Bridget Kosierowski, PA House Rep for the 114th District

Bridget Kosierowski is the Democratic state representative for Pennsylvania’s 114th House District, a suburban Lackawanna County seat she has held since winning a March 2019 special election. A registered nurse of more than 25 years before entering politics, she was the first Democratic woman from Lackawanna County to serve in the General Assembly in over 55 years.¹ She is running for re-election in November 2026 against Republican Logan Lombardo.²

Background Before Politics

Kosierowski was born and raised in Clarks Summit, a Scranton suburb, one of six siblings.¹ She graduated from Scranton Preparatory School and Villanova University and lives in Waverly Township, in the neighborhood where she grew up, with her husband Joe and their four children.³

She spent more than 25 years as a surgical nurse before running for office.¹ Her son was diagnosed with leukemia as a toddler and survived, an experience she has often connected to her focus on health care policy.³

How She Won the Seat

The 114th seat opened in October 2018 when Democratic Rep. Sid Michaels Kavulich, who had served since 2011, died at age 62 from complications of open heart surgery.⁴ Kosierowski emerged from a Democratic field that included Wendy Jones, Leonard Longo, and Rabbi Daniel Swartz, and defeated Republican Frank Scavo III in the March 2019 special election with more than 63% of the vote. She was sworn in that April.¹

What the 114th District Covers

The 114th sits in Lackawanna County, anchored in the Abingtons north of Scranton, and serves more than 20,000 residents.¹ It takes in Benton Township, Clarks Green, Clarks Summit, Dickson City, Greenfield Township, North Abington Township, Scott Township, parts of the City of Scranton, South Abington Township, and Waverly Township.⁵

Committee Assignments

For the 2025–2026 session, Kosierowski serves as vice chair of the House Professional Licensure Committee and as secretary of both the Aging & Older Adult Services Committee and the Health Committee. She also sits on the Appropriations, Insurance, and Rules committees.⁶

Health Care Legislation

Most of Kosierowski’s higher-profile bills involve hospitals, nurses, patients, and insurance. Several have cleared the House in the 2025–2026 session.

Medical Debt Relief

Kosierowski is one of seven co-prime sponsors of House Bill 79, which passed the House 186–16 on May 13, 2025.⁷ The bill would create a Medical Debt Relief Program within the Department of Health to contract with a coordinator that purchases and discharges medical debt from providers and collection agencies. Eligible residents would have household incomes at or below 400% of the federal poverty guidelines or medical debt equal to at least 5% of household income, and discharged debt would not count as taxable income.⁸ It also requires hospitals to use standardized, plain-language financial aid forms and to pause billing while an aid application is pending.⁹ Governor Josh Shapiro’s office reported total medical debt in Pennsylvania exceeded $1.8 billion in 2023, affecting 13% of residents.

Health Care Workplace Violence

House Bill 926, the Health Care Workplace Violence Prevention Act, co-sponsored with Rep. Leanne Krueger, passed the House 124–79 on May 6, 2025, and was referred to the Senate Labor & Industry Committee later that month. As of mid-2026 it has not advanced further.¹⁰ Supporters cited Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals data showing reported workplace violence incidents among members rose from 50% in 2021 to 66% in 2024.¹¹

Nursing Shortage

Kosierowski is the prime sponsor of House Bill 1676, the Nursing Shortage Assistance Program, which the House Labor & Industry Committee approved on July 1, 2025. Housed in the Department of Labor and Industry, the program would provide grants to qualified nursing employers, help nursing students secure post-graduation jobs, and repay student loans from Pennsylvania nursing programs. Citing the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, Kosierowski said an average of 14% of nursing positions in the state are unfilled and projected a shortage of 20,000 nurses by 2026. The bill is tied to a $5 million investment in Shapiro’s 2025–26 budget and builds on a pilot operating at Temple Health, Geisinger, Guthrie, and WellSpan.¹²

Elijah’s Law

Kosierowski is co-prime sponsor with Rep. Kristin Marcell of House Bill 928, known as Elijah’s Law, which mandates training, emergency action planning, and epinephrine availability for childcare workers managing food allergies. The bill is named after Elijah Silvera, a 3-year-old who died after an allergic reaction at his daycare.¹³ The House Children and Youth Committee unanimously approved it on June 4, 2025, and the full House passed it 197–6 on June 24, 2025, sending it to the Senate.¹⁴

Artificial Intelligence in Health Care

On October 6, 2025, Kosierowski joined a bipartisan group led by Rep. Arvind Venkat in introducing House Bill 1925, which regulates AI used in patient care, billing, research, claims management, utilization reviews, and cost-effectiveness assessments.¹⁵ The bill would require insurers, hospitals, and clinicians to disclose AI use, mandate that a human make the final decision in every case where AI is used, and require covered entities to attest that prohibited bias and discrimination have been minimized.¹⁶ The House Communications & Technology Committee reported the bill as amended on a 19–7 vote on May 5, 2026, and it was laid on the table following first consideration the same day.

