Family Matters

A long-time Malvern resident, Kristine, her beloved dog Daisy and three youngest children (two of whom attend West Chester University and the third attends Saint Joseph’s) now live in East Whiteland.

Meet Kristine

Kristine Howard's Biography

Kristine is a forward thinker from Malvern who is in tune with the needs of her neighbors. As a devoted single mother of seven, three still attending public schools, she focuses on the principle to put children first and work constantly to ensure their safety.

Rep. Kristine Howard's Biography

Kristine attended The University of Pennsylvania where she obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy. She later earned her law degree from Rutgers. While at law school Kristine focused a large portion of her studies on the specifics of tax law, which remains a significant asset in her role as state representative.

Kristine Howard has been a long-time Malvern resident. She earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania and a law degree from Rutgers. She is a single mother of seven and lives in East Whiteland with her three youngest children.

Rep. Kristine C. Howard | Biography

A Career Built Out of Advocating for Women & Children

After graduating law school, Kristine worked in New Mexico, where she ran a non-profit legal and social services organization serving the low-income communities of Northern New Mexico with a focus on the indigenous population.

Beginning with her work in New Mexico, Kristine continually pursued opportunities to help women and children, culminating in working as a child abuse investigator for Chester County Department of Children, Youth and Families. Kristine also served as a volunteer attorney for the Support Center for Child Advocates where she represented children in foster care in the justice system.

I am a union member. My father was a union member. Three of my children are union members. I work, and my father worked, in a public sector union job, my father as a probation officer in Camden, New Jersey and me as a child abuse investigator in Chester County.

Labor Day Is Dignity Day for Workers

Kristine Howard works as a child abuse investigator for the Chester County Department of Children, Youth and Families. She previously ran a nonprofit legal and social services organization in New Mexico.

Rep. Kristine Howard's Biography

Kristine Howard was elected state representative for the 167th Legislative District in November 2018. The district includes parts of Charlestown, East Whiteland, Easttown, West Pikeland, West Whiteland, Willistown Township, and Malvern Borough.

Currently in her second term in the Pennsylvania State Legislature, Kristine is seeking a third term representing the newly redrawn 167th Legislative District comprised of the municipalities of Charlestown, East Caln, East and West Whiteland, Malvern, West Pikeland, West Vincent and a portion of East Goshen.

Kristine Howard was elected as state representative for the 167th Legislative District in November 2018 and was serving her second term in the Pennsylvania State Legislature.

2026 Pennsylvania General Election 

So, allow me to finish this first week by telling you what important things are not getting done:

No votes on increasing the minimum wage
No passing an extraction tax on natural gas frackers
No ban on assault rifles or high capacity ammunition magazines

Back in Session

That is why unions and collective bargaining are critical. Public workers deserve jobs with dignity. Public employee unions provide a champion for their members and work, sometimes fight, to hold elected officials accountable for the dignity of their workforce. We live in a country with a constitution that enshrined a system of checks and balances. Unions provide checks and balances for workers.

Supports unions and collective bargaining for public workers.

- Calls for increasing the minimum wage.
- Supports unions and collective bargaining for public workers.

Economy

Access to Affordable Healthcare & Prescription Medication

Over the past two years, Kristine supported Governor Wolf’s decision to expand Medicaid, a plan that helped deliver services to over 70,000 Pennsylvanians, but millions of Americans are still only one diagnosis away from homelessness due to our nation’s healthcare crisis. We cannot continue to rely on crowdfunding as a solution to surging healthcare premiums and the rising costs of necessary surgeries, prescriptions, and medical treatments. Kristine is committed to working diligently and across party lines to negotiate with insurance lobbyists and big pharma to create affordable healthcare options and reduce the cost of prescription medication.

Our Priorities

Access to Affordable Healthcare & Prescription Medication

Over the past two years, Kristine supported Governor Wolf’s decision to expand Medicaid, a plan that helped deliver services to over 70,000 Pennsylvanians, but millions of Americans are still only one diagnosis away from homelessness due to our nation’s healthcare crisis.

While at the University of Pennsylvania, Kristine was a student of Kathryn Kolbert’s — the attorney who later successfully argued Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Like many women, Kristine believed that this decision established a woman’s right to choose as a fundamental and immovable right. It has been 28 years since Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 47 years since Roe v. Wade, and yet again she finds herself on the front lines of an ongoing battle to protect a woman’s right to choose. When two bills introduced by anti-abortion extremists came to a vote in the legislature, Kristine aggressively opposed them and championed the principles of Roe v. Wade and protecting a woman’s access to affordable reproductive healthcare here in Pennsylvania.

