Race to watch: What voters need to know about Pa. state Rep. K.C. Tomlinson and Democratic challenger Anand Patel

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In the 2022 elections, Democrats gained majority control of the Pennsylvania state House for the first time in more than a decade.

Several house seats flipped that year — and many remain close in this election.  All 203 seats in the House are up for reelection every two years, including the seat for the 18th House district in Bucks County. The 18th district includes Bensalem Township and Hulmeville Borough.

Rep. Kathleen “K.C.” Tomlinson won the 2022 race with a little over 52% of the vote, defeating Democratic opponent Laurie Smith by 1,099 votes.

This year, Tomlinson is facing Democratic challenger Anand Patel. Here’s what you need to know about both candidates.

Republican Kathleen ‘K.C.’ Tomlinson

Tomlinson, 36, is a lifelong Bensalem resident. She won the March 2020 special election to replace Gene DiGirolamo in the House. DiGirolamo represented the 18th House district for more than two decades before stepping down in 2020 to join the Bucks County Board of Commissioners. Tomlinson then won reelection in November 2020 and again in the 2022 election.

Tomlinson’s father, Robert “Tommy” Tomlinson, represented the 18th House district from 1991 to 1994 and went on to represent Bucks County’s 6th district in the state Senate for nearly 30 years. According to former House Parliamentarian Clancy Myer, the Tomlinsons were the first father-daughter duo to serve in the Legislature at the same time.

Politics isn’t the only family business. Tomlinson’s grandfather, J. Maurice Tomlinson, opened Tomlinson Funeral Home in 1946 and it’s been in continuous operation ever since. K.C. Tomlinson began helping at the funeral home after graduating from Bensalem High School. She graduated from the Mercer County Mortuary Program in 2014 and is now a third-generation licensed funeral director.

Tomlinson currently serves on the Consumer Protection, Technology & Utilities committee, as well as the Professional Licensure, Gaming Oversight and Human Services committees.

Tomlinson did not respond to multiple interview requests from WHYY News. Her campaign website touts her role in securing record funding for local public schools through the school funding overhaul legislation. Other key platform issues on her website include lowering costs to fight inflation; funding for local law enforcement and adding more police officers on the streets; strengthening public safety; and lowering property taxes for seniors.

In the past year, Tomlinson has sponsored or co-sponsored legislation in the House related to public safety and crime prevention, requiring price transparency for hospitals, protecting victims of stalking, establishing “looting” as a second-degree felony, holding financial institutions responsible for preventing exploitation of elders and more.

Tomlinson also was a co-sponsor of the Crematory Regulation Act, which establishes regulations for crematories throughout the state.

The Republican representative has positioned herself as a moderate willing to work across the aisle. On abortion, Tomlinson told the Bucks County Courier Times in 2022 that she wants to “protect access to safe and legal abortion in Pennsylvania” and supports the current state law.

“While I respect and value the right to life, we should not abandon current PA law which includes critical protections for the health and safety of both mother and child and protect victims of rape and incest,” she said in the interview.

However, the ACLU-PA and other pro-abortion rights groups criticized a bill Tomlinson voted to pass in 2021. The legislation, which died in the state Senate, would have required hospitals, clinics and physicians to “cremate or inter fetal remains” following a miscarriage or abortion procedure. The ACLU-PA said the bill created “difficult, vague, conflicting, and sometimes impossible, new regulations for clinics to comply with—all of which would ultimately impede women’s access to abortion.”

Tomlinson’s endorsements include the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, the PA Chamber of Business and Industry, the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the Bucks County Fraternal Order of Police and more.

Democrat Anand Patel

Patel, 47, is a small business owner. He was elected to the Bensalem Township School District school board in 2015. He served until 2019, when he said he wanted to step back to focus on being a father to his son, who is now in middle school.

Patel said his experience as a school board member allowed him to experience “what running a school district was about.” He said he worked across the aisle with Republican board members to accomplish goals which included hiring a school resource officer to improve school safety and approving a new contract to increase teachers’ pay.

When party leaders approached him about running for the state House district, Patel said he “felt that same spark I felt in 2015” and decided to jump back into public service and run for the open seat.

Patel and his family moved from India to the U.S. when he was 2 years old. His parents owned a hotel, and Patel himself became a small business owner when he managed and then purchased a GNC nutrition store.

Patel said Bensalem was “a fabulous community” to grow up in as an immigrant, and the area has become increasingly diverse in recent years.

But, Patel noted that local politics has been controlled by the same families for decades, including the Tomlinsons and the DiGirolamos. The Democrat touted his perspective as an outsider in local politics who could offer a fresh perspective.

“What’s going on is that the people who are in power here, you know, on the Republican slate, the families that are like Tomlinsons, or DiGirolamos, I mean, if you don’t have it good with them, or you haven’t done something for them … it’s pretty hard to do things here,” Patel said. “It’s just a struggle for everybody. So I just bring a new perspective that the Republican voters should appreciate. I’m just that Democrat with the mindset of an entrepreneur.”

If elected, Patel said his priorities include fighting for fair school funding, cutting costs for working families, expanding the child tax credit, protecting union jobs, repairing infrastructure and more. He also supports protecting abortion rights in the state Legislature.

“These are things I want to delve into once I get into office and everybody in the community will be able to talk to me,” he said. “I want to be that voice and that person that they can rely on.”

Patel said he’s also eager to address a key priority among voters he’s spoken with over the past several months: high property taxes that fund local schools.

“I would definitely make it a priority myself to work with my fellow legislators, and especially for this community here, to lower those taxes and … this would be from bringing money into the districts,” he said.

Patel has been endorsed by the Sierra Club, Reproductive Freedom for All, Clean Water Action, Keystone Equality, Bucks County Democratic Committee, Bensalem Democratic Org, Planned Parenthood and more.