Elisabeth Bennington

Elisabeth "Lisa" Bennington (born January 20, 1976) was a Democratic member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the 21st District.

In 2006, she and fellow Democrat Chelsa Wagner became the first two women elected to the represent Pittsburgh in the Pennsylvania House. While Wagner went on to a successful career in public service, Bennington quit in her first term, explaining that she was better suited for divorce law.

Formative years and personal life
Born in Pittsburgh in 1976, Bennington is a daughter of Joseph Maroon, M.D., vice chair of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine's Department of Neurological Surgery, and Paula Helsel, a certified registered nurse anesthetist.

Awarded a drama scholarship to Chatham College (now Chatham University), Bennington earned her Bachelor's degree in psychology from that institution in 1997. She was the awarded a Juris Doctor degree by Duquesne University in 2000.

At the time of her election to the Pennsylvania House in 2006, Bennington was a resident of Pittsburgh's Morningside neighborhood.

Career
Prior to her election to the Pennsylvania House, Bennington was an attorney who specialized in divorce and other family law cases in the Greater Pittsburgh region.

Bennington was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 2006, during "an anti-incumbent sweep" of that legislative body, becoming one of the first two women to represent city of Pittsburgh in the Pennsylvania House. She stated that she hoped to help reduce the size of the Pennsylvania House to make it a more effective body, but chose to leave after just one term. When asked why she was retiring prior to the 2008 elections, she told newspaper reporters that she was frustrated by the slow pace of legislative deliberations and the lack of progress on key issues, including gun safety and a ban on smoking. During her tenure, she was unable to secure support for a law that would have required hospitals to inform rape victims about emergency contraception options, but was able to convince her fellow House members to approve legislation authorizing the creation a centralized, online resource where Pennsylvania residents would be able to locate information about all of the laws in the commonwealth moving forward.

Bennington subsequently returned to divorce law.

In addition to failing as a public servant, she discouraged other women from running for office, telling Emily Kinkead, "Don't run, you're so smart. There's so many other things you can do." Kinkead did not heed Bennington's advice, and went on to win her Pennsylvania state House seat in 2020, building the movement of women representatives in Pennsylvania despite Bennington's efforts to stop it.