Beth Farnham
DemocraticQ1 PFAS chemicals are widely used in consumer products but have raised health concerns due to their persistence in the environment and humans, and some Pennsylvanian legislators are considering restrictions on its use, such as in House Bill 2145. Should Pennsylvania restrict PFAS in consumer products? What scientific evidence would you use to inform your decision?
As a federal candidate, I would support legislation that prohibits PFAS in our water, food, medication, and cosmetics.
KEYWORDS: PFAS
Q2 Measles vaccination rates in Pennsylvania have declined in recent years, from 95.5% in 2020 to 92.5% in 2025. At the same time, measles outbreaks have emerged across the state, with 62 confirmed cases in PA in 2026. As a policymaker, how do you approach engaging with communities that have concerns that center on infectious disease outbreaks and vaccine safety, and what policies, if any, would you support related to these issues?
As a Biology major in college, I understand disease transmission. No political party, religion, nor personal philosophy can prevent a disease from infecting another person, only behaviors and immunity, rooted in evidence-based science can.
As a parent, I encourage other parents to check in with each other about their vaccine philosophy. As a U.S. Representative, I would work on legislation that allows vaccine records to be made public in order to empower parents, especially, to make decisions about how those who aren’t fully vaccinated are grouped in settings including daycares, church nurseries, mommy groups, etc. This would ensure the “personal freedoms” so many cry for while keeping safe those who are most vulnerable.
Since 2017, when I discovered a secret antivaxxer in my mommy group, I have raised my voice against anti-vaccine rhetoric. I wrote emails gently reminding parents to check each other’s vaccine philosophy. I joined Voices for Vaccines and I met with my State Representative in 2018. I have written Letters to the Editor, exposing the hidden threat of disease transmission in Pennsylvania daycares and church nurseries. I also wrote a work of fiction, EPISTOLARY, about measles in a mommy group, under the pen name Lisa Lambros.
KEYWORDS: disease transmission, antivaccine
Q3 There have been avian influenza outbreaks in Pennsylvania, with potential impacts on poultry and dairy operations, both industries that provide billions of dollars of economic value to the state. What policies, if any, do you support to strengthen the state’s preparedness and outbreak response? Are there specific strategies you would prioritize to protect farm workers, agricultural communities, and the broader public?
The first responsibility of an elected U.S. Representative is to re-establish, then strengthen, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) so that it can properly respond to disasters such as avian influenza. This includes re-staffing the positions that were recently vacated through the deferred resignation program and the firing of those still in their probationary periods.
The second course of action is to prevent the Trump administration from ever negatively impacting FEMA again by impeaching him and Vance and removing them from office. Our national security is put at tremendous risk when our country cannot properly respond to disasters and mitigage the fallout. If the poultry and dairy industries cannot get the help they need from FEMA, then the food supply is reduced, and our people are more vulnerable to foreign influence.
KEYWORDS: FEMA, avian influenze
Q4 Pennsylvania is the nation’s second-largest producer of natural gas and nuclear energy, as well as the third-largest producer of coal, per the Energy Information Administration. In contrast, PA currently ranks 45th in the country in terms of wind, solar, and hydropower energy production. How do you think these energy sources should be distributed across PA’s energy production portfolio, and what policies, if any, would you support to facilitate this?
I would support federal legislation that would mandate sourcing our energy from wind, solar, hydropower, and geothermal sources, possibly boosted by federal funding to help customers as these sources of energy are more expensive at this time. With mandated sourcing, production of these alternative forms of energy would be encouraged to explore efficiencies and consistencies of output.
KEYWORDS: wind, solar, and hydropower energy production
Q5 Pennsylvania has proposed more reporting, utility oversight, and zoning guidance for large data centers, along with shifting some generation, capacity, and reliability costs onto data center developers rather than ordinary ratepayers. How should the costs and benefits of large data center development be divided between developers and the public, and what requirements, if any, would you support on power, water, and public reporting before a project moves forward?
While some Artificial Intelligence (AI) data is justified, most often in fields of mathematics and science, much is not. In fact, a large proportion of AI data generating creative writing and art either plagiarizes established works or renders the desired work too poorly. At the same time, AI-derived work is not properly and consistently labeled across a variety of platforms. Without such labeling, it becomes propaganda - tricking people into believing that images and quotes are true when they are not.
As a U.S. Representative, I would vote for the 3 year moratorium on the building of such data centers until they are truly justified and the products are clearly and consistently labeled as AI-derived. I anticipate that those built would then be far smaller than the current proposed ones. I would sponsor legislation that would mandate alternative forms of energy like wind, solar, and geo-thermal energy to be supplied by the AI data centers themselves, before allowing them to use natural gas, if located in the gas basin of Pennsylvania, or the small nuclear reactors whose technology has not been fully achieved.
Regarding water usage, I would sponsor legislation that would mandate the recycling of gray water in order not to reduce costs to local residents.
KEYWORDS: AI data centers