A Beaver County attorney is facing off against longtime incumbent Elder Vogel Jr. to represent the 47th district in the state Senate.

Democrat Kate Lennen, of Economy, is challenging Vogel, a Republican seeking his fifth term in office.

A widowed mother of four adult children, Lennen said she practiced family law for many years before changing to general practice. She said she went on leave from work before the primary to focus on her campaign.

She said she believes education funding, railroad safety and reproductive freedom are the top issues in the election.

The state should contribute more money to education and provide real estate tax relief for senior citizens, she said.

State funding for K-12 education has declined over the last 20 years forcing school districts to ask property owners to pay more in taxes to make up the difference, Lennen said.

Equitable, need-based funding should replace the current funding system that benefits some districts, but doesn’t do enough to help districts that don’t have strong property tax bases, she said.

“Funding for education and how we go forward on that really does need to be revisited,” Lennen said. “The quality of education you receive in Pennsylvania should not depend on where you live.”

She said she does not support school vouchers because they result in less funding for “brick and mortar schools.”

The 47th district is near East Palestine, Ohio where a February 2023 train derailment resulted in the decision to burn the chemicals contained in several derailed cars, which created a cloud of potentially toxic material over the area.

Lennen said railroad operators must be required to inform first responders, emergency medical service providers and elected officials about toxic and dangerous cargo on their trains.

“First responders need to know what’s on those trains to protect the community and themselves. That’s good government regulation. It’s protecting people in the community,” Lennen said.

She said railroads should offer local first responders training to deal with any hazardous materials they transport.

Like the East Palestine area, the 47th district has a lot of railroad tracks, she said.

Reproductive freedom, Lennen said, is at or near the top of the reasons she is running for office. She said she has two daughters in their childbearing years.

“I don’t want my daughters to bleed to death because we outlawed a D & E (dilation and evacuation) procedure,” Lennen said.

She said Vogel supported Senate Bill 3 in 2017 that would have banned dilation and evacuation. The bill did not pass.

Those kinds of restrictions treat women like they are not capable of making their own medical decisions, she said. Politicians aren’t doctors and their efforts to override the advice and opinions of doctors are “unconscionable,” she said.

Restrictions and bans on abortion have been adopted in some states since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which nationalized abortion rights. Abortion rights remain in force in Pennsylvania, and Lennen said Planned Parenthood supports her campaign.

“I’m going to step up to the plate for women and make sure the government doesn’t interfere, and that they get all the access to treatment and medication they need,” Lennen said.

Inflation and the cost of living are the issues he said he hears about the most. He said many people are living paycheck-to-paycheck, do not have food security and never recovered financially from the COVID-19 pandemic. The cost of gasoline and groceries are rising, he added.

Vogel said the state can’t control inflation, the cost of living or the cost of gas and groceries. He said businesses regularly tell him that they have difficulty finding qualified employees, but that is another issue that is difficult to address at the state level.

Difficulty in finding employees has been a problem in all industries since the pandemic, and he and his colleagues find the situation baffling, he said.

Health care and immigration also are issues that are important to constituents, Vogel said

He said health care plan costs and Medicare prices are rising annually, but solutions are elusive.

“The issue is driven by the fact that there are not enough nurses. Hospitals need higher wages to attract nurses, but those costs get passed along (to consumers),” Vogel said.

Vogel, chairman of the Agriculture and Rural Affairs committee, is a fourth-generation farmer who grows hay, corn and soybeans with his wife on their farm in Beaver County. He has served in the state Senate for 16 years after serving as a supervisor is New Sewickley Township in Beaver County for 11 years.

He said he serves on a number of Senate committee that give him experience and knowledge of a variety of issues. His other committee assignments include service as vice chairman of the Appropriations Committee and a member of the Banking and Insurance, Environmental Resources and Energy, and Transportation committees.

“I like working for the people and helping people the best I can. I enjoy that very much,” Vogel said. “I’ve done a good job of that over the years.”

He said a telemedicine bill he worked on for 10 years was signed into law in July. The bill outlines who can provide telemedicine services and requires insurance companies to cover the costs.

Vogel said he wants to return to Harrisburg to complete work on pending legislation including a bill that would extend the state’s standards for horse racing while proposed federal legislation is adopted.

He said he also hopes a milk pricing over-order bill he introduced comes to the floor for a vote.

Senate Bill 1297, which he introduced in July, is aimed at reforming the milk over-order premium system.

The bill would benefit dairy farmers by allowing the Pennsylvania Milk Marketing Board to collect the over-order premium on Class 1 fluid milk in the state — currently set at $1 per hundred pounds of milk — and distribute it to farmers.