Rep. Ryan Mackenzie and his mother Milou Mackenzie
Harrisburg, PA (AP) – An incumbent Pennsylvania state representative was joined by a familiar face when lawmakers took the oath of office Tuesday, his own mother.
Six-term Republican Rep. Ryan Mackenzie’s district borders, for a couple miles, the one that his mother was elected to in November.
Freshman state Rep. Milou Mackenzie, 70, an interior designer and former schoolteacher, is also a Republican. They’ll sit next to each other on the House floor during voting sessions and plan to carpool from their Lehigh County districts.
They lay claim to being the first mother-son pair elected to serve together in the chamber.
They both laughed when asked what will happen if they end up voting against each other.
Milou Mackenzie has long been politically active, and when the Republican who last held the seat where she lives announced he would not seek reelection, Ryan Mackenzie, 38, asked his mother if she had any candidates to suggest.
She said she knocked on doors and tried to find someone, to no avail. She prayed about it. Then it struck her.
“All of a sudden, I said to Ryan, ‘I think I’m going to do it,’” she recalled.
They both won contested races in November and joined the Republican majority for the 2021-22 session that got underway this week.