Kristine understands that the hardships of physical sickness, mental illness and drug addiction do not discriminate. Just last year Chester County lost 150 lives, proving that Chester County is not immune. In Harrisburg, Kristine actively serves on the Human Services Committee, and has voted on multiple occasions to provide greater access to effective treatment options and create opportunities for individuals in recovery to rebuild their lives

Committed to negotiating for affordable healthcare options and lower prescription-drug costs.

Supported Pennsylvania's expansion of Medicaid.

Opposed two bills that would have limited abortion access and supported protecting access to reproductive healthcare.

Voted to expand treatment options and recovery opportunities for people with substance-use disorders.

- Committed to negotiating for affordable healthcare options and lower prescription-drug costs.
- Supported Pennsylvania's expansion of Medicaid.
- Opposed two bills that would have limited abortion access and supported protecting access to reproductive healthcare.
- Voted to expand treatment options and recovery opportunities for people with substance-use disorders.

Healthcare

So, allow me to finish this first week by telling you what important things are not getting done:

No votes on increasing the minimum wage
No passing an extraction tax on natural gas frackers
No ban on assault rifles or high capacity ammunition magazines
No redistricting reforms
No bill banning LGBTQ discrimination in the workplace
No legislation for fair funding of public education
No limits on single-use plastic products
No agreement on treatment options for opioid victims
No movement on a comprehensive plan to rebuild our infrastructure

Faced with the task of preparing her college bound children for financial stability, Kristine has a deep understanding of the challenges families face finding appropriate affordable higher education for their children. At the height of the recession in 2016, the average student loan debt for college graduates in Pennsylvania was the second highest state in the nation. Affordable higher education is the key to not only creating a clear pathway for the next generation of Pennsylvanians to achieve financial stability, it is also necessary to maintain our economic prosperity. That is why Kristine supports making Pennsylvania’s community colleges and PASHE state universities tuition-free for Pennsylvania families who need help securing higher education for their children.

Calls for fair funding of public education.

Supports tuition-free community colleges and universities in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education for families needing help with higher-education costs.

- Calls for fair funding of public education.
- Supports tuition-free community colleges and universities in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education for families needing help with higher-education costs.

Education

My Reservations with Restore PA
Although I generally support Restore PA, and find it infinitely preferable to the Republican alternative, Energize PA, I have two concerns I am working to address.

First, I believe Restore PA should make a significant contribution to the development of renewable energy solutions and products that can be used to replace petroleum-based plastics and chemicals used in manufacturing.

Frackers Must Be Taxed

So, allow me to finish this first week by telling you what important things are not getting done:

No votes on increasing the minimum wage
No passing an extraction tax on natural gas frackers
No ban on assault rifles or high capacity ammunition magazines
No redistricting reforms
No bill banning LGBTQ discrimination in the workplace
No legislation for fair funding of public education
No limits on single-use plastic products

Based on her voting history, Kristine has been named one of the highest rated Pennsylvania State Representatives by Clean Water Action, PennEnvironment, and Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future and has won the endorsement of Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania. As a mother and grandmother, Kristine knows just how important it is to protect our natural resources for future generations. In addition, she is committed to a green energy future that does not rely on carbon-based energy sources and the pipelines needed to transport oil and gas to distant market. She believes we need to get to that future in a safe and sustainable manner that includes a just transition for workers.

In addition, she is committed to a green energy future that does not rely on carbon-based energy sources and the pipelines needed to transport oil and gas to distant market. She believes we need to get to that future in a safe and sustainable manner that includes a just transition for workers. Until we get to that future, she strongly supports taxing fracking and making the cost of oil and gas products more reflective of the health and environmental costs related to the extraction, transportation and manufacturing of petrochemicals.

Governor Wolf has proposed a $4.5 billion infrastructure program called Restore PA to be funded by a shale gas extraction tax. His plan has my support with some reservations. In any event, whether Restore PA ever becomes law or not, I believe it is imperative to enact a shale gas extraction tax.

Supports directing Restore PA funding toward renewable alternatives to petroleum-based plastics and chemicals.

Calls for limits on single-use plastic products.

Committed to transitioning to renewable energy while providing a just transition for workers.

Supports a shale-gas extraction tax and higher costs for fossil-fuel products to reflect health and environmental impacts.

- Supports directing Restore PA funding toward renewable alternatives to petroleum-based plastics and chemicals.
- Calls for limits on single-use plastic products.
- Committed to transitioning to renewable energy while providing a just transition for workers.
- Supports a shale-gas extraction tax and higher costs for fossil-fuel products to reflect health and environmental impacts.

Energy & the Environment

41 mass shootings took place in the U.S. in 2019, and in October of last year 11 Pennsylvanians lost their lives in the Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting. Still, gun rights legislation continues to be brushed aside. Kristine is actively working to bring red flag law legislation to a vote. This legislation includes laws that allow authorities to take precautions with individuals whose family members claim they are dangerous or suicidal.

