The fight for Pennsylvania’s District 44 State House seat is on, and a winner will be chosen by voters Nov. 5.

Republican Rep. Valerie Gaydos — who has served as the district’s House representative in Harrisburg since 2018 — is facing Democratic challenger Hadley Haas in a race Democrats hope to win, helping to shore up their majority in the Legislature’s lower chamber.

House District 44 has been represented by a Republican since 1997. It comprises a number of Pittsburgh’s western suburbs, including Sewickley and surrounding communities Moon Township, North Fayette Township and others.

Haas and Gaydos are both natives of the 44th, and both candidates feel strongly about serving their communities and showing up for their neighbors while in Harrisburg.

Two ‘boomerangs’

Haas was born in Moon Township, and her father worked locally in the steel industry. Her family relocated to Michigan when she was 7, and she said that move affected her greatly.

“Now that my kids are 18 and 20, I really want this to be a region where they can come back and settle and raise their family and be around the people who love them the most,” Haas said.

She met her husband while living in Chicago, and they chose to return to the Pittsburgh area to raise their two sons.

“We thoughtfully chose the Quaker Valley community, Glen Osborne, near Sewickley. Our sons were both born deaf, and we wanted them to live in a community with a good school district, and that has been one of the best decisions we’ve made,” Haas said.

She was an extensive volunteer, both in the school district and with Pittsburgh’s deaf community.

“There were a lot of difficult decisions. It was very weighty, and I would look around those waiting rooms in those early days and think, ‘If this is this hard for us and our family with the access and privilege that we have, what is it like for the single moms who can’t drop everything and take their kid to audiology appointments or speech therapy appointments or take time off after surgeries?’ That really started a lot of my advocacy work.”

She helped to form the Friends of the Hearing Center at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and remains chair of its board.

Gaydos also has family history in District 44.

“I grew up in the district. My whole family has been here for a long time. My dad was a local dentist. My uncle was a local physician who delivered a lot of babies at Sewickley Hospital. My other uncle taught at Robert Morris College. So, I mean, I’ve grown up, I’ve lived in this community, I’ve done business in this community.”

She went on to become a small-business owner and angel investor. She founded a number of companies, including Capital Growth Inc. in 1994 as “a venture capital data and information publishing company,” according to the company’s website. She also founded the Angel Venture Forum, a cooperative of angel investors who mentor and invest in startup companies.

“I ran my own business, I had a startup company, I had a career. I traveled all throughout the United States doing a lot of things in the ’90s, and like most Pittsburghers, I did a boomerang and came back to take care of my mom, who had Parkinson’s.”

Gaydos lost her husband to lung cancer in 2002.

“I was very fortunate to have run my own business, so I had a little bit of flexibility. One of the reasons that I ran for office was that I said, ‘Wow, all of the time I’m taking care of a loved one, how does someone, particularly with an hourly wage or who doesn’t have flexible hours, manage taking care of a loved one?’ Things have got to change, and what I’ve always said is that life is full of challenges and burdens, and government should not be one of them.”

During her three terms in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Gaydos says she has kept her constituents at the forefront of her mind. “I think I have my finger on the pulse of all generations, really, and I think that’s what makes me unique, is that I’ve never been captive to one political party or another. Yes, I’m a Republican, but I represent the people of the district, and I think right now, a majority of the people don’t feel that either party represents them.”

“The real special thing is recognizing our leaders in the community for what they do. I remember when I was a kid, you get a letter from your state representative, it’s like being recognized. Boy Scouts, Eagle Scouts, really special people that are going to be our future leaders,” she said.

Talking jobs

When it comes to attracting high-quality jobs to District 44, Gaydos harkened back to her own experience as a caretaker. She supports the family medical leave tax credit to assist businesses that provide paid leave — something she said was a priority when she ran her own business.

“A lot of times, the laws always go towards punishing people for not doing something. How about rewarding people for doing something?” she said.

She also sponsored a bill that she said will help small businesses better afford insurance for their employees by banding together to create association health plans. “I just believe that we have to have jobs, but who provides jobs? That is the private sector.”

Other job-creating initiatives that Gaydos supports include expanding booming trade schools and training and keeping taxes low. “How you keep taxes low is you build businesses so they can pay more taxes. For me, that’s how you do job growth — you have economic opportunities for everybody.”

Haas applauds the economic work she’s seeing on the state level. “I really admire the way Gov. Shapiro has approached this issue, bringing everyone to the table and looking for ways to attract businesses to the region, making sure that we’re streamlining the permitting process, making sure that we have building-­ready sites to attract business and really promoting the quality of our labor force here in the region.”

She believes that looking at some of her key endorsements demonstrates her economic versatility.

“I’m really proud to say that I’m the labor candidate and the environmental candidate in this race. I have support from the AFL-CIO, from most of the building trades, as well as environmental groups like Sierra Club and Conservation Voters (of Pennsylvania).”

She also sees a bright future in the trades.

“We need to make sure that we’re supporting the apprenticeship programs that are world-class here in the region and specifically House District 44, and making sure that we’re highlighting that and using that as a key reason for businesses to come to this region.”

