Two GOP candidates announce for Rep. Shuster's seat
Two Republicans have announced that they will be running for the seat that U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Everett, is leaving.
Several other politicians also are considering a run to represent Pennsylvania’s 9th Congressional District. Shuster has held the position since winning a special election in 2001.
Some names are new. Others have previously run for office.
More:U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster will not seek re-election
More:Who will replace Shuster? Our economy hinges on answer (Editorial)
“With the surprise announcement coming from Bill Shuster yesterday, I have decided to move my campaign up to this year,” said Benjamin Dayton Hornberger on Wednesday.
Hornberger, a 23-year-old Shippensburg man, had been preparing for a congressional campaign in 2020. Hornberger has attracted media attention for his ardent support of President Trump and for accidentally shooting himself in the leg during a free speech rally at the Gettysburg National Military Park.
If elected, he would be younger than the minimum age (25 years) required to hold the office.
"It would come down to Article I Section 5 of the Constitution on whether Congress would seat me or not," Hornberger said. "That article and section gives Congress the authority to seat members-elect even if they don't meet the age requirements."
Art Halvorson, a retired Coast Guard captain from Bedford County and real estate entreprenuer, made his third run official on Tuesday, just hours after Shuster’s announcement. Halvorson previously lost to Shuster in the 2014 and 2016 Primary elections and the 2016 General Election.
Halvorson, a tea party conservative, said there is an urgent need to support Trump’s efforts to clean up Washington D.C., and to break the cartel of lobbyists and career politicians still controlling Congress. He pledged to serve just three terms and to refuse the congressional pension.
Read:Dollar General stores indicate good things for Franklin County in 2018
State senators are also weighing their options. The district spans four senatorial districts. Sens. John Eichelberger and Richard Alloway II told Public Opinion that they are considering running. PoliticsPa reports that Sen. Patrick Stefano is interested.
The Primary is on May 15. Candidates can circulate nominating petitions on Feb . 13.
Eichelberger chaired the Blair County GOP when he vied against Shuster in 2001 for the nod from Republican leaders.
“I am giving serious thought to running for the 9th Congressional District seat and have been encouraged to run by many people over the past several months,” Eichelberger said on Tuesday. “With the announcement today that Bill Shuster is not seeking re-election, I have received too many emails, texts and phone calls to answer this afternoon. I plan to make a decision over the next couple of weeks.”
Home cooking will figure into the Primary races.
"My initial reaction is that I would really like to see someone from Franklin County run, and clearly the first person I think of is Sen. Rich Alloway," said G. Warren L Elliott, former Franklin County commissioner. "There are others that I think would make an excellent candidate, like commissioner Dave Keller. I'm certain that there are more. I think it's highly unlikely that I would offer myself as a candidate."
It’s a three-hour drive from the east part of the 9th District to the western edge. It stretches across all or parts of 11 counties -- from the farm fields of Cumberland Valley to the coal mines near Pittsburgh.
Some candidates may think that President Trump’s tweets herald an effective way to mobilize voters, according to Alison Dagnes, a political scientist at Shippensburg University. But, votes are won by meeting constituents face-to-face. Political newcomers will have a steep learning curve.
“You need a ground game,” she said.
Winning an exhaustive ground game in the Primary is likely to make the General Election a formality. Pennsylvania’s 9th District is the strongest Republican district in the state (+19 percentage points,) according to the Cook Political Report. Seventy-one percent of Franklin County voters in 2016 went with Trump.
Dagnes said that the rift between the Stephen Bannon wing and the “establishment” wing of the Republican Party will manifest itself less in the 9th District than across the nation. The 9th also will not be part of the Democratic tsunami in the mid-term elections.
“Our district is openly conservative,” Dagnes said. “I hope that person (who wins the 9th) is someone who wants to go to Washington and not burn the place down and who wants to listen and lead. We need people to start solving problems instead of making bigger ones. We need people in there who can talk to others, even to people they don’t agree with. We don’t need a saint or someone who is smarter than everybody else. Fifty years of despising politicians and government has taken its toll.”
Dagnes suspects that the climate inside the beltway had something to do with Shuster’s decision not to seek re-election.
“Things have gotten so nasty and hostile, it’s not a fun job anymore,” she said. “If you don’t have to do it, why do it? If people can be dissuaded from running that speaks to a larger problem we have nationally, which is getting good people to run for office. I do not like how hated Washington and politicians are. They’re doing their best. For us to cast them off as losers in hurtful.”
Jim Hook, 717-262-4759