Beth Farnham
Beth Farnham was an officeholder of the Conewago Valley School District, Region 2 in Pennsylvania. She left office in 2023.
Farnham (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Pennsylvania's 13th Congressional District. She lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Farnham completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Beth Farnham grew up in Maryland and lives in Conewago Township, Pennsylvania. She graduated from Annapolis Sr. High School. Farnham earned a bachelor's degree in biology from Towson University.[1] Her career experience includes working as a credit analyst and administrative assistant. Farnham also has experience as a stay-at-home parent.[2]
Elections
2024
See also: Pennsylvania's 13th Congressional District election, 2024
Pennsylvania's 13th Congressional District election, 2024 (April 23 Republican primary)
Pennsylvania's 13th Congressional District election, 2024 (April 23 Democratic primary)
General election
General election for U.S. House Pennsylvania District 13
Incumbent John Joyce defeated Beth Farnham in the general election for U.S. House Pennsylvania District 13 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | John Joyce (R) | 74.1 | 301,460 | |
| Beth Farnham (D) | 25.8 | 104,823 | ||
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.2 | 779 | ||
| Total votes: 407,062 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. House Pennsylvania District 13
Beth Farnham advanced from the Democratic primary for U.S. House Pennsylvania District 13 on April 23, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Beth Farnham | 98.8 | 32,568 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 1.2 | 404 | ||
| Total votes: 32,972 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Padraic Lee (D)
Republican primary election
Republican primary for U.S. House Pennsylvania District 13
Incumbent John Joyce advanced from the Republican primary for U.S. House Pennsylvania District 13 on April 23, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | John Joyce | 99.1 | 82,675 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.9 | 731 | ||
| Total votes: 83,406 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Farnham in this election.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Beth Farnham completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Farnham's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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Like many Pennsylvanians who live near the Mason-Dixon line, Beth is a native Marylander, having graduated from Annapolis Sr. High School, Anne Arundel Community College, and Towson University. With a degree in Biology, French, and Secondary Education, Beth uses that knowledge, in addition to her past experience as a credit analyst, an administrative assistant for an aerial work platform manufacturer, a facilitator of Medicare B claims, and a pharmacy technician, to do some occasional consulting work for an A.I. company.
While Beth existed as a Registered Republican for over 25 years, she was always sympathetic to Democratic causes. During the 2016 election, she fully realized just how much the Republican party subverted American ideals of Democracy for conspiracy theory and Christian nationalism, so she voted only for Democrats. Imbued with a deep love for our country, Beth is dedicated to Our Precious Democracy, Reproductive Freedom - including abortion access, Immigration Reform, Gun Sense, Evidence-based Science, Public Education, and Universal Healthcare, marching and protesting for these issues for years, but it is time to turn her activism into a seated vote in the US House of Representatives.- We must protect and strengthen Our Precious Democracy. The United States of America has historically been a beacon of Democracy, changing the world with its norms of voting rights, peaceful transitions of power, and oaths to the Constitution, instead of to any leaders. However, in December 2020, Donald Trump, now an accused criminal, denied the valid election of President Joe Biden, and, with his worshippers, threatened the Democracy we hold so dear. Spreading false claims about election fraud and failing to install fake electors, Trump incited a violent insurrection at our nation's Capitol, absconded with classified documents, and is now indicted for both. Trump and his supporters must be held accountable or our Democracy will die.
- We must enshrine into law our Reproductive Freedom, including abortion access. We own our bodies and have agency over them. To deprive us of such fundamental rights is to relegate us to second class citizenship. If we permit states to come between us and healthcare decisions, including that of abortion (like the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022 did), birth control, and gender-affirming care, then the control of our bodies, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, is at greater risk of loss. Congress must enact these and other healthcare rights into law.
- Gun violence is the number one killer of US children. To prevent further tragedy, Congress must pass sensible legislation for Americans to safely store firearms, report losses or theft of firearms, ensure universal background checks for all gun sales, and deploy Extreme Risk Protection Orders. Most Americans support sensible gun legislation, but many Republican congressionals have rejected The Will of the People. It is time to change this by electing Democratic candidates, like Beth Farnham, to Congress who will enact such sensible legislation.
Not only has indicted Donald Trump threatened our sacred right to vote by inciting a violent insurrection on January 6, 2021, the day the US House of Representatives certified the electoral votes of Joe Biden, but so have his supporters, including Pennsylvania's 13th Congressional District's current Representative, incumbent John Joyce.
