Democratic Sen. James Malone tries to see beyond party lines during first year in office

• By Jade Campos / LNP | LancasterOnline

James Malone has a quiet demeanor.

He’s not the type of person one might expect to make waves on the national political scene. But that’s exactly what happened in March when Malone pulled off a shocking win in the ruby red 36th Senate District to become Lancaster County’s first Democratic state senator in more than 130 years.

Malone, the former mayor of East Petersburg, now spends most weeks meeting in person with township supervisors, school board directors and homeowners in the mostly Republican communities across northern Lancaster County, as Democrats strategize about how to hold on to Malone’s seat in the face of a determined Republican effort to reclaim the district in the 2026 midterm elections.

In his daily dealings, Malone tries to take a salt-of-the-earth approach that sets aside party politics. Oftentimes, he said, that means meeting with people in his district to talk about fundamental issues like roads. As a former mayor, talking local issues is easy for him.

“One of the reasons I’m here is specifically because a majority of people felt like they were not being heard,” he said. “I’m trying to do that … to listen to them, to hear what they’re saying and make actionable solutions out of those.”

In early December, Malone balanced himself on an icy, dilapidated bridge on Governor Stable Road in Conoy Township with a couple local officials who for years have wanted to rehabilitate the structure, which is currently open but with weight restrictions.

Should the bridge have to be closed, it would create headaches for local residents forced to take inconvenient alternate routes to get to and from their homes, not to mention fears that the detours could delay emergency responders from delivering urgent assistance.

Malone brought the township officials together with Pennsylvania Department of Transportation Secretary Mike Carroll to help Conoy apply for a state grant to repair the bridge and two others.

To Malone, the bridges are a metaphor for the kinds of connections he wants to build with his constituents. He likes to refer to the work he does as “filling the gap.”

By the end of an hourlong discussion about infrastructure logistics, Conoy officials had come up with a plan for the grant application. S. Jay Williams, one of the township’s Republican supervisors, thanked Malone for his help.

“I think he’s trying to listen to what people have to say, and trying to help them with their needs and work with them where he can,” Williams said.

Controversial start

A Wyoming native, Malone is comfortable even in the most rural, red areas of the 36th District. His usual attire is a pair of jeans and a button-down plaid shirt, but he also wears a blaze orange beanie, like a hunter might wear. He said he spent most of his childhood outdoors, so he can easily find common ground with people who may have voted against him.

Stella Sexton, vice chair of the Lancaster County Democratic Committee and co-chair of Malone’s 2025 special election campaign, said she couldn’t recall any serious negativity being aimed at him in the contest against county Commissioner Josh Parsons.

But Malone got off to a shaky start after officially taking his seat in May. Going against his party, Malone voted in favor of the Save Women’s Sports Act, which would require transgender athletes to compete on sports teams that align with their sex at birth. He was one of five Democrats to support the bill.

Malone announced his plan to vote in favor of the bill weeks before doing so, sparking immediate pushback from local party members and progressive groups. The Elizabethtown Democratic Committee and Lancaster Stands Up took to social media to urge Malone to change his mind.

When asked about that vote recently, Malone said his intent was to represent the majority of his constituents, 52.6% of which are registered Republicans, rather than his own personal views.

“I have had different discussions with people that are disappointed in the action, and I’ve explained to them why I made that choice and continue to move forward,” Malone said. “A good number of them are still willing to work with me. … There are a few that feel that their trust was misused or mishandled. I do feel bad about that, but it’s one of those things that I believe our primary goal is to serve everybody, and to try to move everybody forward.”

“I felt that the alternative, to die on that molehill, would have been more damaging to all of our communities, Republicans, Democrat, rural, urban.”

In April, before the vote on the bill, Malone said he would try to amend it to create separate restrictions for adults and children. When pressed on what happened with that plan, spokesperson Marshall Miller interrupted the interview to move on to a different topic. He declined to answer the question on Malone’s behalf when contacted by phone after the in-person interview.

Collaboration

Democratic state Rep. Nikki Rivera, whose district overlaps with Malone’s, calls the athlete ban “repulsive and exclusionary” but declined to criticize her fellow Democrat, saying she is “only responsible for how I vote.”

Rivera has worked with Malone to write legislation that would require school administrators to report the discovery of any artificially generated sexually explicit images of minors, inspired by a case at Lancaster Country Day School where two male students were charged with creating and sharing hundreds of altered images and videos depicting classmates in sexually explicit situations.

When asked about Malone, Rivera said the district is “fortunate” to have him.

“I have enjoyed working alongside Senator Malone, with whom I agree on many legislative topics,” Rivera said in a statement. “Even as members of the same political party, we can disagree on certain votes and strategies and wholly support each other on others.”

Malone said the issue wasn’t something he intended to pursue when he entered office, but he was motivated to write legislation about it after speaking with the affected families.

GOP Sen. Scott Martin, who represents the southern half of Lancaster County, has also supported legislation that would amend mandatory reporting law to include sexual abuse material created using artificial intelligence. Martin did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

Heading into 2026, Malone wants to continue working on education reform. He said he wants to establish the same testing standards for public, private and homeschool students to establish a baseline all students need to meet. That way, he said, legislators can have meaningful discussions about how and where to invest state funding.

Public funding for education has led to heated debate over school choice — whether parents should be able to enroll their children in private and charter schools with support from taxpayer dollars or school choice vouchers. Asked where he stands on the school choice argument, Malone reiterated the need for standard testing across the board.

“I believe that all of our educators, all of our teachers, deserve a ton of credit for doing the best that they can,” he said. “I believe that we need to take that responsibility and try to get that baseline all the way across the board and then have informed discussions rather than making assumptions.”

Samantha McNally, Manheim Township’s Education Association president, said any schools receiving public dollars should be held accountable so baseline standards for those schools could be beneficial but would require a “big lift” to implement. School choice vouchers, she said, would hurt accountability to taxpayers.

“We have very strong public schools in Lancaster County and have made a lot of progress in the past few years thanks to the legislators, including Sen. Malone,” McNally said. “Vouchers would undo a lot of that progress, because they do drain a lot of funding from public schools. As it stands now, public schools are more accountable to how tax dollars are being used.”

The road to 2026

Democratic leaders are quick to praise Malone for being a hard worker, an attribute they said was essential to his victory in March, even if just by 526 votes.

Sexton recalled him once walking 8 miles in a single day to canvas voters ahead of the special election. She said she knows it will take more miles for Malone to be successful in his reelection campaign, but she’s confident it will happen.

“He was underestimated,” Sexton said. “I think that Sen. Malone is just a guy you should never underestimate because of his work ethic and how much he cares about folks in the district.”

Still, Democrats acknowledge a second win will be an uphill battle in the Republican-majority district. Five Republicans have announced their intent to seek their party’s nomination to challenge Malone next year.

Malone’s campaign team is already at work. Sexton said the team plans to hire a professional campaign manager as opposed to the more grassroots effort Malone led last year.

Jay Costa, a Democrat from Allegheny County who is also his party’s leader in the Senate, said it’s “imperative” for the party to hold onto the 36th District seat as they try to win an outright majority for the first time since 1993, which would require seven seats.

Costa said Malone’s strategy of just getting out and talking to voters works because of who he is — a “humble” and “regular” person.

“I think that resonates with people, and I think it’s sincere,” Costa said. “He has a sincere genuine interest and concern about speaking to people.”