Kim Ward says state Senate reelection is about helping people of Westmoreland County

Kim Ward feels like she’s fought this battle before.

For the past eight months, the Republican state senator from Hempfield worked to push legislation that will help health care workers and the public during the coronavirus pandemic, efforts that mirror actions she took in the 1980s when the AIDS pandemic ravaged the country, sling-shotting Ward from a career in respiratory therapy to one in politics.

“It was a very scary time and, when I look at wanting to also protect the patients and also protect the health care workers, I think of where we are today, with a much less virulent virus, but wanting to make sure everybody has the proper (personal protective equipment) and the ability to protect the patients and themselves,” she said.

As Ward navigates through the pandemic, she also is managing a reelection campaign to maintain her 39th District state Senate seat, which covers most of central Westmoreland County. She is facing first-time Democratic candidate Tay Waltenbaugh.

The 64-year-old hopes her 12 years on the job will give her an edge in the election, sending her into her fourth term in office.

“I have seniority, and I’m able to get things done for the area,” she said. “Some people say, ‘Everybody’s elected a politician,’ and I like to say, ‘I’m a public servant. I’m not that politician. I’m not going to lie to you, I’m going to help you.’ ”

Years of service

When a friend and coworker at Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville, Tenn., was diagnosed with AIDS after being exposed to infected blood while at work, Ward instantly knew she had to join his fight in learning how the government was going to help.

“They would not tell health care workers who was positive,” Ward said. “They would just say gown up all the way.

“That really got me started in government,” she said, noting that outreach efforts included then-U.S. Sen. Al Gore, a Tennessee Democrat.

After her initial introduction to politics, Ward moved with her husband, Tom, to work at Hershey Medical Center. After having three sons, Ward — who is from Meadowlands in Washington County — knew she wanted to be closer to family. With Tom Ward being from Belle Vernon, the family decided to move to Westmoreland County.

That’s when her political career took off.

In 1994, Ward acted as county chair for Republican Rick Santorum’s successful bid for the U.S. Senate. From there, she served as a Hempfield supervisor from 2002-07 and then as a Westmoreland County Commissioner in 2008, a role she held for eight months before being approached about running for state Senate.

After initially declining the idea, she reconsidered.

“I was 52 at the time and I thought, ‘Well, fine. I’m probably going to lose. It’s a 65% registered Democratic area, but so what if I lose? I tried, and I did it. I’m not going to be 90 saying I should have tried that. So, I’m just going to do it,’” she said.

According to Ward, she stopped taking her county salary and benefits and instead knocked on doors for 10 weeks.

In November 2008, Ward became the first woman to represent the 39th District. She was reelected in 2012 and 2016.

During her time in office, Ward pushed through bills regarding child abuse laws, the Real ID program, a grant program for middle-income college students and helped the Elliott Group take over the former Jeannette Glass site. Recently, Ward has focused on bills related to covid-19 that impact small businesses, first responders and those in nursing homes.

If reelected, she hopes to work on developing the region by expanding public transportation and working to rebuild schools and businesses that “have been crushed the last six months, just crushed,” she said. “We do have the CARES money from the federal government, but we need to find some way … to address what has happened in the community.”

Businesses deemed non-essential were forced to shutter by Gov. Tom Wolf this spring as the coronavirus spread across the region.

“We need to find opportunities for people to work, and we need to find ways for these businesses and these schools that are just being crushed under the governor’s mandates,” she said.

Community outreach

Placed in the living room of her Hempfield home, BJ Ruble, 51, has a proudly displayed signed copy of House Bill 145, which passed the Senate in 2013 and eliminates mechanics’ lien rights for subcontractors who work on residential properties if the owner has paid the main contractor in full.

The bill was passed after Ruble reached out to Ward when her home was damaged in a 2011 hail storm. After working with roofers to fix the damage, a mechanics lien was placed on her property despite having paid the contractor, Ruble said. She turned to Ward for help.

While Ward was not able to remove the property lien, she did propose the bill that would help homeowners across the state.

“If it wasn’t for her, we would have probably been stuck, truthfully, trying to figure things out,” Ruble said. “The part that was most impressive is, it wasn’t that she just helped us, she recognized that it was a problem and went beyond and fixed it.”

Ruble, along with her kids, Jordan, 19, and Sydney, 21, all plan to vote for Ward on Tueday.

“When you have that kind of faith in somebody that, when you come to them and ask for help, not only are you going to get it, you’re not forgotten,” Ruble said. “That doesn’t happen a lot in the political realm of things.”

Dan Galbraith, 56, of Hempfield praised Ward on her community outreach, noting that she is always at events, communicating with the public.

Ward noted that this year, the pandemic has caused her to scale back the number of events she attends, but added she gets her best ideas talking to the public.

“I absolutely love being with those folks, and I love that they talk to me and they think they can talk to me, because they can,” she said. “I’m just part of their community. I’m just a person here who is serving, and I’d like to continue to serve because our county … needs and deserves to have a really strong voice that’s able to get things done.”