GOP gubernatorial candidate Jake Corman lays out platform in Pittsburgh campaign stop

State Sen. Jake Corman, a Republican candidate for governor, made a campaign stop in Pittsburgh on Thursday, using a former Pittsburgh mill site being redeveloped as a tech hub as a backdrop.

Corman, 57, of Centre County, is in his sixth term in the state Senate, where he serves as president pro tempore.

He is one of nearly a dozen Republicans to announce bids for the GOP nomination in the gubernatorial race so far.

On Thursday at Mill 19 on the Hazelwood Green site, Corman laid out key elements of his platform, focusing on issues such as energy, education and personal freedom. He said his children — and what the future might hold for them in Pennsylvania — inspired him to run for the state’s highest office.

Pennsylvania Senator Jake Corman, a Republican candidate for governor, stopped in Pittsburgh during his statewide Restore Freedom Listening Tour. pic.twitter.com/YKF8UllD63

— Julia Felton (@JuliaFelton16) December 2, 2021

“They’ve got to feel they have the individual freedoms to be successful here in Pennsylvania,” Corman said. “Over the last 12 to 18 months, we have seen a top-down infringement upon our freedoms and a top-down approach to government.”

Corman, a critic of Gov. Tom Wolf’s covid-19 response, said he disagreed with the governor’s decisions to close businesses labeled as “nonessential” and to pause elective medical procedures in the early days of the pandemic.

“We’re not a stay-and-home-and-let-the-government-figure-it-out society. We’re a can-do society,” he said. “I’m going to take a different approach. No matter what, I’m going to protect your individual freedoms.”

In the event of another virus surge, Corman said he would outline health and safety requirements for businesses so they could stay open in a safe manner.

“We focused on how many people had covid,” he said of Wolf’s approach. “We weren’t focused on what the shutdowns were costing us.”

Corman said he’s determined to create more job opportunities across the state — something he says can be done by supporting the energy sector.

“There’s no other sector that’s growing right now to the level of the energy sector,” he said. “We’re seeing that in Southwestern Pennsylvania right now more than anywhere.”

Corman and other Republican lawmakers have fought against Wolf’s efforts to enter Pennsylvania into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, arguing that it would cost the state jobs and raise energy costs.

“It’s obviously a big part of the economy here,” Corman said of the energy business. “It’s something we can do even better. With the cheap power that we have, the natural resources and the access to markets, we’re a place people should want to locate.”

Don Smith, president of the Regional Industrial Development Corp. (RIDC) of Southwestern Pennsylvania, called Corman “a great partner on economic development initiatives in the commonwealth.”

Regarding education, Corman touched on the importance of public schools. He promised to emphasize trade and vocational schools, particularly those that could offer training for adults who didn’t seek additional education or vocational training straight out of high school.

“Whether it’s building trade training facilities where you can learn and earn at the same time, whether it’s vocational schools who have adult educational programming, we need to do all that we can,” he said.

That could include offering financial support to build new vocational training centers, he said.