Democratic state Reps. Bullock, Kinsey resign from PA House

Two Democrats in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives resigned from office on Tuesday, setting up special elections in mid-September to fill the vacant seats.

A spokesperson for House Democrats said Tuesday that state Reps. Donna Bullock and Stephen Kinsey, who represented the 195th and 201st Legislative Districts, respectively, both resigned this week for unrelated reasons. 

Bullock, who in June was appointed the new CEO of Project HOME, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization dedicated to providing aid to people experiencing homelessness, resigned on Monday.

Kinsey announced in January that he would be retiring from the General Assembly at the end of the 2023-24 legislative session, calling his time in the chamber “the honor of my life.” However, despite the original plans to retire at the end of his term in November, Kinsey’s resignation took effect on Tuesday. No reason was provided for the change in departure date. 

House Speaker Joanna McClinton signed two writs of election scheduling the special elections for both seats on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. 

During their time in Harrisburg, both Kinsey and Bullock served stints as chair of the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus. 

Democrats have held a 102-101 advantage in the state House since flipping the chamber in the November 2022 general election. At times, the slim margin deciding control of the state House has led to division and gridlock, including in early 2023 when the chamber was at an impasse over both its operating rules and how to move forward on a proposed amendment to the state constitution. The gridlock prompted then-House Speaker Mark Rozzi to embark on a statewide listening tour to hear from Pennsylvanian’s about how to solve the legislative impasse.

The two resignations are the latest in a series of departures in the General Assembly over the last two years. In addition to Bullock and Kinsey, the following House lawmakers have resigned during the most recent two-year term:

• GOP state Rep. Joe Adams resigned from the 139th House District on Feb. 9, 2024
• Democratic state Rep. John Galloway resigned from the 140th House District  on Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023
• Democratic state Rep. Sara Innamorato resigned from the 21st House District on Wednesday, July 19, 2023
• Democratic state Rep. Mike Zabel resigned from the 163rd House District on March 8, 2023
• GOP State Rep. Lynda Schlegel Culver resigned from her 108th House District seat on Feb. 28, 2023. 

At times, resignations among Democrats have brought the partisan makeup of the state House to a 101-101 tie. Innamorato’s 2023 resignation, for example, left the House deadlocked at 101 for a period of two months during a year in which the state dealt with an extended budget impasse.

Due to a provision in the state House operating rules, Democrats will retain control of the chamber, since the rules define the “majority party” as “the political party that won the greater number of elections for the 203 seats in the House of Representatives in the general election preceding the term of service that began on the first day of December next after the general election.”