Mary Gay Scanlon Bio
Mary Gay Scanlon (born August 30, 1959) is an American attorney and Democratic politician serving as the U.S. representative for Pennsylvania’s 5th congressional district since January 2019. A longtime public-interest lawyer, Scanlon has focused her congressional work on education, healthcare access, voting rights, and victims’ rights. She made history in 2018 as part of a wave that ended Pennsylvania’s all-male congressional delegation, and she continues to represent a suburban Philadelphia district anchored in Delaware County.
Before entering Congress, Scanlon built a career in education law and pro bono service, eventually serving as president of the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District board. Her professional background and legal training shaped a legislative agenda centered on civil rights and access to justice. She lives in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, with her husband, Mark Stewart.
Early Life and Background
Mary Gay Scanlon was born in Syracuse, New York, on August 30, 1959. She is the daughter of Daniel Scanlon and Carol Florence Yehle, and she grew up with two sisters, Elizabeth Maura Scanlon and M. Kathleen Scanlon. Her father was an attorney who was appointed a part-time U.S. magistrate in 1971 and later served as a full-time U.S. magistrate beginning in 1993. Her mother worked as an English professor at Jefferson Community College in Watertown, New York.
Her family had a strong legal background. Her maternal grandfather, Leo J. Yehle, was a family-court judge who helped draft New York’s first juvenile justice code in the 1960s. Scanlon earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Colgate University in 1980, followed by a Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1984. After law school, she clerked for Judge J. Sydney Hoffman of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania, an early step that grounded her in courtroom practice.
Scanlon’s upbringing in a family of lawyers and educators informed her later interest in public-interest work. Her Catholic faith and her Irish ancestry, which she traces to Ballybunion in County Kerry, remain part of her personal identity. These early influences helped shape a career devoted to advocacy for children, families, and vulnerable communities.
Path to US Politics
Scanlon’s pivot to public-interest law began in 1985, when she represented a sexually abused 11-year-old girl in a dependency case. The experience convinced her to dedicate her legal career to serving low-income families and underserved populations. In 1994, she received the Fidelity Award, the highest honor for public service from the Philadelphia Bar Association.
She worked as an attorney with the Education Law Center of Philadelphia, where she helped implement special education laws. She later joined Ballard Spahr as pro bono counsel, coordinating free legal services for low-income clients. She partnered with the Wills for Heroes Foundation, which provided free legal documents to first responders, and helped a young woman from Guinea with sickle-cell disease obtain permanent residency.
In 2006, Scanlon was appointed vice chair of the Tax Commission. The following year, she joined the board of the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District, serving as its president from 2009 to 2011 and remaining a member until 2015. Her school-board leadership sharpened her focus on education policy, a theme that would carry into her congressional career.
Mary Gay Scanlon Career
Early Career (2018)
Scanlon launched her campaign for the U.S. House on February 25, 2018, at Swarthmore Rutledge School, entering the race for Pennsylvania’s newly redrawn 5th congressional district. The seat had previously been the 7th, represented by four-term Republican Pat Meehan, who announced he would not seek reelection. Scanlon cited the absence of women in Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation as a motivating factor in her decision to run.
On May 15, 2018, she won a crowded 10-person Democratic primary with 16,831 votes, about 28.4 percent of ballots cast. Her closest competitor was former Assistant U.S. Attorney Ashley Lunkenheimer. After Meehan resigned in April, Scanlon was also named the Democratic nominee in a special election to complete his term in the old 7th district, setting up a dual Election Day contest.
2018 Special Election and 5th District Debut (2018–2019)
On November 6, 2018, Scanlon defeated Republican prosecutor Pearl Kim in both the special election for the 7th district and the regular election for the new 5th district. The margin in the 7th district race was tighter because it took place under the old district lines that had been struck down earlier in the year by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
She was sworn in for the 7th district on November 13, 2018, in a ceremony attended by Hawa Salih, a Sudanese human rights activist Scanlon had helped secure asylum. She transferred to the 5th district on January 3, 2019, with two months more seniority than other House freshmen elected that year. She was one of four Democratic women from Pennsylvania elected to Congress in 2018, alongside Madeleine Dean, Chrissy Houlahan, and Susan Wild.
5th District Era (2020–Present)
On November 3, 2020, Scanlon won a second full term, defeating Republican Dasha Pruett with 64.7 percent of the vote to Pruett’s 35.3 percent. Her strong margin reflected the district’s shift toward Democrats after court-ordered redistricting. As of late 2024, she had sponsored 51 bills and co-sponsored 1,572 bills in Congress, along with 38 sponsored resolutions and 201 co-sponsored resolutions.
In 2023, Scanlon was among 50 Democrats to vote for H.Con.Res. 30, directing the removal of American troops from Somalia. She was also among 56 Democrats to back H.Con.Res. 21, which called on President Joe Biden to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria within 180 days. A member of the Irish-American community in Pennsylvania, she joined the Congressional Friends of Ireland Caucus and traveled to Ireland with President Biden in 2023.
Notable Events and Milestones
Scanlon became only the third Democrat to represent her district and its predecessors since 1939. Her 2018 election helped end a stretch in which Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation had been entirely male. She has also been a vocal advocate for protecting Obergefell v. Hodges and, in 2025, publicly welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear Ermold v. Davis, calling it the best news from the Court in some time.
Mary Gay Scanlon Family
Family Background and Public Service Lineage
Scanlon comes from a family with deep ties to the law. Her father, Daniel Scanlon, served as a U.S. magistrate in New York for more than two decades. Her mother, Carol Florence Yehle, taught English at Jefferson Community College. Her maternal grandfather, Leo J. Yehle, was a family-court judge who co-authored New York’s first juvenile justice code in the 1960s, a legacy that influenced Scanlon’s later focus on children’s rights.
Personal Life
Scanlon lives in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, with her husband, Mark Stewart. The couple has three adult children. She is Roman Catholic and has Irish roots in Ballybunion, County Kerry. On December 22, 2021, she was the victim of a carjacking at gunpoint in South Philadelphia after touring Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park; she was physically unharmed, and the FBI and Delaware State Police later recovered her vehicle and took five suspects into custody.