This story first appeared in PA Local, a weekly newsletter by Spotlight PA taking a fresh, positive look at the incredible people, beautiful places, and delicious food of Pennsylvania. Sign up for free here.
Last fall, communities across Pennsylvania elected officials who have yet to turn 30 to one of the most visible local roles: mayor.
This month, those mayors begin their first terms and their political careers, bringing new perspectives and concerns to local government.
Spotlight PA spoke to four incoming young mayors — all of them members of Generation Z, by Pew Research Center’s definition (though some noted they feel culturally closer to millennials) — about their ambitions, their platforms, and what drew them to the position.
While they span the ideological spectrum and have jobs as disparate as coffee roaster and political operative, all want to improve their local governments, and share optimism about the future of their communities.
Although it’s not unheard of for Pennsylvanians to elect young local leaders, it’s rare. Just 3% of the 866 local elected officials who answered a 2021 Pennsylvania Local Government Commission survey were under 35. The average age of a respondent was about 61.
Cassandra Coleman, the former mayor of Exeter in Luzerne County who was appointed to her first term at 20, recommended the latest crop make sure they’re “listening and learning” and not coming in too “forceful.”
“But also,” Coleman added, “I think you have to also weigh that with not being overshadowed and not being kind of pushed to the side because of your age.”
New perspectives
Now is an important time to get involved in government and run for office, said Sam Bigham, the new Democratic mayor of Carnegie in Allegheny County.
“We’re seeing a lot of leaders at different levels not really delivering on their promises or keeping their constituents’ best interest at heart, especially not for young people like me,” he said, pointing to issues like unaffordability and climate change.
In Pennsylvania, the roles and responsibilities of mayors vary by municipality type. In some cities, the job is powerful and wide-reaching. In boroughs, the mayor’s primary responsibilities are to “preserve order” (i.e., oversee police and respond to emergencies) and enforce local ordinances. They can also break ties among council members.
It’s often a part-time job, and state law caps salaries based on the size of the borough, though individual municipalities may set pay well below the mandated maximums.
The mayors who spoke to PA Local all represent boroughs, and acknowledged the limited powers that come with their office. But they hope to lean into the position’s more ceremonial role as a representative of their community — and use it to bring fresh points of view to government.
Matt Zechman, a Libertarian who was sworn in as mayor of Cleona Borough in Lebanon County this week, said it’s vital for young people to start running for local office and working their way up so they can “change their own future.”
“It’s a much different time than it was 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago,” he said. “And if we have the same mindset that today’s problems are the same as they were 50 years ago, and we treat them the same way, we’re just going to keep spiraling downward even more.”
Winning support
As Bigham went door to door during his campaign, he found “a whole lot of people were actually excited about a young person running for office,” he told PA Local.
While some were skeptical of his age and experience level, he said he responded by “running a very serious campaign,” listening to people, speaking intelligently about local issues, and making sure all his paperwork was in order.
Joar F. K. Dahn, the new mayor of the borough of Darby in Delaware County, also said he ran into a “a handful of people that were kind of very against a young person running,” and insisted he “wait his turn.”
But he stressed that those folks were a vocal minority, and thanked the older adults who’ve guided him and made it “their mission to to mentor the next generation,” which he sees as “contributing to our future.”
“The young people are going to come, you just got to invite them to the table,” Dahn said. “You got to make them feel like they also belong here, and you got to make sure they understand that their opinions [are] valid.”
Several of the mayors hope to motivate their peers to run for office or get civically involved in another way.
“I just want to let everybody know regardless of their background, age, or affiliation, or anything like that, that they do matter,” said Dylan Stevens, a member of the Liberal Party who was elected mayor of the borough of Westover in Clearfield County by a one-vote margin. “If they want to make a difference, just go for it.”
And it’s “really not as difficult as some people might think” to run for local office, Carnegie’s Bigham pointed out. He collected 10 signatures to secure his place on the ballot, and raised a few thousand dollars — “probably more than what you need in a lot of places,” he said.
“Obviously, you have to be comfortable putting yourself out there and talking to all different kinds of people,” Bigham said. “I’m a bit more introverted, so sometimes it can get really tiring to have to do that, but it can also be really rewarding.”
Meet the mayors
Joar F. K. Dahn of Darby
Dahn, 28, calls himself Darby’s “biggest cheerleader.” When he was at college, the Bloomsburg University alumnus didn’t tell people he was “from Philly,” like other students from Delaware County would, he told PA Local. He’d say “Darby.”
Dahn, whose family fled the Liberian Civil War when he was a child, has called Darby home for 20 years. He describes the small borough of 10,749 as a “very close-knit community,” but one that “has its struggles.”
His dissatisfaction with local leadership motivated him to run for mayor. Working as a political operative for several years, he was inspired by the campaigns he was hired by and felt the officials in Darby weren’t as committed.
