ALLENTOWN, Pa. — An Allentown councilwoman is running for higher office, it was announced Monday.
Ce-Ce Gerlach will officially launch her campaign for state representative of the 22nd District at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 25, according to a release.
The event will take place at IBEW Local 375, 101 S. Seventh St. in Allentown.
Has served on council since 2019
A Democrat, Gerlach was elected to Allentown City Council in 2019. Prior, she served eight years as a member of the Allentown School Board.
She has been a social justice activist and organizer, leading campaigns focused on housing justice and criminal justice. She also started a community response team to help people in a mental health crisis.
Earlier this year, she co-sponsored Bill 4, a pro-immigrant measure to codify Allentown’s long-term practice of not using city resources to enforce federal immigration lawsand provide services to all, regardless of immigration status.
The ordinance was “not an attempt to become a sanctuary city,” she told LehighValleyNews.com.
Instead, she said it was an “attempt to make sure that we’re not using our city resources that could be going to parks, playgrounds and public safety and enforcing federal immigration law.”
Gerlach also recently hit out at city officials after learning of the impending shutdown of a homeless encampment near Jordan Creek.
Gerlach, who has said she once slept in her car for months, said the decision to clear the encampment “will be a destruction to [residents’] lives, to their mental health, to their recovery.”
The city has said people can remain at the site until Sept. 29, with the Allentown YMCA expected to open its doors to give residents of the encampment a place to go.
Gerlach credited residents, business owners, activists, doctors and outreach workers for speaking up and demanding a “more compassionate, well planned approach” to the encampment eviction.
In 2024, she was unsuccessful in pushing her colleagues on council to adopt a Homeless Bill of Rights.
First run for state office
In March 2022, Gerlach was accepted into a first-time offenders program stemming from charges she endangered a 16-year-old boy while working as a Valley Youth House caseworker.
Under the terms, she spent a maximum of 24 months in the probationary program.
This is Gerlach’s first run for a state office after previously running in the Democratic mayoral primary in Allentown.
State Rep. Josh Siegel currently holds the 22nd District state House seat, which includes parts of Allentown and Salisbury Township.
He was elected to Allentown City Council in 2019 and served less than one term before voters elected him to the state House of Representatives in 2022.
He was re-elected in November to a second term as a state legislator and announced in December he would run for Lehigh County executive.
Gerlach is running under the theme “One of Us. For All of Us." Her campaign website is www.ceceforpa.com.
