On Tuesday, state Sen. Kim Ward, R-Hempfield, notched another first.

After serving as the first female Senate Majority Leader for the past two years, she was elected by her fellow Republicans to become the chamber’s Senate President Pro Tempore. She is also the first woman to serve in that role.

She takes over the position from Sen. Jake Corman, R-Centre.

It’s not the first time she took that path. She followed Corman into the Senate Majority Leader job after he took the pro tem mantle from a retiring Joseph Scarnati in 2020. He was the shortest-serving person to hold the position as president pro tem in more than 50 years. Scarnati did the job 13 years. Before him, Robert Jubelirer did it for more than 20.

There are lessons in this for Ward that have nothing to do with being the first woman and everything to do with what worked and what didn’t for those who went before.

• Sen. Kim Ward makes history as 1st female pro tempore of Pa. Senate

Corman is not just a senator. He is also a second- generation senator who all but inherited the family business when his late father, J. Doyle Corman, retired in 1999. He made an early bid for senate leadership in 2006 but didn’t get the majority leader position until 2015. He was good at that job, which is to represent the party in power. It is inherently, innately political. That is the point.

The president pro tempore is elected by the majority but still represents the body as a whole. It is not the leadership of the Republicans — or Democrats, although only five of them have had the chance since 1875. That’s why the majority leader and pro tem are not the same person.

Corman was a very political pro tem, and he definitely wasn’t the first to take that path. But for the benefit of her own career, for the district she represents and for the people of Pennsylvania overall, Ward would be best served not following in Corman’s footsteps.

The job of the pro tem is to make sure the Senate runs fairly, runs smoothly and sometimes operates in a way that is better for the people than the party. The pro tem is the adult in a room that too often has the feeling of a school cafeteria given to cliques and food fights.

After multiple consecutive elections that have been bare-knuckle brawls, and oh, so many budget fight gang wars, the people of Pennsylvania are desperate for someone to just make things work.

If Ward really wants to make history, that’s the way she can leave her own footsteps for others to follow.

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