What originally inspired Eileen Hartnett Albillar to run for State Senate, and why now?

People ask Eileen Hartnett Albillar this a lot, and she always says: she didn't plan a career in politics. She is a trained social worker and always just wanted to help people. But at some point, you realize that the problems you're solving one family at a time don't get fixed unless someone in a position of power actually understands what people are going through.

Albillar has spent years doing the work with neighbors in Warrington trying to keep the lights on and a roof over their heads. And what Albillar kept running into, over and over, was a system that wasn't designed to make things easier for people. It was just designed to sustain itself.

When Albillar was at the Bucks County Opportunity Council, she would watch families jump through hoops for housing assistance that should have been straightforward. When she was a Township Supervisor, she saw how long it took to get things done that local residents had needed for years — and how much faster it happened when someone was willing to push. And now, as Clerk of Courts, Albillar sees every single day what happens to people when they fall through the cracks of a system that's supposed to serve them.

What pushed Albillar to run for State Senate specifically was looking at what was happening in Harrisburg and asking: who is fighting for Bucks County there? Because the answers Albillar was seeing — on SEPTA, on affordability, on education — weren't good enough. And she thought, if not her, then who?

Albillar is a Warminster native. She raised her kids here. Her father was a lifelong public servant. She knows what it means to serve. And she knows what it means to actually get things done. She thinks that's what this moment calls for.