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Candidates › PA-16 race › 2025–2026
Justin Wagner
D Democratic nominee for U.S. House, PA-16
Has not served in Congress
- On the ballot
- On the general election ballotNov 3, 2026 · Pennsylvania US House 16
- Where to vote
- Find your polling place (opens in a new tab) · More ways to vote
- Top priorities
- Make Taxation Fair Again
- Affordability and Retirement
- Healthcare and Education
- Data Privacy
- privacy rights
- Money
- $247.1K raised, $189.3K spent, $62.9K cash on hand (through Oct 14, 2026). Where it comes from
- Who gives
- 32% of individual money from donors at $200 or less · 85% from Pennsylvania · largest committee giver MACHINISTS NON PARTISAN POLITICAL LEAGUE OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS & AEROSPACE WORKERS, $10K
- Outside groups
- $97 opposing Wagner
- Backed by
- Ro Khanna · Malcolm Kenyatta · Napoleon Nelson and 26 more. As the campaign lists them
10 priorities from justinwagnerforcongress.com, in the order they are listed there. Every heading and the text under it is copied exactly, as one passage for each page it is from, and links to that place on the page; hover a source to see which passage it opens.
In the 1950s and 60s, America built the strongest middle class the world has ever seen. Top income rates were over 91% for the ultra-wealthy. Eisenhower understood that those who benefit most from the American system have the greatest responsibility to maintain it.
Since then, the burden has shifted onto the backs of workers. In the 1950s, the corporate tax rate was 52%.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 was the ultimate bait and switch for Pennsylvania families.
It slashed the corporate rate from 35% to 21%, the largest transfer of wealth from the middle class to billionaires in history.
Companies used the cash for $1 trillion in stock buybacks to enrich Wall Street. The wealthy got permanent cuts, and their bill added $2 trillion to the deficit, leaving our children to pick up the tab for billionaire tax breaks.
Fairness is easy. It’s about ending a system where a nurse in Sharon pays a higher effective tax rate than a hedge fund manager. We need to close the 2017 loopholes, tax wealth like we tax hard work, and reinvest that money into PA-16 infrastructure and jobs.
American workers deserve their fair share.
I will vote to pass tax policy that does not allow working-class families to pay a higher tax rate than billionaires.
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Social Security is not a handout or a welfare program; it is a promise this country made to its workers, paid for in advance by every single paycheck you have ever earned. Across this nation, working families know that Social Security contributions are a lifetime investment protecting against retirement, unexpected disability, or the loss of a household wage earner. Unfortunately, our current politicians treat this earned benefit like a financial crisis, and so they've put social security under attack for decades.
Politicians like Mike Kelly are actively pushing to raise the retirement age—which is nothing more than a back-door benefit cut that hits physically demanding blue-collar jobs the hardest—while also looking at plans to privatize and expose your guaranteed insurance to the unpredictable swings of the stock market.
When I get to Congress, I will defend your social security trust fund. I will flatly oppose any effort to cut benefits, raise the retirement age, or privatize the system. The fix is simple and fair: lift the payroll tax cap so the wealthiest Americans pay into the system at the same rate as everyone else, adjusting the taxable wage cap so millionaires contribute on all of their income just like regular working-class Pennsylvanians already do. Keeping Social Security solvent for generations will allow for stronger cost-of-living increases so seniors aren’t crushed by rising prices. Social Security belongs to the workers who built this country, and I will protect it from day-one of my time in congress. I will co-sponsor and vote to pass The Social Security Expansion Act (S. 770 / H.R. 1700).
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It’s long past time to raise the federal minimum wage — and tie it to inflation so workers never again lose buying power the way they have over the last twenty years. Prices go up every year; wages should too.
Here in Western Pennsylvania, families are getting hammered by the cost of housing, groceries, fuel, and medical bills. Workers shouldn’t have to work two or three jobs just to stay afloat. Raising the federal minimum wage is basic economic survival for millions of people, and it would put more spending power directly into our local communities — from Erie to Butler to Mercer County.