Joyce refused to certify the valid electoral votes of President Joe Biden on January 6, 2021, but worse than that, in December 2020, he and 125 other congressional Republicans signed the Texas Amicus Brief, which was an attempt to eliminate the valid electoral votes of Pennsylvania and a few other states, based on Trump's lie of election fraud.
That elected representatives would throw away American votes is an egregious anti-American idea, but that sitting members of US Congress were those very people is nearly unfathomable.
John Joyce does not deserve to be voted back to the US House of Representatives, much less serve the voters whose votes he tried to trash.
And Donald Trump, along with his law-breaking supporters, deserve to be incarcerated for their violent attempt to overthrow our government..
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign website
Farnham’s campaign website stated the following:
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Our Precious Democracy Over the centuries, the United States of America extended the right to vote and personal freedoms to greater and greater groups of Americans, while simultaneously dominating as a world power in military might, business acumen, law, and wealth. Because our leaders historically took seriously their oaths to the Constitution, they did the necessary work of governance, no matter their political party affiliations, to deliver this greatness from our country, and The USA became a beacon of Democracy. But today, our Congress, the heart of our Democracy, where legislation regulates how we operate domestically and internationally, has all but ceased to function. This lack of commitment to work is due to the intransigence of elected Republicans whose party is currently spearheaded by an accused criminal, Donald Trump. Donald Trump falsely claimed election fraud to steal an election for himself, incited a violent insurrection to remain in power, sabotaged State secrets, bankrupted his businesses, failed multiple marriages, and promotes Christian nationalism. All of his actions have been an attack on our very Democracy and that is why he will be on trial throughout 2024. Not only did our current US Representative, John Joyce, vote against certifying the valid electoral votes of President Biden in the 2020 election, but Representative Joyce signed the Texas Amicus Brief, along with several other Republican lawmakers, in a reprehensible attempt to delete the valid electoral votes of all law-abiding Pennsylvania voters for that election, based on no evidence of fraud. If John Joyce and his cronies remain in power, they are more than likely to prevent Trump, or themselves, from experiencing the judicious consequences of their appalling effort to deny Pennsylvanians (and other Americans) our sacred right to vote. Moreover, our government would cease to function just as Joyce voted for a shutdown, instead of the Continuing Resolution, weeks ago. We cannot risk the care of our precious Democracy to fall once more into the hands of those who would take it from us. Please vote for Beth Farnham for US Representative of Pennsylvania’s 13th District as I will do everything in my power to protect your right to vote and I will continue the necessary operation of our government for all of my constituents, and our fellow Americans, no matter our party affiliation, because I love my country. Reproductive Freedom Because we have agency over our bodies, we make healthcare decisions like: abortion, birth control, disease prevention, nutrition, exercise, and gender-affirming surgery, with trusted medical professionals. No one has the right to stand between us and these fundamental decisions that do not negatively impact public health, nor does anyone have the right to such private medical information, much less weaponize it against us like Republican attorneys general have decided to do in 19 states. Agency of our bodies is paramount because, as demonstrated in Texas through Kate Cox’s heartbreaking story, when legislators, who have no medical expertise, force draconian abortion laws that impose the continuation of unviable fetus over the life of a mother threatened by miscarriage, she must leave the State to survive. Congress MUST enshrine reproductive freedom into law to protect these basic rights for all Americans. Gun Safety Gun violence is the number one killer of Pennsylvania children. Not cancer. Not car accidents. Unique to the United States of America, gun violence is the number one killer of children because laws to:
Since the National Rifle Association (NRA) has raised millions of dollars to lobby legislators who would vote against such common sense regulations, thousands of children die brutal, blood spattered deaths every year. Elect Beth Farnham to help craft such sensible legislation as listed above in order to prevent the senseless killing of US children, and other Americans, by firearms. Immigration Reform Undocumented immigrants pay federal taxes. Undocumented immigrants pay state taxes. Undocumented immigrants pay local taxes. Undocumented immigrants pay sales taxes. To know the above information is to accept boring truths – that people who live among us in the 13th Congressional District and pick our fruit, staff our tourism industry, build our homes, prepare our food, maintain our yards, and whose labor we rely on in so many ways, contribute to our society. And like generations of huddled masses before them, these taxpayers work hard and nurture families, supporting and sustaining America, all while denied a path to legal residency and its benefits. According to The American Immigration Council, “Undocumented immigrants in Pennsylvania paid an estimated $418.1 million in federal taxes and $238.3 million in state and local taxes in 2018. Pennsylvania DACA recipients and DACA-eligible individuals paid an estimated $17.4 million in state and local taxes in 2018.” That older data from the second sentence of the quote about DACA recipients aligns with the 2022 assertion from the Migration Policy Institute that, “DACA holders contribute nearly $42 billion to U.S. gross domestic product each year and add $3.4 billion to the federal balance sheet.” In other words, undocumented immigrants and DACA recipients in Pennsylvania paid hundreds of millions of dollars in federal and state taxes in 2018 alone, helping our economy and boosting our Social Security and Medicare programs. Since then, estimates of taxes paid by undocumented immigrants and DACA recipients have only grown larger, but to swallow the dehumanizing and Republican lie of “Illegals don’t pay taxes” is to be ignorant of this truth.