He started looking for someone to throw his support behind — and that person turned out to be himself, Dahn told PA Local. Several residents encouraged him. So he challenged the incumbent mayor in the Democratic primary and ended up winning by 20 points. Dahn ran unopposed in November.
In his first 100 days, he wants to motivate community members to get more involved in local government and “feel like they’re part of the process.”
“Sometimes, we’ll have council meetings, and I’m the only resident in the room,” Dahn said. “We have council meetings and there’s literally nobody there. … I want people to understand now that this is a new leadership.”
Public safety is a big priority for Dahn, who on the campaign trail heard from concerned grandmothers. He hopes to promote a positive relationship between residents and police, and work to reduce gun violence.
“I need every single grandmom to feel comfortable to walk any single street in Darby,” Dahn said.
Sam Bigham of Carnegie
Carnegie’s “old-style” Main Street and strong community connections drew Bigham — a resident since age 10 with deep family roots in the area — back to the borough of about 8,000 after he graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2024.
Now the commonwealth’s youngest active mayor, the 23-year-old had known for years that he wanted to work in government or public service, and his resumé proves it. A former junior councilperson, Bigham also interned for a state representative and a congressman, and worked as a Democratic organizer ahead of last year’s election.
Early last year, Bigham landed the position of executive director of the Carnegie Community Development Corporation, a nonprofit that aims to support local businesses and boost the area’s attractiveness. He plans to continue in that role alongside his part-time mayoral duties.
He told PA Local he decided to run after talking with the incumbent, who was planning to step down. A friend from college helped Bigham campaign, and after lots of door-knocking and securing endorsements from several local politicians, he won the Democratic primary with 661 primary votes to his opponent’s 204. (He also won enough write-in Republican votes to be listed under both parties on the November ballot.)
“I wanted to run on a message of community development and optimism and looking forward to the future,” he told PA Local.
Bigham’s first-term goals include revitalizing Main Street, improving local infrastructure, updating the borough’s branding, facilitating events between police and residents, and working on sustainability initiatives.
Matt Zechman of Cleona
Zechman has worn many hats in his 27 years: volunteer firefighter, EMT, combat medic in Afghanistan, coffee roaster, and father. His latest is mayor of Cleona, a 2,000-person borough he describes as a quiet place with “two traffic lights,” a “really nice playground,” and “a lot of hometown spirit.”
Although he didn’t see a glaring need for major changes in his community, the lifelong resident ran to bring his skills and a “new perspective” to the role.
Zechman did much of his campaigning via social media, he told PA Local. Running on the Libertarian ticket, he beat the Republican incumbent by a nearly 2-to-1 margin in the November election.
As mayor, Zechman wants to implement what he calls “windows-down policing,” a practice he said remembers from his childhood.
“We would see the police chief and the mayor — they would drive in their vehicle, windows down, going slow, talking to residents, engaging,” Zechman explained. “I knew their names, they knew my name, they knew everyone’s name. And in a town this small, that is very well possible.”
And even though it’s not part of his job description on paper, he said he also wants to use his bully pulpit to find local business sponsors, seek grant funding, or crowdfund to install flashing pedestrian crossing signs, which he called an “absolute must” for local road safety.
Dylan Stevens of Westover
Stevens made a “spontaneous decision” to run for mayor of Westover, a roughly 350-person borough in Clearfield County, just four days before the November election, he told PA Local.
Raised in a conservative Republican household, Stevens began exploring third parties when he “became disillusioned with the whole political situation” in 2020. He landed on the Liberal Party of Pennsylvania, which was formed as the “Keystone Party” in 2022 by a group of people who believed the Libertarian Party was moving too far right.
When Stevens, a 26-year-old who’s lived in Westover for 11 years and works at a gas station in another town, realized there wasn’t anyone on the ballot for mayor, he decided to give it a go. He wanted to “do more” in his community and bring more exposure to the Liberal Party, he said.
Stevens had mostly kept to himself before, so he took a “kids’-lemonade-stand-type-of-approach” to drum up support, he told PA Local. With help from Liberal Party members from out of town, he introduced himself to people outside a general store a few days before the election and did the same on Election Day outside Westover’s polling place. He said reactions ranged from neutral to “OK, well, good luck.”
Stevens ended up getting 13 write-in votes, a single vote more than the next most popular write-in. According to a Liberal Party news release, his election marked the party’s first mayoral victory in Pennsylvania.
“Even though I was kind of an unknown, I guess I had the gift of the gab enough to let people know that I wanted to make a difference in my community and I wanted to give it my best effort,” Stevens said. “And for a lot of them, it seemed to be enough.”
Stevens hopes to work with the borough council to attract businesses and explore alternative water sources. He also wants to poll residents on local issues, revive the borough’s Facebook page, and livestream public meetings to improve access for people who aren’t able to attend in person.