Additionally, Kristine has proposed three new common sense gun reform laws including making it a crime to possess a firearm while intoxicated, creating a statewide assault weapons buy-back program and implementing penalties for anyone who ignores a private or commercial property owner’s ban on possessing fire arms on their property.

Landmark Reform for Victims of Child Sex Abuse

by Kristine Howard | Dec 5, 2019 | News | 0 comments

Just prior to Thanksgiving, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives finally passed HB 962 providing for changing the statute of limitations for victims of sexual abuse in both civil and criminal matters, which I was pleased to vote for and support. My colleague, Mark Rozzi, has been working on this for years, through many political ups and downs and I admire his fortitude and thank him for his work.

In summary, HB 962 eliminates the criminal statute of limitations for child sexual abuse crimes. Under its provisions, victims of abuse will have until age 55 to file civil lawsuits. The bill also removes sovereign immunity in civil claims, meaning that if an institution, secular or religious, has known about child sex crimes, it may be held responsible, even in decades-old child sex abuse cases.

Landmark Reform for Victims of Child Sex Abuse

In the Pennsylvania House we had a smorgbord of common-sense gun reform legislation ready for debate and votes, but nothing made it off the table. Gun reforms as obvious and popular as passing “Red Flag” laws, eliminating high-capacity gun magazines, banning assault rifles, safe storage regulations and giving local authorities more power to regulate guns in their communities were all blocked in committee without debate or due consideration by the extremist Republican majority.

Pennsylvania’s Back to School Gun Failure

Working to bring red-flag legislation to a vote.

Proposed making firearm possession while intoxicated a crime, an assault-weapons buyback program, and penalties for violating property gun bans.

Voted for House Bill (HB) 962, which eliminates the criminal statute of limitations for child sexual abuse and extends the civil filing deadline.

Supports red-flag laws, limits on high-capacity magazines, an assault-rifle ban, safe-storage requirements, and greater local authority to regulate firearms.

- Working to bring red-flag legislation to a vote.
- Proposed making firearm possession while intoxicated a crime, an assault-weapons buyback program, and penalties for violating property gun bans.
- Voted for House Bill (HB) 962, which eliminates the criminal statute of limitations for child sexual abuse and extends the civil filing deadline.
- Supports red-flag laws, limits on high-capacity magazines, an assault-rifle ban, safe-storage requirements, and greater local authority to regulate firearms.

Public Safety

…And a side of scrambled malarkey

I recently wrote you about the inherent dangers of the proposed amendment giving the legislature the ability to veto executive branch regulations. In this message, let’s take a deeper look at the voter suppression risks of expanding Voter ID.

Don’t Fix What’s Not Broke!

Addressing the concept of protecting electoral integrity, an Associated Press reporting project after the 2020 election found fewer than 475 potential instances of voter fraud out of more the 25 million votes cast. How could such an infinitesimal fraction of a percent of voter fraud justify the risk of disenfranchising more that 21 million Americans who do not have a photo ID? I would further suggest to you that the only people whose confidence in the electoral process needs boosting are the 30% of Maga Americans who fell prey to the big lie perpetuated by election denying political opportunists and fund raising grifters.

Opposes expanding voter-identification requirements because of the risk of preventing eligible voters from voting.

- Opposes expanding voter-identification requirements because of the risk of preventing eligible voters from voting.

Voting & Elections

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Kristine Howard

- Supports unions and collective bargaining for public workers.

- Supports tuition-free community colleges and universities in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education for families needing help with higher-education costs.

- Committed to transitioning to renewable energy while providing a just transition for workers.
- Supports a shale-gas extraction tax and higher costs for fossil-fuel products to reflect health and environmental impacts.

- Voted for House Bill (HB) 962, which eliminates the criminal statute of limitations for child sexual abuse and extends the civil filing deadline.
- Supports red-flag laws, limits on high-capacity magazines, an assault-rifle ban, safe-storage requirements, and greater local authority to regulate firearms.

Edward Krutsch

Buket Urgen

Joe Lewis

- Your state representative represents the interests of your local district in the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives. The State House of Representatives, along with the State Senate, makes up your state lawmaking body: the Pennsylvania General Assembly.
- Your state representative can author, sponsor, and vote on bills that may become state laws, including introducing tax bills. 
- State representatives and their staff respond to constituent concerns and questions through emails, phone calls, and website announcements. 
- State representatives oversee the executive branch and can vote to overrule a veto by the Governor.  
- They are elected to two-year terms and have a salary of $106,000, with a 1-3% annual increase

Your representative and state lawmaker in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives