Rep. Greg Vitali has represented Haverford Twp. since 1993. Delco Democrats want someone new.

State Rep. Greg Vitali has represented his Delaware County district in the Pennsylvania House for 33 years. Come the May 19 primary election, the county Democratic Party says, it’s time for that to change.

Vitali, a Democrat who represents Haverford Township and parts of Marple Township, has cemented himself as a leader on environmental policy during his tenure as the longest continuously serving state representative in Harrisburg. But this year, the Delaware County Democratic Committee overwhelmingly endorsed his challenger: Judy Trombetta, a Haverford Township commissioner and Montgomery County government staffer.

Vitali, 69, has a powerful role as the chair of the state House Environmental and Natural Resource Protection Committee, deciding which environment-related bills should get a vote in the state House, where Democrats hold a narrow majority. The Pennsylvania House Democratic Campaign Committee is backing the incumbent, who first took office in 1993, for a 17th term, said Sydney Robinson, a spokesperson for the party’s campaign arm.

Although Vitali has been in the House for nearly half his life, he believes he still has more work to do on shaping the state’s environmental policies, which are often complicated and require deep understanding of less-than-flashy subjects, like the minute details of methane emissions or staff shortages at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

He says that he was the first Pennsylvania lawmaker to introduce climate change legislation, and that his biggest wins have been protesting or blocking the long GOP-held legislature from taking votes that would hurt Pennsylvania’s environment. (He has been on the environment committee for 31 years, a period when it was mostly led by pro-oil and -gas Republicans until Democrats took narrow control in 2023.)

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Vitali says he has more work he wants to do, too: He has an environmental justice bill to require DEP to consider the cumulative impact of projects on Chester City, a bill to end sales tax exemptions for data centers, and another to require more distance between drilling projects and homes or schools.

“My life’s mission has been environmental protection,” Vitali said. “Climate change is the issue of our time, even though you’re not going to be littered with legislative victories.”

But Trombetta argues that focus means Vitali has neglected other priorities in the Delaware County district.

“Now is not the time for a single issue-candidate or legislator,” Trombetta said. “I do respect Greg as a champion on environmental issues, but he has neglected numerous other constituencies on numerous other topics.”

Vitali rejected this, noting his endorsements by the state’s largest teachers union, the Pennsylvania State Education Association; Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania; and animal rights group Humane PA as proof of his support for non-environmental issues.

Vitali said he was not surprised that the Delco party decided to boost Trombetta over him. He said he does not go out of his way to court the party, and received the endorsements of the groups he actually cares about. He also does not need the county party to help him maintain his relationships with constituents, he said, noting that he spends one hour every day knocking on residents’ doors.

This is not the first time the Delaware County Democratic Committee has endorsed a challenger to Vitali. In 2022, the party endorsed David Brown, a campaign consultant who lodged a well-funded bid to unseat the incumbent. Vitali ultimately won the primary over Brown by 17 percentage points, or about 1,700 votes.

The county party makes its endorsement based on the votes of its committee members who live in the district. In other words, the Delco Dems endorsed Trombetta after the Haverford Township and Marple Township members who live in the 166th Legislative District voted in support of her.

Jon Larsen, who chairs the Haverford Township Democrats and was on the 2022 committee that backed Brown, said he feels that this year, Trombetta has a better shot at ousting Vitali. Trombetta, he said, is already serving as a local elected official and has shown she can deliver results for the community, citing her work as a commissioner to shepherd through the long-promised reopening and renovation last year of the Haverford Township Free Library.

Larsen also pointed to Trombetta’s experience in Harrisburg working as a chief of staff for former State Sen. Daylin Leach, in addition to her work as an aide in Pittsburgh City Council, and said she is prepared to navigate state government.

Trombetta has outraised and outspent Vitali so far, according to campaign finance filings submitted last week, raising nearly $60,000 and spending approximately $45,000. Vitali, for his part — benefiting from the invaluable power of name recognition that comes from being an incumbent — has raised only about $29,000 and spent $14,000.

Joe Walker, a Republican, is running unopposed in the 166th Legislative District, meaning whoever wins on Tuesday will face a competitive election in November.

Trombetta, 41, said she “did not make the decision lightly” to challenge Vitali, and recognized his decades of work on environmental issues. But Trombetta said the upheaval caused by President Donald Trump’s administration motivated her to run, saying she wants to ensure her 9-year-old son and future generations can thrive. She said she wants to focus her efforts in state government on public transit issues — an issue she wishes Vitali had stepped up on during last year’s state budget stalemate over increasing SEPTA funding.

Overall, she said, her Main Line community is “already wonderful” and she wants to bring it more state resources in the form of senior fairs and other events. She also wants to change where the district’s office is located into an accessible building for wheelchair users or strollers.

“I look forward to being someone who champions numerous issues, including the environment,” Trombetta said, noting her work on an ordinance that banned commercial businesses from using single-use plastic in the township.

Vitali knows he has seen mixed results in championing environmental causes in the state legislature. But the successes on environmental policy in a state like Pennsylvania, a top gas exporter nationwide, are often much more nuanced, with wins including stopping a vote on a bad bill, he said.

“Doing environmental policy in a fossil fuel state, you gotta take your victories when you find them, and sometimes they’re not obvious,” Vitali said.

In 2024, the role of Vitali’s Environmental and Natural Resource Protection Committee was diminished when a new committee was created to oversee energy issues. The House Energy Committee, chaired by State Rep. Elizabeth Fiedler (D., Philadelphia), is now responsible for most bills related to data centers, one of the state’s most pressing environmental issues.

Vitali was dealt another blow last year when House Democrats agreed to back out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) — an interstate cap-and-trade program he supported that charges power plants for the amount of carbon emissions they release into the air — as part of an overall $50.1 billion budget deal approved by Gov. Josh Shapiro.

Vitali acknowledged he had little control in stopping Democrats from allowing an end to RGGI.

“Unfortunately, with regard to RGGI, the governor was not supportive of it, and the governor is the most powerful force in Harrisburg. And because the governor wasn’t for it, I don’t think our House Democratic leadership was willing to fight for it,” he said.