Other Health Bills

Kosierowski’s earlier record includes a prescription drug pricing study (HB 941) enacted as Act 120 of 2020, a universal maternal home visiting program (HB 227), insurance coverage for HIV preexposure and postexposure medications (HB 617 and HB 618), and hospital patient protections under the Health Care Facilities Act (HB 106).¹⁷ She also helped pass House legislation on medical test results in April 2025 and pharmacist-administered vaccine access in October 2025.¹⁸

Commonwealth Health Hospital Sale

Kosierowski played a visible role in the 2025–2026 sale of three Northeast Pennsylvania hospitals owned by Tennessee-based Community Health Systems: Regional Hospital of Scranton, Moses Taylor Hospital, and Wilkes-Barre General Hospital. The Scranton facilities had been financially unstable for years, and a 2024 attempt to sell them to WoodBridge Healthcare for $120 million had collapsed.¹⁹

She publicly identified Geisinger and The Wright Center as suitors in June 2025 and said in September she was optimistic a deal with the nonprofit Tenor Health Foundation could close.²⁰ Tenor filed its acquisition application on November 6, 2025, and the Pennsylvania Department of Health approved it on January 28, 2026.¹⁹ The deal closed February 2, 2026, with CHS receiving $33 million in cash and a $15 million promissory note. Tenor CEO Radha Savitala credited U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan and Kosierowski for their support of the transaction and said Kosierowski was “instrumental in getting the approval completed for her communities.”²¹

Funding Brought Back to the District

The largest recent announcement from her office is a $16.92 million low-interest loan from the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority (Pennvest) to Pennsylvania American Water for rehabilitation of the Griffin Dam, announced April 15, 2026.²² The 110-acre facility in South Abington and Scott townships was categorized as “unsafe” by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection in 2010 because of an undersized spillway, seepage, and misalignment issues.²³ Loan terms run at 1% for the first five years and 1.743% for the rest of the 20-year period, with construction scheduled from September 2026 to August 2029.²⁴

Other recent funding her office has announced includes:

April 2025: $1.93 million for the Main Street Matters program, secured with Rep. Kyle Donahue.¹⁸
June 2025: $413,000 for a local anti-poverty nonprofit.²⁵
December 2025: More than $1.5 million for programs serving women and children, more than $1.3 million for community improvement, $1.7 million for community improvement and museum funding, and nearly $1.4 million in Scranton infrastructure investment.²⁵
January 2026: More than $2.7 million in state infrastructure funds.²⁵

Election History and the 2026 Race

Kosierowski has not faced a close race since her first special election. She won her first full term in 2020 by defeating James May, beat David Burgerhoff with nearly 63% of the vote in 2022, and had no Republican opponent in 2024.⁵ She has been unopposed or effectively so in her Democratic primaries, taking 100% of the vote in 2020, 2022, and 2026 and 99.4% in 2024.²

In the May 19, 2026 primary, Kosierowski received 7,044 Democratic votes. Republican Logan Lombardo, a Clarks Summit technician who lost a borough council race in 2025, won the GOP nomination with 65.25% (1,673 votes) over David Burgerhoff (860 votes), setting up the November 3, 2026 general election. Pennsylvania House terms run two years and pay an annual salary of $113,591.⁵

Campaign Finance

Through May 4, 2026, Kosierowski’s campaign reported $132,413 in total contributions and $144,010 in total expenditures. Top donors during that period included the Pennsylvania Automotive Association PAC ($6,000), Elizabeth Karam ($5,500), Louis and Dominick DeNaples ($5,000), Robert and Kim Mericle ($5,000), and the Greater Pennsylvania Carpenters PAC and Steamfitters Local 524 ($3,700 each).²⁶ State filings for the Friends of Kosierowski committee show consistent six-figure fundraising since 2019, peaking at $714,013 raised and $552,662 spent during the 2020 cycle. Her 2025 totals were $121,910.65 raised and $114,631.78 spent.²⁷

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Penn State Scranton. Bridget Malloy Kosierowski
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MultiState. Pennsylvania House District 114
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Pennsylvania House Democratic Caucus. Biography – Rep. Bridget Kosierowski
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PoliticsPA. HD-114: Frank Scavo Becomes Third GOP Candidate to Enter the Race
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The Times-Tribune. Lombardo Wins GOP Primary Nod to Challenge Incumbent Democrat Kosierowski
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Pennsylvania General Assembly. Rep. Bridget Kosierowski
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The Center Square. Pennsylvania House Passes Medical Debt Bill
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BillTrack50. Pennsylvania HB79
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Pennsylvania House Democratic Caucus. House Passes Bipartisan Medical Debt Bill
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Pennsylvania General Assembly. House Bill 926, Regular Session 2025-2026
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Pennsylvania House Democratic Caucus. Health Care Workplace Violence Prevention Act
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Pennsylvania House Democratic Caucus. Kosierowski Bill to Address Nursing Shortage Advances
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Pennsylvania House Democratic Caucus. Elijah’s Law – Food Allergy Safety in Daycare
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Pennsylvania House Democratic Caucus. House Passes Elijah’s Law
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Pennsylvania General Assembly. House Bill 1925, Regular Session 2025-2026
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Pennsylvania House Democratic Caucus. Bipartisan AI in Health Care Legislation Introduced
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LegiScan. Bridget Kosierowski Legislative Record
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Pennsylvania House Democratic Caucus. Rep. Kosierowski News Releases
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WVIA. PA Health Department OKs Tenor Health Acquisition
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WVIA. Bridget Kosierowski Coverage
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The Times-Tribune. Done Deal: Tenor Completes Commonwealth Health Acquisition
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Pennsylvania House Democratic Caucus. Kosierowski Announces Griffin Dam Funding
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The Times-Tribune. Griffin Pond Dam Gets Funding for Upgrades
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PR Newswire. Pennsylvania American Water Receives Pennvest Funding
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Pennsylvania House Democratic Caucus. Rep. Kosierowski In The News
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TransparencyUSA. Bridget Malloy Kosierowski Campaign Finance
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Pennsylvania Department of State. Friends of Bridget Kosierowski Annual Totals