WHYY · Emily Neil · September 9, 2026
In the 2026 midterm elections , Pennsylvania voters will decide who will serve as governor and lieutenant governor for the next four years. State House and Senate seats are also on the ballot. Here’s everything voters need to know about the race for the 142nd House District seat in Bucks County, from who’s running and what’s at stake to where the candidates stand on key issues and beyond.
What’s at stake in the race for the 142nd House District seat?
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What does a state representative do?
All 203 seats in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives are up for election in November. Democrats hold a three-seat majority in the lower chamber, following a Butler County special election upset in August .
The state House, like the state Senate, is responsible for drafting bills and helping the governor craft a budget. Each member is elected to serve a two-year term.
Bucks County ( part )
Langhorne Borough
Langhorne Manor Borough
Lower Southampton Township
Middletown Township
Northampton Township
Penndel Borough
Following the introduction of a new legislative map , Democrats wrested control of the state House in 2022 for the first time in more than a decade.
Many of Pennsylvania’s legislative races are non-competitive. Therefore, a handful of toss-up races will determine which party will control the chamber.
Democrats hold a 103-100 majority in the state House. Republican incumbent state Rep. Joe Hogan was elected to represent the 142nd district in 2022 after then-state Rep. Frank Farry ran a successful campaign to take the 6th Senatorial District seat that year.
Hogan defeated Democrat Mark Moffa by less than 100 votes in 2022 , and was reelected in 2024 by a wider margin of nearly 10 percentage points over Democrat Anna Payne.
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Hogan, 38, is from Levittown and is a lifelong resident of Lower Bucks County. He now lives in Langhorne, a minutes-drive from where he grew up, with his wife, daughter and their family’s dog. Hogan received his bachelor’s degree from Penn State University and a law degree from Temple University. He began his political career in 2011, working for former U.S. Rep Mike Fitzpatrick, a Republican who represented Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District. Hogan was program director for the Bucks County Redevelopment Authority when he was elected to the state House in 2022. After talking it over with his wife, he decided to run because he realized he “probably had more to lose by not running,” Hogan told WHYY News.
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“My wife and I were relatively newly married,” he said. “We were in a one-bedroom apartment looking for a house. We were talking about starting a family, and there’s a lot of people like that in Bucks County, Southeast … Pennsylvania, across the United States. So, I felt I had a good perspective to offer if I was elected.” Hogan was recently commissioned as a JAG officer in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard.
What has Joe Hogan done as state rep?
Hogan touted “historic funding” for school districts in his district as one of his top accomplishments as a state legislator.
That is “part of the bipartisan agreements,” Hogan said, but also due to his efforts to “get more and more money back for our school districts, lots of other local projects.”
Affordability, he said, has also been one of his focuses as a legislator.
In the fall of 2025, he introduced a bill to address rising utility costs. The legislation would create a new rebate program for senior citizens and people with disabilities, allowing utility costs to be used against the property tax and rent rebate calculation so that more people could qualify for relief.
He is also a prime sponsor of legislation to establish a youth activities tax credit , which would allow parents tax relief equal to the cost of extracurricular activities for their children.
Hogan also introduced a bill to establish the Pennsylvania Physical Health Improvement Tax Credit , which would provide a tax credit of up to $1,000 to each taxpayer to offset gym and health club memberships.
Constituent service is another vital focus, he said. His office handles thousands of cases from residents in the district, including everything from legal inquiries and questions about bills to information about laws and issues with PennDOT.
“That’s a reflection of my approach, that serving the people is the most important thing that we do,” Hogan said. “My team has been very aggressive, working in the community, going above and beyond for everybody that we possibly can, and that means a lot of events as well.”
His office works to educate people about scams and inform the community about what is happening in Harrisburg. They are looking into organizing new events and programs to reach out to specific populations within the community, Hogan said, including maintaining outreach to senior citizens and expanding work with young families and parents.
As a member of the Human Services Committee, Hogan said he wants to explore more ways to easily connect overwhelmed parents with resources and programs for their children.
He also serves as vice chair on the Consumer Protection, Technology & Utilities Committee and the Gaming Oversight Committee, as well as vice chair of the Children and Youth Committee.
To address affordability concerns, Hogan said he would like to reform Pennsylvania’s regulatory framework.
“[It] is just making things more expensive because it means products or services are slower to delivery, because more lawyers are having to review things, or more engineers are having to review things, and … ultimately, that’s all on the end user,” he said.
Some policies haven’t been updated since before the internet was created, Hogan said.
“Harrisburg doesn’t control monetary policy. We don’t control tariffs or anything like that. But what we do have is a Byzantine regulation system in a lot of spaces, especially early childhood education, that’s just making things more expensive for basically everybody, and that’s something that we can fix tomorrow,” he said.
The goal would be to ensure continued protections for people and the environment, but reform the process to make the state “desirable for businesses, desirable for families, so people stay here, so young people stay here,” he said.
Other key issues for residents that Hogan wants to focus on include cost of living concerns, such as utility prices, child care costs and housing affordability.
Hogan said he works across the aisle to build bipartisan consensus in Harrisburg. Dialogue is key, he said, to understanding political differences, and it starts close to home. His wife is a Democrat, Hogan said, and a range of political identities are represented in his neighborhood.
“Every vote that you take as an elected official, there’s probably a good reason to vote for it, and there’s probably a good reason not to vote for it,” Hogan said. “But … at the end of the day, you have to do what you think … is reflective, representative of the district. I am not an executive. I don’t have executive authority. I was not elected to have executive authority. I was elected to be a representative.”
Hogan said that in a district that is often “50/50” Democratic and Republican, that means regularly speaking with residents to gauge community concerns.
“I communicate a lot with my constituents,” he said. “I think it’s important for me to be reflective of that in my voting record because, again, I talk to a wide variety of people, backgrounds, organizations, and interests … I have to be comfortable with my voting record and the people I represent.”
Kristin Egan did not respond to WHYY News’ request for an interview.
According to her campaign website , Egan was born and raised in Bucks County. Her parents worked as a union Amtrak conductor and a math instructional aide and floral designer.
Egan has worked as a public school English teacher for more than 20 years and is currently an elected member of the Neshaminy School District Board of Directors . In that role, she serves on the business operations and policy committees, working with the board, administrators, staff and residents on district policies and needs.
Egan has also served as a union leader and former chief negotiator in the district.
Per her campaign website, she and her husband, Jim, are raising three daughters.
Egan’s priorities, per her campaign website , include strengthening public schools, lowering costs for families, improving public safety and bolstering government accountability.
Her website emphasizes her commitment to preparing students and families for a changing workforce shaped by technology. She wants to support schools, career and technical education opportunities and workforce training.
Egan advocates for local participation and community connection to strengthen civic ties.
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Emily Neil is a WHYY News reporter covering Bucks and Montgomery counties.
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