Sara Wallace was born and raised in Pennsylvania, and has been a resident of Delaware County for more than a decade. The daughter of a public school teacher and the first woman in her family to attend college, she is passionate about the transformative power of education. For the past 18 years, Sara has built a career in higher education advancement, and is pleased to apply this experience in service to the Radnor Democrats as the fundraising co-chair for the 2019 School Board slate. Professionally, she has supported successful comprehensive fundraising campaigns as a development executive at three area schools – Villanova University, the University of Pennsylvania and now Bryn Mawr College, where she currently serves as senior philanthropic advisor.

As volunteer legislative lead for the Philadelphia Chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, part of Everytown for Gun Safety, Sara has been an advocate for gun violence prevention legislation at both the state and federal levels. She is also an active member of Radnor Residents for Gun Safety, working locally on grassroots partnerships in our township in support of gun violence prevention.

Sara was recently accepted into the 2019 Pennsylvania Cohort of Emerge America, a national organization that trains Democratic women to run for public office. In building upon her first-hand understanding of both urban and rural life in our state, she is committed to advancing Democratic causes important to Delaware County and beyond - common-sense gun safety, access to quality public education and health care, environmental protections, equality in our workplaces and communities, and holding the legislators who represent us to high standards of service.

Sara lives in Villanova with her husband Chris and their two children who attend Radnor Elementary School, where she is a member of the PTO Executive Board as vice president of fundraising. Sara served for six years as chair of the Stewardship Council at her parish, St. Thomas of Villanova, in Rosemont. She has also been active in a variety of volunteer roles at her alma mater Villanova University, in Development and Alumni Relations and in Admissions. Sara tries to spend as much of her free time as possible outdoors with family – hiking, canoeing, lake and creek fishing, and identifying things that are blooming and flying in all seasons.

For decades, Delaware County has been the only one, out of 67 counties in Pennsylvania, to have no minority party representation requirement. Even Philadelphia City Council must have at least two non-majority party (currently Republicans) on its council. Delco’s 5-0 Republican County Council had been in place for decades and has given us the only privately run, corporate-owned prison in Pennsylvania. In a for-profit prison system, profits (taxpayer money paid to the corporation) increase as the inmate population increases, as the total number incarceration days increase, and as the cost and quality of inmate food, health care, and basic human services decreases. Sadly, it was not surprising that the brother of the County Republican Party boss was the Superintendent of our private prison, and the prison had numerous scandals and inmate suicides.  Unlike other large counties, Delco has no health department, has a history of awarding no-bid contracts to cronies, and all of us have been paying this invisible “corruption tax.” 

Historically, registration changes and Democratic county-wide victories for president starting in the 1990's provided a glimmer of hope. Democrats could sometimes win even-numbered year elections for president, senate, congress and governor in Delco. But until 2017, we always lost the odd-numbered year contested elections for county-wide offices such as County Council and common pleas court judges.

Since 1875, the Republican boot remained firmly planted on the throat of Delaware County and all of its largest municipalities; that is until 2009, when the first large domino fell. Ten years ago, in 2009, the canary in the coal mine; Radnor Township (population 31,000+), one of the largest of Delaware County’s 49 municipalities; that bastion of Republican power and control on the Main Line for well over a century, shockingly fell to the Democrats! It was 2009, the year Elaine Paul Schaefer was first elected to Radnor’s first Democratic majority Board of Commissioners in history. Over her eight years in office, Elaine, the first woman Board of Commissioners’ President in Radnor’s history, and her fellow Democrats, ushered in an era of enlightened, fiscally responsible, citizen-centered government that continues today. Now, Democrat Lisa Borowski, the second woman Board President in Radnor’s history, leads the current Democratic-majority Board.

Some thought that the Radnor Democrats’ 2009 victory would result in an immediate domino effect, but not so fast. Republicans dug in their heels in the other large municipalities and all have remained Republican, albeit barely. Radnor has remained, for the last ten years, the largest Democratically controlled municipality in Delaware County. In 2016, Hillary Clinton crushed Donald Trump in Radnor by more than 2-1, garnering over 10,000 votes and beating him by well over 5,000 votes. Notably, Trump won small pluralities (in the hundreds, not thousands) in neighboring Marple, Newtown and Springfield townships. Even in 2017, as the Republicans were beaten county-wide, Republicans in the other, larger townships of Upper Darby and Haverford, barely clung to power. 

But county-wide in 2017, in an unprecedented post-Donald Trump backlash, Democrats won both available seats on County Council and won all three row offices (Sheriff, Register of Wills and County Controller).  So, as the 2019 political year dawns, Republicans cling to a 3-2 majority on County Council, with the seats of all three Republican incumbents up for election this year.

All of the experts are predicting that in the General Election coming up this November, we will take down the Delaware County Republican machine once and for all, and elect Democrats as the majority party governing the county. Yes, we will all likely be a part of and witness history this year.

That is why the upcoming February 24, 2019 Democratic Nominating Convention is so important. We will be endorsing candidates for the Primary election, and are especially intent on helping Elaine Schaefer win the endorsement this month for County Council, the nomination in May’s Primary and the General Election in November. We saw how well Elaine governed Radnor, as she and the Democratic Board discarded decades of Republican waste, fraud and abuse. She will do the same for our county.

Stay tuned….. 2019 promises to be quite a ride – and we in the RDC will jump-start it on February 24th.