Any politician who represents this region should be fighting for a higher federal minimum wage. In Congress, I’ll push for a real, across-the-board increase that finally gives working people the paycheck they’ve earned.
Workers keep this country running. It’s time their wages reflected that.
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The housing crisis is hitting working families across the country, and Western Pennsylvania is no exception. Private equity firms and hedge funds are snapping up homes, driving prices beyond what normal people can afford, and destabilizing entire communities.
For decades, the federal government played a real role in helping Americans build and buy homes. We stopped doing that, and the market has tilted hard toward investors instead of families. We need to bring back serious federal support for building housing — actual homes regular people can afford, not luxury units that sit empty.
The VA home loan program has helped a lot of veterans, myself included, and it shows how powerful a fair lending system can be when it’s done right. We should expand access to similar programs so more Americans have a fair shot at homeownership without being buried under impossible prices or predatory lending. And we need to ban hedge funds and private equity firms from buying single-family homes.
Families shouldn’t be competing with billion-dollar investment groups for a place to live. There’s legislation ready right now to put homes back into the hands of the people who live in them, and I’ll support it in Congress. Every family deserves the chance to put down roots. Housing should be achievable — not something reserved for investors and out-of-town money.
I support the passage of The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act
I will also sponsor and sign any bill that puts limitations on corporate housing ownership, re-zones urban centers to fill empty buildings and lots, and puts significant limits on real-estate empires.
Every American must be safely, and predictably housed.
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Unions built the middle class. They mean higher wages, safer workplaces, and real dignity on the job… and I know that firsthand from my own union background. Working people won’t get a fair deal unless they can stand together, which is exactly why some of the wealthiest people in this country have spent decades trying to tear unions down.
In Congress, I’ll support the PRO Act to protect the right to organize and put real penalties on union-busters. If a business can only survive by breaking the law, it shouldn’t be calling itself an American success story.
I’ll fight to bring good union jobs back to Western Pennsylvania. In manufacturing, energy, construction, the trades, tech, and every sector that keeps our region running. And I’ll push to expand apprenticeship and training programs so young people can build solid, long-term careers instead of chasing unstable, low-wage work.
Any project paid for with federal dollars should support union labor. Leaving that out of recent legislation was a serious mistake, and I intend to fix it.
Strong unions mean strong communities, and I'm committed to both.
I will be an ally in congress you can rely on to oversee regular full-quorum NLRB sessions, and ensure labor courts have the resources they need to protect workers.
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Medical debt is now the number-one cause of family bankruptcy in America. Medicare and Medicaid keep millions of Americans alive, stable, and treated whatever illness or ailment they may face. In July of this year, I laid my mother to rest after her multi-year battle with cancer. Her Medicare coverage is the only reason she was able to get the care she needed during that time. Families in situations like mine should not have to worry about politicians in Washington pulling the rug out from under them, only to spend it on gold.
While local families are left trying to make pay stubs meet deductibles, multi-billion-dollar insurance companies and hospital conglomerates have had a reliable ally in Washington. For 15 years, Mike Kelly has protected the healthcare lobby's bottom line—voting repeatedly to strip pre-existing condition protections, blocking Medicare from lowering drug prices, and even floating plans to privatize or slash the very programs and VA system our local veterans and families rely on. We deserve a representative who understands that when our allies like Germany, France, and Canada cover a sick child without forcing parents into bankruptcy, our current system isn't an accident. It is a choice by corrupt policy makers sacrificing the health of families like mine for their own profit.
