| Jamie Walsh | |
| State House: | Pennsylvania |
| District: | 117th |
| Term Start: | January 6, 2024 |
| Succeeding: | Mike Cabell |
| Successor: | Incumbent |
| Party: | Republican |
James Patrick Walsh[1] (born) is an American politician who is the current representative-elect for the 117th district in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. A Republican, he will assume office in 2025 after defeating incumbent State Representative Mike Cabell in the 2024 primary election.
Walsh was vice president of sales at Comfort Co., a company that supplied wheelchair cushions. After "a short bout with cancer" Walsh left the company and resettled in Northeast Pennsylvania where he had lived as a child.[2] He later started a gutter installation business with his brother.[3]
Walsh was a co-founder and president of Citizens Advisory of Pennsylvania, a parental rights group that fought against mask mandates in school during the COVID-19 pandemic.[4] During the pandemic, Walsh began regularly attending board meetings of the Lake-Lehman School District where his children are enrolled.[5] He advocated that Lake-Lehman end contact tracing after his son was kept home from school because of it.[6] Walsh also labeled contract tracing and mask mandates an "unconstitutional mandate from the Pennsylvania Department of Health."[7] In October 2021, Walsh organized a 250-person “Essential Liberties Rally” held at Lake-Lehman's football stadium to protest the district's mask mandate.[8] [9] The following year, Walsh filed a lawsuit alleging the district violated Pennsylvania's Sunshine Act by failing to justify close door meetings and not making documents available in advance of meetings. Walsh claimed a document not made public by the district included critical race theory in the district's curriculum, although this claim was not included in his suit. The suit was settled in 2024 with the district denying any wrongdoing and paying Walsh's legal fees.[10]
After polling places in Luzerne County ran out of paper ballots during the 2022 election, Walsh criticized the county election board over the matter and was part of a group of citizens who testified before a U.S. Congressional committee about the incident.[11]
In 2024, Walsh resigned from Citizens Advisory to challenge incumbent State Representative Mike Cabell in the Republican primary election to represent the 117th district in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Walsh defeated Cabell in the election, but wasn't officially declared the winner until five months after the primary due to litigation over provisional ballots. The final vote count had Walsh defeating Cabell by four votes. He faced no opposition in the general election.[3]
Walsh opposes no-excuse mail-in voting and ballot drop boxes. He supports voter ID.
Walsh supports limiting representatives to four terms and pledged to serve just as long after his election. He supports a ban on gifts to legislators.
Walsh believes that life begins at conception and opposes abortion, save for incidents where the mother's life is in jeopardy. He supports encouraging victims of rape and incest to place any resulting children up for adoption. Walsh supports legislation ensuring access to in vitro fertilization.
Walsh opposes using property taxes to fund schools and supports eliminating or lowering them via higher sales or income taxes.[3] [12] He also supports school vouchers for private schools. Walsh opposes taxing natural gas drilling.