Is deep-blue Chester County ready for the Women in Red?
That’s the nickname three Republican House candidates have picked up as they work together running for office in a county Joe Biden carried by 17 points over Donald Trump in 2020.
Regina Mauro in the 157th District, Tina Ayala in the 158th, and Melissa Dicranian in the 167th have branded themselves the “Women in Red,” complete with their own website.
(From left) Regina Mauro, Tina Ayala and Melissa Dicranian
Mauro, a businesswoman and mother, previously ran for county controller, school board director, and in the 2022 Sixth Congressional District Republican primary.
The daughter of Cuban immigrants, Maura said, “You notice how drastically life changed in Cuba in just one generation. The government came in and started taking away their property. Before that, they took their weapons. They disarmed the whole citizenry.”
Her parents were “very devout Christians,” and the government “started vilifying the church, persecuting some priests, driving wedges between children and their parents.” When the Communists took over Cuba, people “lived in terror, and there was a mass exodus.”
Mauro has “absolutely” seen parallels between when Cuba turned Communist and what’s happening in America now. “Alarms started going off under the Obama administration,” when Obama told business owners, “‘You didn’t build that’ and spreading the wealth, things that are heard in countries like Venezuela. And the Biden-Harris administration has continued it, she said. And not just that it’s happening, but “our Anglo brothers and sisters are not seeing it” and think “that could never happen here.”
Asked about her opponent, Rep. Melissa Shusterman (D-Tredyffrin), Mauro noted the Democrat’s opposition to preventing males from competing in girls’ sports, against permitting schools to hire armed security guards, and against “Markie’s Law” to stop violent criminals who commit crimes while incarcerated from receiving early parole. Mauro called these votes “egregious.”
Dicranian is running a “people first” campaign. She’s been a community volunteer and sees serving in the legislature as “taking a much larger step in terms of what’s going on, what’s happening in the district and being able to help.”
Dicranian has been reaching out to young people who need help with career choices. For example, she talked to a young man who collected their trash and asked whether he was continuing his education. He wasn’t sure what to do. Dicranian pointed him to a local vocational-technical school, and “18 months later, he graduated, he’s now fully employed as a mechanic.” He told her, “I just needed somebody to believe in me,” she told him.
Dicranian said her platform is the economy, education, and energy, especially Pennsylvania’s natural gas. The ChamberPAC, the bipartisan political action committee of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, has endorsed Dicranian.
“We have a job skills gap, we have a workforce gap, and it’s really quite significant,” Dicranian said. She’s promoting educational and business partnerships. She’s an outreach partner for several community members and serves as the chair of Charlestown Township’s Historic Architectural Review Board and liaison to the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Ayala decided to run for office for her children and all children. It’s her first experience campaigning for political office.
“If we keep going the way we’re going, they’re not going to have a sustainable future,” Ayala said. “They’re not going to have a bright future. They’re not going to be able to afford the debt. Ultimately, my children (a 16-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl) were my motivating factor.”
Ayala is a lacrosse coach and volunteers at her children’s schools and for organizations that help children in need.
Ayala is from a Puerto Rican family. A mortgage professional, she grew up in North Jersey and is the first in her family to attend college.
She enjoys campaigning, knocking on doors and listening to people’s concerns. Ayala says she is very empathetic, perhaps because she had a rough childhood caring for her mother, who suffered from epilepsy, after her parents separated. She’s running to improve public schools, promote school choice, support local businesses, increase job creation, and help people.
As for being one of the Women in Red, she said, it’s great to run with two other “strong, conservative women.”
The incumbents—Shusterman, Rep. Kristine Howard (D-Malvern), and Christina Sappey (D-Kennett Square)— who the Women in Red are running against, declined to respond to DVJournal’s repeated requests for comments.
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