Contact: Sydney Robinson

Communications Director 

sydney@pahdcc.com

(850) 390-1395

Pine Grove Mills, PA – On Wednesday, Democratic Leadership including Congressman Chris Deluzio, Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis and PA Dems Chair Eugene DePasquale joined rural Representatives and State House Candidates for a Picnic and Rural Roundtable at the Ferguson Township Lions Club Park in Pine Grove Mills to discuss the issues affecting Democrats from the national stage all the way to the smallest pockets of rural Pennsylvania. 

State House Candidates Kimberly Kohlhepp (Clearfield, Elk), Caleb McCoy (Blair), John Zangari (Centre, Mifflin), and Rick Telesz (Butler, Lawrence) attended and shared their districts’ concerns and priorities. 

Download event video clips and photos here.

Rural Democrats Roundtable: 

Caleb McCoy: “There is a huge opportunity for us in Pennsylvania to make a better life for working class people. We could make life better, easier, and more affordable for everyday people with just a little bit of change, and we could make things even better with a lot of change.” 

 Kimberly Kohlhepp: “Elk County just lost their last labor and delivery ward. Just over the last few months, several women have given birth in an ambulance, and I just found out yesterday there was a woman who gave birth on her kitchen table. So when they talk about focus on the kitchen table topics, right? This is it.”

John Zangari: “[During Data Center discussions,] I'm sitting across the aisle from people who would be considered far right leaning conservatives, and we're sitting in the same fight, saying we don't want this data center here because it's going to destroy our environment. We don't want it because it's going to harm our ecosystem. We don't want it because it's going to raise our prices. When we talk about speaking to rural Pennsylvanians, how do you reach across the aisle? Data centers have been one of the biggest door openers.”

Rick Telesz: “Agriculture is a big part of Pennsylvania's economy, and there are thousands of small family farms. And family farms are becoming extinct. One of the reasons we're seeing this trend is the farm cannot generate enough cash flow to keep up, and one of those burdens that's put on our family farms across Pennsylvania is property taxes.”

Congressman Chris Deluzio:

• “I'm a Millennial, born in the 80s. If you are my age or younger, we are the first Americans since the Second World War who, the data says, you don't expect to be better off than your parents. That didn't just happen with Donald Trump. That is a failure across decades, and we should own restoring the American dream as Democrats.” 

  
  

• “I think in this moment, patriotism demands some courage, courage for us to step out and run, to knock a door, to talk to your neighbors, to try to win these races up and down the ballot.”

Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis:

• “We have 83 days until election day, and so I'm here to ask you to lean in a little further, to knock on a few more doors, to organize for those candidates who are running in rural seats and seats that might be a little tougher, and to help build the infrastructure so Democrats can win and compete everywhere here in Pennsylvania.”

PA Dems Party Chair Eugene DePasquale:

• “ [Our Pennsylvania House Democratic candidates in rural communities are] out there doing the work to reach the people we need to reach to not only expand our majority in the House, not only to flip the state Senate and help reelect Governor [Shapiro], but also the type of voters we need to win back if we're going to be a new majority to reelect a Democratic president and get this country back on track.”

• “Rural Pennsylvania, just like rural America, is getting screwed by [the Trump] Administration, perhaps as much, if not more so, than any other part of the United States.”

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