Pennsylvania’s 16th Congressional District
PA’s Congressional District 16 covers the counties of Butler, Crawford, Erie, Lawrence and Mercer entirely and western parts of Venango County. The cities of Erie, Meadville, Hermitage, Sharon, New Castle, Butler and Franklin are located in the district.
January 5, 2024 began the second session of the 118th United States Congress. PA’S 16th District is represented by Mike Kelly, currently serving his seventh term.
The people
PA District 16 is a homogeneous group of 88% white people with almost 71% claiming ancestry from just five European countries: Germany, Ireland, Italy, England, and Poland. The population is almost evenly divided between male and female. Four percent of the citizens are Black and three percent are Hispanic.
Twenty-three percent of District 16 citizens are 19 and under; twenty-one percent are 65 and older. Of those aged 16 and older, almost 60% are in the workforce. The unemployment rate is 3.4%.
The greatest number of those working (26%) make a living in educational services, and health care and social assistance, with the next closest number (14%) working in manufacturing. A small percentage (1.3%) makes their living in agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and mining.
About 12.5% or over 95,000 people live below the poverty level.
The landscape
The land is one of rolling hills and farmland, flattening out in the approach to Lake Erie. Once-thriving cities and towns have been reduced to veritable ghost towns with boarded up store-fronts and abandoned downtown areas. The large factories that helped create the steel and the railroads have been mostly demolished, replaced with toxic fenced-in fields or wide expanses of nothing. Amish buggies are common sights in many of the rural areas. Interstate highways are busy with vehicles carrying goods and travelers on their way to someplace else.
The politics
Slightly over 80% of the 16th District’s voting age population is registered to vote. Thirty-seven percent are registered Democrats, 49.5% Republicans with those claiming no party affiliation at almost 10%. That leaves 3.5% with Libertarian, Green and other affiliations. In Erie County, registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by 7 percent; in all other counties in the 16th District those registered as Republicans outnumber registered Democrats.
The representative
Currently representing the 16th District in the second session of the 118th Congress is Mike Kelly. Rep. Kelly was first elected in 2010, assuming office in January of 2011. He has begun campaigning for an eighth term that, if elected, he will begin in January of 2025.
Rep. Kelly has strongly supported former President Trump. He was one of 147 Republicans in the Senate and House who voted to overturn the results of the 2020 election after the Capitol was stormed by rioters. He filed suit in Pennsylvania, attempting to invalidate all mail-in ballots for the 2020 election. Rep. Kelly likened the 2019 Trump impeachment to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Rep. Kelly is paid $174,000 annually for his service. He is 75 years old, a white male, Republican, Catholic and has a BA in Sociology from the University of Notre Dame. His net worth, as of 2018, was estimated at $12.4 million, making him the 30th richest member of the House of Representatives at that time.
Rep. Kelly in the News
July 29, 2024 – Recently released tapes show Kelly’s role in January 6 events
A former Trump-connected attorney and a Trump campaign aid are shown on newly released tapes handing off fake elector documents to Mike Kelly’s aides on January 5. After the Senate parliamentarian refused to accept the documents from the aides, they roamed the halls of the Capitol, waiting for instructions. Complete article from The New Republic
April 29, 2024 – How do you say “hypocrisy”?
A Mike Kelly Automotive Group dealer in Uniontown, PA, has received nearly $315,000 in grant money from the US Department of Agriculture to install a solar power system. The grant was obtained through the Rural Energy for America Program, which was funded by President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. Complete article
On August 12, 2022, Rep. Kelly voted No on the Inflation Reduction Act. He claimed “This bill is loaded with bad policy and wasteful spending that will ultimately worsen inflation, expand government, and hurt the middle-class.” Rep. Kelly’s press release
November 30, 2023 – “Yeah, I’m not your girlfriend.”
Representative Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania made a memorable analogy in describing how betrayed he felt. “It’s like you’re playing in the biggest game of your life and you look up and you see your girlfriend sitting on the opponent’s side!” he complained.
Several astonished women in the conference started yelling, “She’s not your girlfriend!”
Ms. Cheney agreed. “Yeah,” she said. “I’m not your girlfriend.”
from the New York Times regarding the publication of Liz Cheney’s book Oath and Honor.
Posts about Rep. Kelly
Does Your Representative Work For You?
With superPACS, special interests, and dark money all in play, it’s hard to tell whether your representatives are governing on your behalf.
A Look to the past: PA District 16 Sends an Election Denier Back to Congress
Time flies, the news focus changes so rapidly, it’s hard to remember what happened yesterday. Refer back to recent events.
https://www.opensecrets.org/personal-finances/mike-kelly/net-worth?cid=N00031647&year=2018