When I get to Congress, I will oppose any cuts to Medicare or Medicaid and fight to strengthen both programs. I will sponsor legislation to protect the ACA by permanently closing coverage-denial loopholes, while capping out-of-pocket costs and eliminating surprise five-figure emergency bills entirely. To directly lower the cost of living for our seniors and families, I will co-sponsor bills mandating that Medicare aggressively negotiate prescription drug prices, block any attempt to hand these programs over to private companies, and push for a Medicare-for-All system so every American can get quality treatment without fear of losing their home, their savings, or their chance at recovery. My promise to you is simple: if the rest of the free world can protect their citizens from medical ruin, so can the United States of America.
Healthcare is a human right.
Send me to congress, and I will co-sponsor and vote to pass The Medicare For All Act (H.R. 3069).
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · justinwagnerforcongress.com/platform
Public education is the launchpad for the next generation. Right now, Washington treats it like a line-item. What I've heard speaking with parents and teachers across our district- people know the truth. Our current system isn't preparing our children for a highly competitive world because funding is being stripped from the classrooms that need it most. For the past 15 years, our congressman has consistently prioritized corporate tax breaks and private school voucher frameworks over the public schools that serve the vast majority of our community. Let me be clear: I do not support school vouchers that take away from public school funding. Defunding our neighborhood public schools to subsidize private alternatives while letting child nutrition or special education fall through the cracks is a direct attack on working-class families like mine, and our future workforce.
I believe every child deserves a world-class public education, supported fully school meals and safe recreation spaces. Instead of treating trade schools and community colleges as individual financial burdens that bury young people in debt, I will treat them as vital investments in our nation’s infrastructure.
I will sponsor and champion legislation to fully fund Title I schools, special education, and preschool programs. These investments give our youngest children a strong start while finally giving working parents the freedom to advance their careers. Furthermore, I will prioritize and protect Pell Grant funding to ensure the local colleges and universities that prop up Western Pennsylvania's economies are thriving. We built the strongest economy in human history; we can afford an education system that treats learning as a national asset.
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Artificial intelligence already shapes every part of our lives in western PA(and really, any place in this country). It's in the map app on your phone. It gathers information during screening for cancer. But behind the promise of the good an "AI revolution" will bring lies a difficult reality: AI models lie, human-effort is devalued, energy costs and public health concerns are disregarded, and once again... opportunities for American innovation is lost to foreign companies
Leaving this technology without guardrails is irresponsible at best. At worst, it risks local jobs to automation, exposes our private data to essentially infinite companies without our consent, and it threatens our national security in every way imaginable. We have seen how corporations practice self-regulation. The 2008 financial collapse, the impact of social media on mental health...
When I get to Congress, I will push for a rigorous federal safety framework. I will sponsor and champion legislation to establish an Independent Federal AI Safety Authority to enforce binding standards, alongside a national data privacy framework that mandates absolute transparency and a human-in-the-loop review for insurance and employment decisions. I will fight for comprehensive worker-protection bills that fight for compensation for workers displaced by automation. I will push for requiring clear labeling on AI-generated content to defend our elections and bank accounts.
For starters, I would sign on to….
Pass the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA):
This legislation establishes a national data privacy standard that gives people the right to opt-out of data collection and prevents companies from harvesting more personal data than is strictly necessary.
Pass the Preventing Algorithmic Collusion Act: This legislation closes loopholes that allow companies to use shared AI software to artificially inflate prices, ensuring that "digital price-fixing" is prosecuted just like traditional monopolies.
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Without the proper infrastructure to accomidate massive energy and freshwater needs, allowing data centers to be built in our communities is a death sentence.
These facilities create massive heat islands that can decimate local wildlife. They often utilize energy infrastructure that can skyrocket YOUR power bill at best. At worst, they can be a huge detriment to public health, leading to increase risk of chronic illness and fatalities.
My position is simple. Until the technology is readily available to make these facilities sustainable and safe, I will vote for a moratorium on building them.
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From warrantless surveillance to data mining to metadata tracking, the guardrails that used to protect ordinary Americans have been stripped away. We need to restore real limits, real oversight, and real due process.
