Description of office: The US Constitution requires that the House of Representatives be composed of Representatives from each state, elected in proportion to population. There are 435 members of the House of Representatives, with 17 Representatives allotted to Pennsylvania after the 2020 census. A US Representative must be at least 25 years old, have been a citizen of the United States for the past seven years, and be a resident of the state they seek to represent at the time of the election (though not necessarily the same district). The House of Representatives is responsible for introducing and voting on bills, resolutions and amendments, and for approving the budget. Representatives also serve on various policy committees. The House may send Articles of Impeachment of elected officials to the Senate and elects the President if there is a tie in the Electoral College.Term: 2 yearsSalary: $174,000Vote for ONE.Note: Flint Hill Rd is on the border of two districts. If you live in Lehigh County on Flint Hill Rd, you should be seeing US Representative District 7 and State Representative District 131, rather than US Representative District 1 or State Representative District 145. To see US Representative District 7 and State Representative District 131, use the following address: 2006 Flint Hill Road, Coopersburg, PA 18036.
County
Bucks
Occupation
Public service sector consultant
Education
US Military Academy West Point (undergraduate), University of Oxford (graduate)
Qualifications
13 year combat veteran, Apache helicopter pilot, platoon leader, battalion logistics officer, pilot-in-command, US Army Captain and commander, worked to implement the CARES Act for county government during COVID
In Congress, I will fight for greater economic opportunity for PA-01, including increasing access to affordable housing and ensuring that the infrastructure bill is implemented in a fair manner. Additionally, I will work to increase our nation’s climate resilience, ardently fight for reproductive rights, and make our systems fairer by pushing for a permanent child tax credit and allow Medicare to fully negotiate for lower-cost prescription drugs. As the next representative of PA-01, I will always put the interests of my constituents first, and work with anyone, regardless of party, to move ahead reforms necessary to enable anyone, regardless of their background, to get ahead.
Our country has a real problem with the money that goes into our elections, especially outside money from Super PACs that attempt to buy elections and influence how Members of Congress vote. We first need to overturn Citizens United and quell the unlimited, untraceable spending on elections from special interest groups and millionaires. Having elections that can be bought and controlled by the extremely wealthy is a direct threat to our democracy. I oppose the presence of dark money in our local, state, and federal elections, and I do not take corporate PAC money - so that I am only accountable to the constituents of PA-01.
Protecting the right to vote and access to free and fair elections is essential to the health of our democracy. I fully support greater protections for our election system, including the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. As someone who fought for the rights of others overseas, it is important to me to protect those same rights here at home. In Congress, I will work to ensure every voter has the ability to exercise their constitutionally-protected right to choose their elected officials.
As a combat veteran with nearly 13 years of service in the U.S. Army, I support President Biden’s Diplomacy-First agenda. However, with the rise of global threats from actors such as Russia and China, in both ground and cyber warfare, I believe the United States must continue to build partnerships and alliances around the globe. They may be of a military nature, such as NATO, or through humanitarian aid and economic development programs. Democracy must be protected at home and abroad, and a robust, world-wide presence is the best manner in which to do this.
County
Bucks
Occupation
U.S. Congressman
Education
B.S. Business Administration, LaSalle University; J.D., Penn State Dickinson School of Law; M.B.A., Penn State
Qualifications
Former FBI Special Agent & Federal Prosector. Certified Public Accountant and EMT
We cannot play politics with our national security, when there are countless lives jeopardized everyday due to existing open border policies. The price of inaction is just too high, as fentanyl continues to flow across the border killing our fellow Americans and cartels exploit the porous border for criminal activity, in addition to raging wars in the Middle East and Europe. Lawmakers must rise above partisan gamesmanship and come together to solve pressing problems. That is why I introduced the bipartisan Defending Borders, Defending Democracies Act. This legislation provides, for one-year, necessary authorities to secure the U.S. southern border and supports critical military aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. We can and must do both.
We must fix a broken Washington with a government reform plan that challenges career politicians: term limits for members of Congress, pass a budget or don’t get paid, and balance the budget. These commonsense reforms would change the incentive structure and lead to more problem solving for the American people. Hyper-partisanship is also the greatest internal threat to our country. I also am pushing for legislation that allows access to political party primaries for Independents or non-affiliated voters. We need lawmakers answering to their entire constituency—not just showboating for a narrow sliver of the electorate. These reforms would be transformative and help promote the bipartisanship that our community and country wants.
We must restore faith in our elections and confidence in our democratic institutions. It should be easy to vote, and hard to cheat. That is why I authored H.R. 156, The Restoring Faith in Our Elections Act. My bill would require a photo ID in order to vote, require signature matching for absentee ballots, and ensure that only U.S. citizens are voting. I support eliminating partisan gerrymandering, which causes lawmakers to focus on accumulating power rather than serving constituents and has contributed to the partisanship that grinds the gears of government to a halt. We need independent, nonpartisan commissions to draw congressional maps and allow access to political party primaries for Independents or non-affiliated voters.
As the world’s oldest and strongest democracy, the United States’ primary responsibility must be to secure its own borders. But we also have an obligation to assist our allies in securing their borders, especially when they come under assault by dictators, terrorists, and totalitarians. Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan are all freedom-loving democracies, they are our allies, and we must assist them in protecting their borders just as we must protect our own. The world is watching, and if we abandon our allies now, I fear our nation will pay the price in the future. We must support the Ukrainian people in their fight for freedom and democracy and stand up to Putin’s brutal war of terror, and we must defend Israel against terrorist threats.
