Snyder County Man Wins GOP Nomination for Congress

WILLIAMSPORT – A state representative from Snyder County is the GOP choice to run for the now vacant 12th District congressional seat.

Republican delegates from 15 counties gathered in Williamsport Saturday and on the fourth and final round of voting selected Fred Keller, 53, as the party choice to run against Democrat Marc Friedenberg in a special election as part of Pennsylvania’s May primary. The winner will replace Tom Marino who resigned in January, later citing reasons of health.

Fourteen candidates were nominated at the GOP gathering, including Lock Haven University faculty member Jessica Bowman Hosley. After round two in the voting, the LHU professor was in third place with 27 votes, trailing Keller with 50, and Bradford County Commissioner Doug Mc Linko with 37. It took four rounds until Keller got to 113 votes, sufficient to secure the nomination from among the 202 delegates; a simple majority of 102 votes was needed to garner the nomination.

Keller has been the state’s 85th district representative since 2011, recently beginning his fifth term in Harrisburg. Upon securing the nomination he said, “We need someone in Washington who will use pragmatic, conservative principles to ensure that liberty, freedom and respect of the rule of law.” He added, “We are a nation of laws and we must make sure we respect all the laws.”

The district is a heavily Republican region, President Donald Trump carrying the district by 35 percentage points in 2016.

Clinton County became part of the newly configured 12th district, effective the start of this year.