Taking on the national abortion debate

Haas said she has seen the effects of the 2022 overturn of Roe v. Wade while she’s knocked on thousands of doors for this campaign.

“I’ve stood on doorsteps and watched mothers look over at their young daughters with fear and anger in their eyes and concern that their daughters won’t have the same options that they will. … Also, there are older women who were in this fight since the beginning and can’t believe that we might have to go backward.”

“We need to do things within the legislature to make sure that that’s not in jeopardy. If it’s supporting a Constitutional amendment to make sure that abortion is kept safe and legal, that’s definitely something that I would support,” she said.

She added, “I think what we’ve seen since Roe has fallen has been the real unintended consequences of losing access to abortion. I think people understand that there’s just too much at risk here.”

How would Rep. Gaydos legislate on this issue? She wouldn’t.

“My sister is a family practice doctor. She’s in Texas. I would never allow what happened in Texas to happen in Pennslyvania. When Texas passed its abortion ban, it was sloppily written and it leaves room for interpretation. To me, rushing legislation on stuff like that is ridiculous.”

She cited a Wall Street Journal op-ed that claimed Democrats are running on “abortion distortion” and portraying Republican candidates as anti-choice extremists who want abortion bans with no exceptions for rape or incest when she says that isn’t true. “Ever since I got elected — it’s been on my website since 2018 — I 100 percent support all of the exceptions, and in fact I might be a little more broad.”

She also wants the legislature to examine other aspects of these issues, including an overhaul of the foster care system that would support individuals after they turn 18 and improved prenatal healthcare. Her final word on the matter? “In terms of where I stand … my sister’s a family practice doctor, she doesn’t draft legislation and I don’t practice medicine.”

Bringing guns to the forefront

“What really brought me to politics is my work in gun violence prevention. When Sandy Hook happened, my son Bennett was the same age as those kids. … At the end of the day, I was acutely aware that I got to go over and bring them home and hug them, and those parents never had the opportunity to see their babies again,” Haas said.

Guns have been a banner issue for her campaign. She has served as local elections chair and Pittsburgh chapter co-lead for Moms Demand Action, a grassroots organization that works to reduce gun violence through legislation. She supports common-sense gun laws and gun safety regulations.

Gaydos believes that legislation on this issue needs to be more targeted and well-written. “First of all, I think we need to be running clean bills. I don’t think people have a problem with making sure that gun owners go through background checks.”

She said that recent bills from gun safety advocacy groups have been unclear in their language and wouldn’t have the effects that they advertised. She also said that enforcement of current laws is key.

“Putting new laws is not going to address the problem. particularly any of these bills that were proposed would not have stopped any of the gun crimes. … What purpose is making more laws if we’re not going to enforce the laws we currently have?”

Stepping over the party line

Gaydos said that she boasts a robust record of bipartisanship during her three terms in the State House. She touts several bills that she has co-sponsored with Democrats, including legislation to restore dental benefits through Medicaid and to improve oversight of pharmacy benefit managers.

“We do work across the aisle. I don’t really care what the issue is, and I’ve actually said this flat-out multiple times. When I was first elected, I basically said party affiliation should never matter, it never mattered for me in business and it shouldn’t matter in politics.”

Haas wants to see more bipartisanship in politics, and also in the rhetoric of political races, including this one. “It’s one of my frustrations in politics right now, is that it’s so divisive.”

“I have a history of collaborating with people. I really feel that this is about sitting down and working across the aisle and working on the best, most effective ways to get things done for the people of the district. I don’t think we can do this in a partisan vacuum,” she said.

Looking down the road

A variety of issues will affect District 44 in the coming House term, both of the candidates agreed.

Haas said that different parts of the district have different needs. “A student brought a gun into Moon High School and that shifted the conversation for the folks in that part of my district. There is a proposed fracking development within a mile of housing plans and a school in North Fayette … so I have been showing up and listening to what their concerns are and how I can help in the future with that.”

She is especially proud of District 44’s public schools and wants to make sure that they are kept in great shape for students like her sons.

“Making sure that we’re funding public schools equitably and not diverting any funding from our public schools to unaccountable charter schools I think is something that’s going to continue to be critical for people in this district,” Haas said. “I know I hear about inflation and cost of goods and I want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to help the middle class be able to pay their bills and make ends meet, and that we’re being good stewards of their tax dollars.”

Gaydos has a number of pressing concerns, and many of them go back to tax dollars. She was alarmed by Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato’s proposed 46.5% property tax hike. She attributes the possible increase to a lack of discipline in spending. “You got to keep spending in check first before you just start taxing people. That’s where I find that Innamorato’s tax increase is incredibly irresponsible.”

She said that in order for taxes to sink lower, spending has to be brought under control. “I actually have a bill to address improper payments through all of our state agencies. That can be underpayments, that can be overpayments. It’s just super sloppy and they all should be audited.”

“While the Democrats and Republicans are fighting over issues that might be social issues, these are the real problems that are driving up taxes. I personally do not believe that you need to cut programs that are valuable in order to lower taxes. You just need to be more efficient and more accountable and make government more accountable to the people,” she said.