia’s meddling in our democracy, and to prevent future recurrences. The administration has treated Russian meddling so trivially that, despite Congress allocating $120 million to counter future election meddling efforts, the State Department has not spent a cent.
Meanwhile, Trump’s administration is reducing our State Department to a shell of what it once was—half of the top ranks of leadership at the State Department are gone. Seven of the Department’s top nine posts remain vacant, making it impossible to conduct its business to the full effectiveness that the American people deserve.
In Congress, I will be an assertive voice to hold the President and his administration accountable. I will work to strengthen and continually modernize our armed forces to maintain peace, while empowering and rebuilding our diplomatic corps to ensure that military force is the last resort.
Ultimately, America is safest and strongest when we stand behind our values and lead by example. We have a responsibility to promote democracy and human rights across the globe.
Reducing Gun Violence
The students of Parkland, Florida are right – it is beyond time for our public officials to reduce gun violence and prevent tragic shootings. No parent or teacher should have to tell their children that they need to be prepared to hide in a closet if someone comes into their school with a gun and tries to shoot them. Our schools and streets should be safe, which is what drove me to tackle gang violence and take guns from felons while in the U.S. Attorney’s office, and it is an important driver of my decision to enter this congressional race.
Sensible gun laws are not a partisan issue. On average, approximately 3,000 children and teens are fatal victims of gun violence each year; that number swells to 33,000 when adults are included.
Briefly setting aside the national dialogue, there are three irrefutable and unacceptable facts about gun violence in Pennsylvania. First, Pennsylvania placed fifth in the nation for highest homicides in 2015. Second, Pennsylvania’s law enforcement officers are victims of gun violence at an exceptionally high rate, ranking 18th in the nation for officers killed with a firearm.Third, Pennsylvanians are more likely to be killed by guns than they are to die in car accidents. Legislation must be passed to introduce more common sense to Pennsylvania’s gun laws.
As a federal prosecutor, I helped obtain the conviction of a felon who left his unsecured gun within reach of his young child – the child died while playing with the gun. I helped ensure that an individual charged with a felony and found incompetent by a court was prohibited from legally possessing a firearm. I helped take assault weapons, such as AR-15s, Tec 9s, and AK-47s, from violent drug trafficking gangs in Delaware County. I have prosecuted violent felons who drove to other states to purchase firearms from internet sellers so that they could bring those firearms back to Delaware County and commit crimes. Immediate action must be taken to close loopholes in our gun laws and keep guns out of the hands of felons, terrorists, domestic abusers and those who are mentally ill.
As your Representative, I will prioritize the safety of Americans and propose and support measures that can reduce the likelihood of gun tragedies and promote safe and prosperous communities. Some of the commonsense legislative measures I would support include:
- Expanding the existing criminal background check system to cover all commercial firearm sales, including those at gun shows, over the internet, or in classified ads, while providing reasonable exceptions for certain family and friend transfers;
- Expanding laws to ensure that individuals declared mentally incompetent and those on the “No-Fly” terrorist watch list are prohibited from purchasing firearms;
- Moving to ban weapons of war from private ownership, such as AR 15s, Tec 9s, AK-47s, as well as large capacity ammunition magazines and bump stocks; and
- Ending the Republican prohibition on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention from studying gun violence as a health issue.
Reproductive Rights
I am pro-choice and I firmly believe that the government should not interfere with women’s health decisions.
In Congress, I will fight against every Republican attempt to undermine Roe v. Wade, defund Planned Parenthood, and restrict women’s access to reproductive health care and birth control. Since the 115th Congress’s commencement in 2017, Republicans have introduced more than 50 bills to limit women’s ability to choose. I will oppose those bills and fight to increase access to clinics for women across the country.
Reproductive freedom is about more than protecting a woman’s right to her own body. Reproductive rights are fundamentally linked to advancing economic interests for women—medical clinics in support of women’s health and choice is an imperative tool to bridge the equality gap.
Sexual Harassment
We must do more to address sexual harassment and assault, starting with Congress and President Trump. There should be an immediate and full investigation of every allegation of sexual harassment and assault against Donald Trump, and every member of Congress who has used taxpayer money to settle a sexual harassment case should be exposed – taxpayer dollars should not be used to pay victims for illegal conduct by members of Congress. New, zero-tolerance standards need to be adopted to protect against workplace harassment. Stronger penalties need to be enacted. Today, many people feel they must either accept harassment or lose their jobs. That never should be the case.
Social Security and Medicare
Social Security and Medicare are a promise we have made to Americans that have paid into these programs with every paycheck. They are the frontline of defense against poverty in our country, with Social Security lifting nearly 750,000 people out of poverty in Pennsylvania alone. We have an obligation to protect these programs from those in Congress who seek to undermine them.
I will oppose any effort to privatize Social Security or reduce the quality of health services provided under Medicare. And I will strongly oppose any effort to cut benefits that seniors have spent years paying for.
The Value of Diversity
My wife, Starla, and I have been together since 1997, and have lived in real time the incredible progression that the LGBTQ community has made in the past two decades. In the early years, we couldn’t imagine a reality where marriage would one day be legal. Our youth was characterized by a feeling of being under siege, whether it was being physically attacked outside of a gay bar, the never-ending obituaries of gay men felled by AIDS, or the constant attacks from politicians scoring cheap political points at the expense of our community.
In anticipation of having children, we had a commitment ceremony in 2006 here in Delaware County, and invested time and money in manufacturing a legal safety net for our future family. As we began to have children, we moved into a new front of LGBTQ rights: being a family with same-sex parents. We cross-adopted our children, and took to carrying our kids’ birth certificates with both our names on it – the better if we faced a legal emergency.
Today, we have the Windsor and Obergefell decisions that transformed our lives. We married in 2013 in the presence of our children. But we know how tenuous our rights are. As the only openly gay candidate running for Congress from Pennsylvania, you can count on me to see hate for what it is, regardless of how it is framed or at what community it is directed.
I am running for Congress because I want to give my kids a better America that draws strength from diversity.
See also
- United States House of Representatives
- Pennsylvania's 5th Congressional District election, 2018
- Pennsylvania's 5th Congressional District
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Ashley Lunkenheimer 2018 campaign website, "About," accessed April 30, 2018
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedendorsements - ↑ Federal Election Commission, "View Candidates for House of Representatives," accessed April 30, 2018
- ↑ Ashley Lunkenheimer 2018 campaign website, "Issues," accessed May 9, 2018
