La’Tasha Mayes

La'Tasha Mayes is an American activist and politician who is a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. A member of the Democratic Party, she represents the 24th district, which contains parts of Pittsburgh.

Early life and education Mayes was born and raised in West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2003 with a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration. She then attended Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University, where she graduated with a Master of Science degree in public policy and management in 2005.

Early career Mayes is an activist and community organizer for reproductive justice. advocacy group emphasizing the reproductive health and well-being of Black women and LGBT people in Pennsylvania and Ohio, and served as its president and executive director until 2022. In 2022, deeming the result of the gubernatorial election critical to protecting abortion rights in Pennsylvania, the group endorsed and helped to organize voters for Democratic nominee Josh Shapiro.

In 2008, New Voices for Reproductive Justice was among the leading groups to lobby for the creation of human relations commissions at the county and state levels to enforce statutes of non-discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation. In 2022, Mayes identified the strengthening of the provisions of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act to a full LGBT non-discrimination ordinance as a campaign priority in her run for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

In 2015, Mayes ran for the Pittsburgh City Council in the 7th district, losing the Democratic primary to incumbent Deborah Gross. won a plurality of the committee vote and was thus nominated, while Mayes placed second out of six candidates. Covington won the special election on April 5 and was seated on April 26.

Subsequently, Mayes ran again for the seat in the regular Democratic primary on May 17 for the full term that would begin in 2023. In her announcement, she said that she was motivated to run to improve community health in the district, with a particular focus on addressing inequities in healthcare that were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Political observers noted that Mayes won despite Covington again receiving the endorsement of the county Democratic committee, Environmental Resources and Energy