About
Personal
Senator Christine M. Tartaglione was born September 21, 1960, in Philadelphia. She is the daughter of the late Eugene and late Margaret Tartaglione. The Senator is a lifetime Philadelphia resident. She attended St. Martin of Tours, St. Basil Academy, and Peirce Junior College where she graduated Maxima Cum Laude.
The Senator answered the call to public service at an early age by serving as an assistant to Philadelphia City Councilwoman Joan Krajewski from 1986-1989. She later worked as a Senior Executive Assistant to State Treasurer Catherine Baker Knoll from 1989-1992. Her commitment to working families led to the position of Business Representative for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1776 in 1992.
Legislative Accomplishments
In 1994, Senator Tartaglione became the fifth woman in state history to win election to the State Senate and in 2010 became the first woman to serve in Senate Democratic Leadership when she was elected Caucus Secretary. She now is the first woman to serve as the Senate Democratic Whip. Now in her eighth term, she serves as Democratic Chairwoman of the Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee, and serves on the Labor & Industry, Law & Justice, Rules & Executive Nominations, Veterans Affairs & Emergency Preparedness standing committees in the Senate, as well as the bicameral Legislative Budget and Finance Committee and the Senate Committee on Ethics and Official Conduct. She is a member of the Election Law Advisory Board under the Joint State Government Commission and the Board of Trustees of Temple University.
Senator Tartaglione is widely known as the Senate’s leading advocate for working families, fair wages, and people with disabilities. She authored Senate Bill 1090- Pennsylvania’s landmark 2006 minimum wage increase and was instrumental in the establishment of the state Office for People with Disabilities.
She was the principal sponsor of successful legislation protecting healthcare employees from the dangerous practice of mandatory overtime, as well as legislation that created the Pennsylvania Center for Health Careers. The Senator also authored legislation to provide the Commonwealth with a focus for developing strategies to ensure an ample complement of quality healthcare workers for the short-term and long term. She continues to be a leading advocate for safe nurse staffing levels.
Senator Tartaglione has acted to safeguard and support the Pennsylvania State Police. During the 2011-2012 session, her legislation was enacted to allocate additional funding to the PSP, allowing the department to reinforce its dwindling complement of troopers.
The senator’s advocacy for safe work environments extends to Pennsylvania’s public transit systems. She is the primary sponsor of legislation that strengthens the protections for transit workers from physical assaults. She has introduced legislation to provide OSHA protections like those enjoyed by private-sector employees to all state and local public employees, including school district and transportation authority employees.
Protecting and improving Pennsylvania’s unemployment compensation system has been a top priority for Senator Tartaglione throughout her tenure. During the 2011-2012 session, legislative amendments proposed by the Senator extended unemployment compensation benefits for workers and provided a shared work option in lieu of terminating jobs.
Before being elected Whip, Senator Tartaglione served as the Democratic Chairwoman of the Senate Labor & Industry Committee, where she worked closely with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry to modernize Pennsylvania’s aging unemployment compensation system and to help the Department provide jobless benefits to workers who have been displaced by the COVID-19 pandemic. She has helped thousands of unemployed workers to resolve delays or discrepancies in their benefits.
The Senator has spent her career focusing on issues that are important to senior citizens, women and children, working families, and the LGBTQIA+ community, including legislation that would:
- grow family-sustaining jobs
- protect the LGBTQIA+ community
- expand mental illness and intellectual disability programs
- advocate for law enforcement and emergency personnel
- increase education funding
- improve access to affordable health care and long-term care
- expand quality childcare
Senator Tartaglione has served as a member of Pennsylvania’s Public Television Network Commission, Intra-Governmental Council on Long Term Care, Task Force for the Protection of Older Pennsylvanians, Joint Select Committee to Investigate the Financial Integrity and Stability of the State Workmen’s Insurance Fund, Children’s Trust Fund Board, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.
As a member of both the Joint Select Committee on Election Issues and the Governor’s Task Force on Voting Modernization, the Senator has been at the forefront of efforts to reform Pennsylvania’s voting system. She has also been a member of the Firefighters and Emergency Services and the Port Legislative caucuses, the Delaware River Basin Commission, the Accessibility Advisory Board within the PA Department of Labor and Industry, the Workforce Compensation Advisory Council, the State Unemployment Compensation Advisory Council, and the Training America’s Teachers Commission.
Community Service and Awards
Locally, Senator Tartaglione serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of Temple University and Temple University Health System Episcopal Campus.
Senator Tartaglione was elected Vice-Chair of the Pennsylvania Democratic State Party in June 1995 and served as Chair from June 1998 to June 2002 where she continued to advance the Democratic agenda in the state. As Chair, she led the Pennsylvania Delegation at the 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles and served as President of the 54th Electoral College in December of 2000.
She has been awarded the prestigious John F. Kennedy Memorial Award by the Kennedy Foundation for her tireless support of Mental Health/Mental Disability Programs. Senator Tartaglione has also been named Legislator of the Year by Pennsylvania Industries for the Blind and Handicapped (PIBH). The Retired Police, Firemen, and Prison Guard Association of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Area Project on Occupational Safety and Health (PHILAPOSH) have named her Woman of the Year, and she has been selected as the recipient of the Firefighters Friend Award by the Philadelphia Firefighters and Paramedics Union Local No. 22, as well as Public Servant of the Year by the Philadelphia Public Record.
She is cited in the Italian Americans of the Twentieth Century and is a member of the Ecumenical Hospitaller Order of St. John Knights of Malta.
In 2022 Senator Tartaglione was the recipient of the Humanitarian Award from Self Help, a drug and alcohol treatment organization, for her dedicated service to the recovery community as well Person of the Year by Hispanic Media Company LLC, and the Community Lifetime Service Award from the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Latino Affairs (GACLA).
Updated April 2024
