Jonathan Keeler

Jonathan Keeler (50) a union truck driver and self-professed Blue Dog Democrat who is dedicated to fiscal responsibility and commonsense solutions, announces his intention to seek the Democratic nomination for State Representative in Pennsylvania's 106th District. Jonathan was born in Washington, D.C. and shortly thereafter his family moved to Pennsylvania where his father took a job as a pastor of a Lutheran Church and his mother taught Spanish at the local high school. Jonathan attended Bloomsburg University and graduated with a B.A. in Political Science, finishing up his last semester as a White House Intern in the Office of Scheduling and Advance for President Clinton. In 1998 Jonathan and his wife Jennifer moved to Hershey and have been here ever since. They have two daughters in the Derry Township School District. Jonathan then spent 15 years in the IT industry working on everything from medical billing systems for hospitals and physicians to training and implementing weapons system software as a contractor for the US military. Jonathan has spent the last 14 years working in the logistics industry keeping our economy moving, the last seven of which have been as a Teamster and union member!

• We can raise wages and improve working conditions by increasing the minimum wage to keep pace with inflation, helping people join unions, and guaranteeing everyone earned sick time.
• We can invest in our infrastructure and safeguard our environment by fixing our roads and bridges, expanding our transit systems, and protecting our air and water.
• We can fix our rigged tax system by asking those with the most to do their part, while decreasing taxes on working-class and middle-class Pennsylvania families. And we need to finally find a way to reduce or eliminate property taxes.

Jonathan wants to go to Harrisburg to level the playing field for working families.

• We can raise wages and improve working conditions by increasing the minimum wage to keep pace with inflation, helping people join unions, and guaranteeing everyone earned sick time.
  

• We can adequately and equitably fund K-12 public education and provide free or reduced tuition for public colleges and job training programs so that all Pennsylvanians have the opportunity to find meaningful and well-paid work.
  

• We can support women at home in and the workplace by fighting for access to equal opportunity, equal pay, affordable childcare and a focus on creating legal and social conditions in which women have equal access to nutrition, health care, education, jobs and the ability to control their bodies without government interference.
  

• We can invest in our infrastructure and safeguard our environment by fixing our roads and bridges, expanding our transit systems, and protecting our air and water.
  

• We can fix our rigged tax system by asking those with the most to do their part, while decreasing taxes on working-class and middle-class Pennsylvania families. And we need to finally find a way to reduce or eliminate property taxes.
  

• Lastly, we can secure our democracy by protecting the integrity of our elections. We do that by ending gerrymandering, making it easier to vote and limiting the effects of money on politics.

U.S. Representative John Lewis. The courage John Lewis showed as one of the thirteen original Freedom Riders is nothing short of inspirational!

Thomas Paine's Common Sense.

Honesty, Integrity and Compassion.

Honesty, Integrity and Compassion.

Introduce and pass legislation that will positively impact residents of the district I would represent.

I'd like to leave my children a better state and country to live in and raise a family.

I remember the space shuttle exploding. I was at home sick watching it on television live. I was 16 at the time.

I worked on a dairy farm as a youth over several summers.

JFK and the Unspeakable by James W. Douglass.

James Bond.

A-YO by Lady Gaga.

When I was younger I struggled with substance abuse. Only through the support of family and friends was I able to shake this demon from my life.

I view the Pennsylvania State House and the Pennsylvania State Senate in much the same way that I view our national legislature in Washington, D.C. One is the peoples house while the other is the deliberative body.

Yes.

*Wages for the vast majority of Pennsylvanians are stagnant and leave too many struggling to make ends meet while our government refuses to raise the minimum wage to keep pace with inflation or support labor unions.

• Our schools are the most unequally funded in the country, support for higher education is fourth from the bottom in the country, and we are falling behind in providing pre-K education.
  

• Too many of our families can't afford basic necessities like food, housing and health care and there are long waiting lists for those who need help with child care or care for those with intellectual disabilities or help dealing with opioid abuse.
  

• Our water and air are among the dirtiest in the nation, while spending to protect the environment has shrunk by one-third.
  

• We have an upside-down tax system that taxes low-income and middle-income people too much and doesn't ask the well off to pay their fair share. The result is a failure to generate the revenue necessary to invest in our people and our communities.

The Governor is the Executive and the State Legislature is the lawmaking body. The two separate but equal branches of government need to work in concert to advance the interests of the people.

Yes. Without relationships nothing gets done. Working across the aisle will be my top priority.

Transportation, Gaming Oversight, and Game & Fisheries.

Yes.

Former State Representative John Showers.

Possibly. My current focus is on becoming the next State Representative of PA106.

The fight of local union members to save their jobs at TMI's Nuclear Reactor.