Allegheny County Councilman Sam DeMarco exploring run for Congress

An Allegheny County councilman who heads the county’s GOP committee said he’s exploring a run for Congress in a district representing Beaver County and much of suburban Pittsburgh.

Allegheny County Councilman Sam DeMarco, R-North Fayette, said Tuesday he is gathering signatures to get on the ballot in the upcoming primary race in the 17th District.

DeMarco touted his experience as an elected official, his experience on local boards such as the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, and his time as a Marine.

“I served my country, my county and my community, and it would be my honor to serve the constituents of Pennsylvania’s 17th District,” said DeMarco.

The district, redrawn slightly through this year’s redistricting process, has been represented by U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Mt. Lebanon. Lamb, a U.S. Senate candidate, is not seeking reelection to the U.S. House.

DeMarco said he filed Federal Election Commission documents to create a political action committee to gauge support and raise funds for a potential run. DeMarco would join fellow Republicans Tricia Staible, president of the Zelienople-based manufacturing firm Robinson Fans Inc., carpenter James Tomshay, Dean Cavaretta and former Ross Township Commissioner Jeremy Shaffer.

If DeMarco gathers enough signatures to make his run official, he would be required to resign from his County Council seat, as Allegheny County law prohibits the county’s elected officials from running for other offices. Precedent allows candidates until the withdrawal date (March 23 of this year) to resign from elected office.

Although serving as the county’s GOP chair, DeMarco said he has a record of working with Democrats and Republicans.

“I like to think that my time on County Council shows there are things I have done in a bipartisan manner,” he said.

DeMarco said he has supported Democratic Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald’s economic development packages, including development of the airport corridor with new offices and solar and natural-gas energy at the Pittsburgh International Airport. He also highlighted his efforts to get police departments in the county to wear body cameras.

“I believe I have the kind of record and I am the type of person that can win votes,” DeMarco said.

As a high-ranking Republican official, DeMarco has been linked to efforts by former President Trump to attempt to invalidate the 2020 presidential election. However, DeMarco said he only signed documents that sought to preserve Trump’s legal rights if he was declared the winner.

“Nothing that we did should be misconstrued to what took place in other states,” DeMarco said.

When asked if Trump lost the 2020 election, DeMarco said, “Obviously. Joe Biden is president.”

He added that he doesn’t believe there was evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, but said that he believed Gov. Tom Wolf, the Pennsylvania Secretary of State and the state Supreme Court all worked to “change the rules during the game,” referring to the addition of drop boxes, satellite voting locations and decisions concerning lack of signature verification on ballots.

DeMarco said he is considering a run for Congress because he wants to tackle current issues such as high gas prices, rising inflation and the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, which he called a “humiliation” and said led to the death of 13 U.S. service members.

He said he also wanted to highlight the growing numbers of undocumented immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border that he is said is “depressing wages of our union members.”

DeMarco said the United States should be increasing investment and infrastructure in domestic energy production. He criticized Biden for ending the Keystone XL Pipeline project. On the local front, he said he is pro-fracking and that natural-gas drilling has led to benefits for the region, such as increased county revenue and development of the multibillion-dollar cracker plant in Beaver County.

He said a transition to renewable energy is not going to happen as quickly as proponents believe.

“The transition is not going to happen just like that,” DeMarco said. “You can’t just tell everyone to buy an electric car right away. It’s out of touch.”

Democrats running in the 17th District include Chris Deluzio, an Iraq War veteran and policy director of the University of Pittsburgh’s Institute for Cyber Law, Policy and Security; Sean Meloy, a senior political advisor for the LGBTQ Victory Fund; and William Murray, an engineer.