A Swissvale attorney and law professor who unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle in the 2020 Democratic primary will run for the seat again in 2022 when Doyle’s term expires.
Jerry Dickinson, 34, announced his candidacy for the seat Doyle has held since 1995.
A constitutional law professor at the University of Pittsburgh, Dickinson received more than 30% of the vote in the 2020 Democratic primary against Doyle.
“The people of Pennsylvania’s 18th deserve someone who will put the full weight of the federal government behind policy efforts that address decades worth of failed policies and practices. Pennsylvania’s 18th is a solidly blue district — there’s no reason we can’t be leading this fight,” Dickinson said in his announcement.
Matt Dinkel, Doyle’s spokesman, confirmed Wednesday that Doyle will also be running in the 2022 primary.
Doyle is the longest-serving congressman in the Pennsylvania delegation.
When he beat Dickinson last year, Doyle said his priorities were police reform and providing financial aid for people out of work and small businesses that have closed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Our collective moral imperative is to end Pittsburgh’s segregated past and present, rectify our severe racial disparities, and become a world-class city of racial equality. Our future success depends on a moral vision that residents feel they can identify with and attach themselves to,” Dickinson said.
The Pittsburgh area faces “some of the nation’s starkest racial disparities,” Dickinson said, and the pandemic has made those disparities worse.
“We have one of the highest rates of occupational segregation between white and Black communities in America. One-third of Black women live in poverty in the city. Black adult mortality rates are higher in Pittsburgh than in almost every other similarly situated city,” Dickinson said.
The 18th Congressional District includes Pittsburgh and neighboring suburbs to the south and east.