We need to rein in corporate surveillance. Companies are using AI to track people’s movements, behavior, buying habits, and personal data, and then using that information to manipulate prices and squeeze every last dollar out of families. I’ll support legislation that puts strict limits on corporate data harvesting and bans predatory AI-driven pricing.
Personal freedom means something only if the government and corporations are both kept in check.
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Our immigration system has been intentionally broken for decades. Washington politicians use the border as a campaign prop. Fixing it for good makes it impossible for them to generate rage. Americans want a system that secures our borders and stops cartels, but also demands respect for human dignity, due process, and the rule of law.
Right now, our government is failing on both fronts. We are witnessing a breakdown of our most fundamental legal guardrails. By bypassing basic constitutional protections, denying due process, and turning a blind eye to the erosion of habeas corpus for those in our system, the government has allowed immigration enforcement to operate in a legal gray area. As a combat veteran, I swore an oath to defend the Constitution. Watching masked agents act without accountability is beyond inhumane... it is a betrayal of the basic American legal principles we fought to protect. This is cruelty and constitutional overreach.
At the same time, we have to call out who benefits from this chaos. Big corporations have exploited a broken status quo for years, relying on a shadow workforce they can underpay and abuse to line their own pockets. This undercuts local wages and hurts law-abiding working families.
When I get to Congress, I will fight to:
- Enforce Constitutional Due Process: Mandate strict independent oversight, binding usage-of-force standards, and guarantee that habeas corpus and due process are fully respected inside our enforcement agencies. Masked, unaccountable tactics have no place in America.
- Create Clear, Legal Pathways: Establish a workable path to citizenship, protect DACA recipients, and expand transparent, legal pathways for agricultural and essential workers who keep Western Pennsylvania’s economy moving.
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Fix immigration with common sense and basic humanity.
Right now, our immigration system is a disaster. We’re tearing families apart, locking people in brutal conditions, and calling it “policy.” That’s cruelty, and it solves nothing.
We need real reform, not political theater. Big corporations have fought this for years because they benefit from a shadow workforce they can underpay and exploit. I won’t play that game. In Congress, I’ll push for a legal, workable path to citizenship, and I’ll fight to end the mass-deportation machine that treats human beings like cargo.
We can protect the border and protect people. Any real solution has to do both — strong security, legal pathways, and a system that respects workers, families, and basic human decency.
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I am a veteran, and I know exactly what war takes from people. It costs human lives, and it leaves scars that last for decades after the fighting stops. Because of that, I will never vote to send Americans into another pointless conflict.
We already know what happens when Washington rushes into war. Iraq was a disaster. Politicians ignored the warnings and voted 'yes' anyway, and we cannot let that happen again.
Right now, we need to stop a catastrophic, unauthorized escalation with Iran. Launching boat strikes and executing covert operations without explicit congressional approval does not keep us safe. It just risks dragging our country into a devastating regional war that nobody voted for.
Iran is part of a reckless pattern of threats that damage global stability. I oppose the dangerous posturing aimed at Venezuela and Cuba, as well as the aggressive rhetoric toward Panama and Greenland. Saber-rattling is not a substitute for a real national security strategy.
Isolating and abandoning our allies is not how a first-rate Military strategizes.
The Constitution says that war powers belong strictly to Congress. No president gets to start a war or unilaterally attack sovereign nations alone. The executive branch cannot bypass the representatives of the people to conduct strikes through the back door.
War must be the absolute last resort, used only when every diplomatic option has failed and our immediate national defense is threatened. Our service members deserve leaders who understand the weight of that decision. Military action should never be treated as a first step, a business deal, or a political prop.
No more blank checks. No more unauthorized conflicts. No more pointless wars.
