Senator James Brewster Contact information

James R. Brewster, born in 1947 or 1948, is an American politician who has been serving as a member of the Pennsylvania Senate for the 45th District since 2010. He was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and currently resides in McKeesport, Pennsylvania.

Brewster earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in education from the California University of Pennsylvania. Before his political career, he worked at Mellon Bank, first as a fraud investigator and later as the vice-president.

In 1995, Brewster became a McKeesport City Councilman and served as council president for seven years prior to being elected mayor in 2004. On November 2, 2010, Brewster won a special election to fill the remaining term of Senator Sean F. Logan, who had resigned his seat on August 24, 2010, to take a position at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Brewster was sworn into the Pennsylvania Senate on November 17, 2010.

In July 2020, Brewster organized a meeting with bar and restaurant owners and signed a letter to Governor Tom Wolf urging him to lessen the restrictions on them imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In January 2021, although Brewster narrowly defeated his opponent, Republican Nicole Ziccarelli, by 69 votes, the Republican-led State Senate refused to swear in Brewster for his fourth term, despite the fact that his win had already been certified by state officials. Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman attempted to swear Brewster in. In a bizarre move, Republican leaders voted to remove Fetterman from his presiding role and halt Brewster’s seating. Senator Jake Corman, when reading out names of the new and re-elected senators, intentionally omitted Brewster’s, with Republicans once again voting to confirm the disruptive action. After a federal court ruling re-affirmed his win over Ziccarelli, Brewster was sworn in on January 13, 2021.

Brewster has served as a director or board member for the Allegheny League of Municipalities; Pennsylvania League of Cities and Municipalities; McKeesport Optimist Club; Municipal Risk Management; Allegheny County Air Quality Control; McKeesport Development Corporation; McKeesport Recreation Board; Penn State Greater Allegheny. He served on the Board of Directors at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum Trust, Inc., and continues as Secretary of the Board of Port Authority of Allegheny County, Vice President of the Board of Monroeville Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Chairman of the McKeesport Housing Authority.