Deputy DA announces candidacy for judge
Washington County Deputy District Attorney Traci McDonald-Kemp on Tuesday announced her candidacy for district judge.
McDonald-Kemp is seeking the seat vacated in 2013 by Valarie Costanzo when she was elected as a Washington County Court judge. It encompasses McDonald and Cecil and Mt. Pleasant townships. She has cross-filed.
McDonald-Kemp, 44, of McDonald, has spent 14 years with the district attorney’s office, which she said has prepared her to handle the role as district judge.
“Each day, I am tasked with making decisions that have a direct impact on the lives of many; I don’t take this task lightly,” McDonald-Kemp said in a news release. “As the next magisterial district judge for the Cecil, McDonald and Mt. Pleasant communities, the people can rest assured that I will use my proven courtroom experience and diverse legal experience to administer justice swiftly and impartially.”
McDonald-Kemp has been the recipient of the Washington County Athena Award, the Washington County Rotary Award for Vocational Excellence and has been recognized as one of the Women and Girls Foundation’s “Women Shaping the Law.”
She graduated from Clarion University and University of Pittsburgh Law School. McDonald-Kemp also is an adjunct professor at Waynesburg University at the Southpointe campus, teaching business and employment law.