I will vote for legislation that reigns in unilateral executive war-making, defunds unauthorized military actions, and forces any president to come to the House floor for a debate and a vote before putting our troops in harm's way. I will also vote to support our service members when they return home by funding robust mental health care, expanding veteran housing initiatives, and ensuring no veteran is left behind after their service is over.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · justinwagnerforcongress.com/platform
As a veteran, I know what war takes from people — not just in lives, but in the years that come after. I will never vote to send Americans into another pointless conflict.
We’ve already seen what happens when Washington rushes into war. Iraq was a disaster created by politicians who ignored the warnings and voted “yes” anyway. That can’t ever happen again.
I oppose any push toward war with Venezuela. I oppose unauthorized boat strikes and covert military actions carried out without Congress. The Constitution is clear: no president gets to start a war alone. War powers belong to Congress, and I’ll defend that every time.
War must be the last resort, used only when every other option has been exhausted and there is no alternative left. Our service members deserve leaders who understand the weight of that decision — leaders who won’t treat military action as a first step or a political prop.
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I stand against Israel’s expansionist actions across the Middle Eastern states. I stand against the genocide of the Palestinian people, of which the death toll is estimated to be over 75,000.
I stand against sending billions of dollars and millions of man-hours to any foreign country while Americans deal with an affordability and inequity crisis unseen since the Gilded Age. That goes especially for countries whose regimes act as regional pariahs.
I will not take money or entertain interests from AIPAC, or any other organization acting on behalf of the state of Israel.
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Defend the RIGHT TO CHOOSE. The government has worked its way into too many corners of our private lives. For too long, the Democratic establishment relied solely on the Supreme Court to protect our fundamental civil rights instead of doing the hard work in Congress. When Republicans captured the courts, our line of defense vanished. The Democratic establishment’s failure to secure our fundamental rights left every woman of our district vulnerable to attack. I am an engineer and a veteran. When I see a broken system, I don't make excuses. I fix it. When I swear an oath to the Constitution, I mean it. I will not stand by while politicians like Mike Kelly treat our daughters’ futures as a second-thought. In Congress, I will be a fierce defender of reproductive rights.
That absolutely includes decisions about pregnancy. No politician, no judge, and no state legislature should be deciding whether someone is forced to carry a pregnancy to term. I support a strong federal guarantee of the right to choose so that your medical decisions stay between you and your doctor, and not the government.
I intend to do exactly that in Congress. When I am elected and sworn in as your congressman, I will…
- Focus on Codifying Roe v. Wade: I will vote to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, ensuring that reproductive freedom is the law of the land, regardless of who sits on the Supreme Court.
- Fight to Guarantee the Right to Safe Contraception: I will co-sponsor and pass the Right to Contraception Act, so that contraceptive health is recognized as a fundamental right, not a political talking point.
- Fight to end the Hyde Amendment: Healthcare should not be a privilege for the wealthy. I support allowing publicly funded insurance, like Medicaid or Medicare, to cover reproductive services to ensure every person has real choices for their health.
- Fight to Expand Title X Funding: I will fight to increase funding for family planning and reproductive healthcare services, particularly for low-income and rural families in PA-16 who often have nowhere else to turn for care.
- Fight to Repeal the Comstock Act: I will join the charge to repeal this 19th-century "zombie law" right wing hardliners are using to bypass state protections and institute a de-facto national ban on medication abortion.
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Western Pennsylvania’s future depends on clean air, clean water, and healthy land. Our farms, our jobs, and our kids’ health all ride on whether we protect the environment instead of selling it off to the highest bidder.
Climate change is not theoretical. We’re living with the floods, the bad air days, and the rising costs associated right here, right now. In Congress, I’ll push for real action to cut emissions, invest in clean energy jobs, and make sure our communities aren’t left behind as the world changes around us. And I’ll do it by following the science, not lobbyists or wishful thinking.
I'll also fight to protect and strengthen the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. These environmental laws should not be used as bargaining chips to align with the current administration's political agenda. Enforcement needs teeth. Polluters need consequences, not a slap on the wrist, leaving families and individuals to bear the consequences.