Healthcare For the newborn to the elderly, for those suffering pre-existing conditions to the newly-diagnosed, for those simply needing annual physicals to those requiring hospital stays, healthcare is a must that advances survival and increases quality of life. In every other developed country, citizens have such universal healthcare, but in America we do not. Medicaid, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act have attempted to fill gaps of iniquity, but those safety nets are frequently targeted by Republicans who falsely claim to offer alternatives, but offer nothing of substance. While the Biden administration has done a phenomenal job of signing up new members to the Affordable Care Act, it is not enough. Hard-working Americans whose wages put them above the Federal Poverty Line, but whose employers don’t offer healthcare benefits are still strapped by significant medical expenses whenever they suffer a health crisis or seek preventative routine care. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, “medical debt has become a leading cause of personal bankruptcy, with an estimated $88 billion of that debt in collections nationwide.” If Republicans hadn’t hobbled the Affordable Care Act early on, more Americans would have had access to preventable care, staving off crises, and those personal bankruptcies might have been avoided. Additionally, Americans are unduly burdened by trying to understand what care they can receive and/or afford in a confusing patchwork of healthcare services from urban state-of-the-art hospitals to rural healthcare centers that by turns unpredictably reward or punish those who dare to move across state or even county lines. For example, in PA-13, Juniata County is one of six counties considered a “maternal health desert” which are counties “…where maternity care services—like prenatal doctor visits, screenings for preeclampsia and other pregnancy complications, and hospitals or clinics with birth centers—are limited or nonexistent.” In Franklin County, Wellspan Chambursburg Hospital stopped admitting pediatric patients this month and transferred their pediatric staff elsewhere, while Wellspan Waynesboro Hospital already didn’t admit pediatric patients. In other words, children in Franklin county who need ongoing care must seek it at least an hour away at Penn State Health Children’s Hospital in Hershey, UPMC Harrisburg, WellSpan York Hospital or the state of Maryland. Our current US Representative, John Joyce, frequently announces his support for Community Healthcare Centers which provide basic services for rural residents, but many PA-13 mothers and children need far more healthcare than a few stitches or flu testing. Recently, the expansion of Medicaid that provided children and families with healthcare throughout the pandemic ended and over 121k children were dropped in Pennsylvania alone. Sadly, only 53k have enrolled in Pennsylvania’s Children’s Health Insurance Program, known as CHIP by most parents. Who or what is covering then the healthcare costs for the nearly 70k Pennsylvania children left behind? And what about the 2 million children across the other states who haven’t successfully enrolled in CHIP? Congress must strengthen the Affordable Care Act and reinstate its original parameters so that Americans across the country can access a consistent network of the excellent and affordable care it sought to provide before Republicans sabotaged it. Public Education Guaranteeing access to formal education for generations of Americans has contributed to advancements in medicine, technology, business, law, economics, literature, arts, and a myriad of other ways throughout the centuries. Public education can never discriminate against its students on the basis of race, color, religion, language, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation, and pregnancy), national origin, or disability. Quality public instruction promotes student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by exposing them to the truest and newest information available. Primary sources of history, field trips to original works of art and architecture, texts from multiple perspectives and literary styles, scientific experimentation, proven mathematical formulae, comprehensive and LGBTQ+ inclusive sexuality instruction, musical performances, mixed media creations, and so many more practica, delivered by licensed professional educators provide students with life-changing knowledge, opportunities, and standards to meet those goals of achievement. To continue to turn out competitive American graduates, Congress must ensure that federal tax dollars even out state or local iniquities of poorly resourced regions, and that no tax dollars fund private or parochial schools through vouchers or any other mechanism.[3] |
” |
| —Beth Farnham’s campaign website (2024)[4] | ||
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Ballotpedia staff, "Email communication with Beth Farnham," September 12, 2024
- ↑ Beth Farnham for Congress, "Meet Beth," accessed March 7, 2024
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Beth Farnham for Congress, “Priorities,” accessed March 7, 2024
