Mark Pinsley is running against Republican incumbent Jarrett Coleman in Pennsylvania Senate District 16. The general election is November 3, 2026. The two are running nearly even, in a race seen as critical to control of the Pennsylvania Senate. (The Morning Call, October 5, 2026)
Pinsley won the Democratic primary on May 19, 2026, defeating Bradley Merkl-Gump 14,468 to 11,324, about 56% of the vote, in official results from both counties. In the Lehigh County part of the district, he won 11,475 to 4,253, nearly 73%, and carried every precinct. (Lehigh County official results · Bucks County official results · LehighValleyNews.com)
He has been Lehigh County Controller since 2020. Voters re-elected him in 2023 with 39,858 votes, 54%, more than any county commissioner received. (Lehigh County official results) He served two years as a South Whitehall Township Commissioner and six years in the U.S. Army Reserve.
This is a rematch: the two ran against each other in 2022, and Coleman won.
The district
District 16 covers about 265,000 people in parts of two counties, based on the 2020 Census. (Pennsylvania’s 16th Senate district)
- Lehigh County: Allentown’s 13th and 18th wards; Lower Macungie, Upper Macungie, North Whitehall, part of South Whitehall, Upper Saucon, Upper Milford, Lower Milford, Heidelberg, Lowhill, Lynn, Washington and Weisenberg townships; and Macungie, Alburtis, Coopersburg and Slatington.
- Bucks County: Quakertown, Perkasie, Sellersville, Richlandtown, Trumbauersville, Dublin, Silverdale, Riegelsville and part of Telford; and Bedminster, Bridgeton, Durham, East Rockhill, West Rockhill, Haycock, Hilltown, Milford, Nockamixon, Richland, Springfield and Tinicum townships.
Republicans hold about an 11-point edge over Democrats in voter registration in the district. (LehighValleyNews, May 2026)
Mark Pinsley
Pinsley is the county’s auditor. Some of what his office has found:
- Health care. The county’s health plan was paying hospitals more than their own cash prices. His 2022 audit identified about $4 million a year in potential savings, and two more providers estimated $2.9 million to $3.4 million a year in 2025. The county hasn’t acted, and a follow-up found ten of his fifteen recommendations not implemented. (Report 22-16 · Report 25-24)
- Prescription drugs. He pushed the county to rebid its prescription contract. In its first year, the county saved $3 million, according to the County Executive, and the cost per person on the plan fell 25%. (WFMZ, October 2022 · Report 21-02 · Report 24-25)
- Unpaid rent. In January 2026 his office found that Homeland Security Investigations, part of ICE, had used county office space for 38 months without paying — $115,425.51. The county issued a notice to vacate, and the rent was paid. (Lehigh Daily)
- Wrongful child abuse findings. His 2023 report found inaccurate child abuse allegations by a physician at Lehigh Valley Health Network. Nearly all of the families have their children back. It became the first episode of The Preventionist, from Serial and The New York Times. (Report NAS 23-01)
His platform focuses on the cost of living:
- Raise the minimum wage to $22 an hour.
- End the state tax on overtime, and end noncompete agreements that keep workers from leaving for better-paying jobs.
- Shift most school funding to the state, so it stops landing on homeowners’ property taxes.
- Cap property taxes based on income, so no one loses a home because taxes rose faster than their pay.
- Make it easier to build starter homes, smaller homes and duplexes.
- Free school lunch for every child, the same way breakfast already is.
- Protect Medicaid from federal cuts, fund the state program that lowers insurance premiums, cap out-of-pocket costs for drugs like insulin, and cut out the middlemen who drive up drug prices.
- Make utilities prove rate increases with hard numbers, and strengthen the state’s Office of Consumer Advocate to fight for families in every rate case.
- Put a statewide moratorium on new data centers, hyperscale ones included, until there are real rules.
- Raise clean energy standards and build renewables, battery storage and grid upgrades with apprenticeship-trained trades workers.
- Write reproductive freedom into state law and the constitution, protect contraception, and expand IVF.
- Limit campaign contributions and end gifts to lawmakers.
More: Who is Mark Pinsley and why is he running?
Jarrett Coleman
Coleman, from Upper Macungie Township, was first elected in 2022. He is an airline pilot for JetBlue Airways.
In the Senate, he chairs the Intergovernmental Operations Committee, is vice chair of Finance, and sits on Appropriations, Education, Urban Affairs and Housing, and other committees. Even so, few of his own bills get anywhere. Of the 57 bills he has introduced as lead sponsor, only two have become law — about 3.5%, in a Senate his own party controls. (Pennsylvania General Assembly) More: What has Jarrett Coleman actually accomplished in the Pennsylvania Senate?
He is often the only senator voting no. Twenty-eight bills he alone opposed are now law. More: What is Jarrett Coleman’s voting record?
He won the primary with major outside help from special interests. In the May 2022 primary, he unseated Sen. Pat Browne — chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, with 28 years in Harrisburg — by 24 votes.
Browne had more money. Coleman had more spent on his behalf. In about five weeks before the primary, Coleman received more than $376,885 from a political committee funded mostly by money from billionaire Jeff Yass. (Pennsylvania Capital-Star) Over the full 2022 cycle, his campaign reports show $883,621 from that network of committees, mostly as advertising paid for on his behalf. Browne started 2022 with $387,775 and raised $329,215 more by May, but he spent only about $222,750 of it and finished with nearly $500,000 unspent.
Since taking office, his biggest source of campaign money has been the skill games industry: about $701,000, including $250,000 from Pace-O-Matic’s chairman. The state Supreme Court has since ruled the machines are illegal slot machines. Seven interests have supplied 82% of everything he has raised since 2022. More: How much of Jarrett Coleman’s campaign money comes from special interests?
(Pennsylvania Department of State campaign finance filings, Patriots for Coleman, filer ID 20220185)
Compare them on the issues
- Data centers
- Electric bills and utilities
- Public school funding
- Reproductive freedom
- Mail-in voting
- Minimum wage
- Skill games
- Campaign money
- Property taxes
The general election is November 3, 2026.