We can build a stronger economy and a cleaner future at the same time —
and I intend to fight for both.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · justinwagnerforcongress.com/platform
Climate change isn’t theoretical — we’re living with the floods, the bad air days, and the rising costs right now. In Congress, I’ll push for real action to cut emissions, invest in clean energy jobs, and make sure our communities aren’t left behind as the world changes around us. And I’ll do it by following the science, not lobbyists or wishful thinking.
I’ll also fight to protect and strengthen the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. These laws shouldn’t rise or fall based on who sits in the Oval Office — enforcement needs teeth, and polluters need consequences. No more repeat offenders getting a slap on the wrist while families deal with the fallout.
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I will hold open, in-person town halls across every corner of this district—regularly, publicly announced, and open to every resident, no matter their politics. Politicians have a reputation for disappearing once they get elected.
I won’t. You deserve a representative who shows up, answers tough questions, and listens face-to-face. I’m making a simple commitment: I will show up for real conversations, real transparency, and direct accountability to the people I work for—you.
I will hold at least one in-person Townhall in our district every month.
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Our political system is designed to keep the US out. Most politicians are already very wealthy before they go to Washington, and prioritize their wealthy friends... instead of working families. I believe public service is just that, a service. It should not be a career.
I have signed a formal pledge committing to six core reforms that will return power to regular Americans:
- Term Limits For Congress and the Senate: Public service should not be a lifelong career. I will vote to limit service to a maximum of 12 years total—6 terms in the House and 2 terms in the Senate.
- Ban Members of Congress from Trading Stocks: Politicians should not be enriching themselves by buying and selling individual stocks while in office while voting on laws that impact their own portfolios. That's corruption, plain and simple. I will vote to end this conflict of interest permanently.
- A Moratorium on Lobbying: Washington insiders shouldn't use elected office as a stepping stone to a lucrative corporate lobbying career. I will vote for an at-minimum five-year moratorium before any former member of Congress can register as a lobbyist.
- Overturn Citizens United: It is time to end the era of unchecked dark money and corporate influence in our elections. I will vote to overturn this ruling and put regular voters back in control of our democracy.
- Enforce a Code of Judicial Ethics for the Supreme Court: Every institution must ultimately answer to the public. I will vote to implement a mandatory, enforceable code of ethics for the U.S. Supreme Court and its Justices.
- No Corporate PAC Money: Pledge to never accept contributions from any corporate PAC or operate a leadership PAC that accepts corporate money. Does not apply to PACs sponsored by labor unions or grassroots membership organizations.
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I am a veteran of the US Army. I served in Operation Iraqi Freedom. I took an oath to defend the Constitution. In Western Pennsylvania, gun ownership is part of our heritage, our culture, and our way of life. Law-abiding citizens have an absolute, unambiguous right to bear arms.
As any veteran or responsible gun owner will tell you: with rights come deep responsibilities. Safety means ensuring that firearms stay in the hands of the law-abiding, and out of the hands of violent criminals, cartels, and individuals facing severe mental health crises. We protect the Second Amendment by taking common-sense steps to protect our communities, our schools, and our families.
In Congress, I will support practical, constitutional measures that focus strictly on safety without infringing on your rights:
- Universal Background Checks: If you buy a firearm, you should pass a background check—plain and simple. Closing loopholes ensures that violent felons and domestic abusers can’t bypass the rules that honest Americans follow every single day.
- Constitutional Red Flag Laws: We must give families and law enforcement a tool to temporarily prevent someone undergoing a documented, severe mental health crisis from harming themselves or others. Any federal framework must include strict judicial due process protections ensuring that a person's rights cannot be restricted without immediate access to a court to defend themselves.
- Cracking Down on Illegal Trafficking: We need to aggressively prosecute straw purchasers and criminals who traffic illegal firearms into our communities, while leaving law-abiding owners alone.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · justinwagnerforcongress.com/platform