Aug 26, 2020 4 min read

U.S. Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Peters Township, has never before gone to a nominating convention, but he plans to attend President Donald Trump’s acceptance speech on the White House lawn tomorrow.

Reschenthaler was the top vote-getter among Republican delegate candidates in the June 2 Pennsylvania primary in his district, which includes Washington, Greene and Fayette counties, plus part of Westmoreland.

Across Pennsylvania, delegates run within Congressional District boundaries, and Reschenthaler has represented the 14th District since taking office in January 2019 by virtue of his performance in the November 2018 general election.

Politicos have long populated the ranks of convention-goers, but Reschenthaler, who was running unopposed June 2 for the Republican nomination with the aim of retaining his seat in Congress, filed last winter for both his current office and that of delegate.

Members of Congress run every two years, so his quest for a second term coincides with that of the president.

“I ran for delegate at President Trump’s request to support his renomination and represent Southwestern Pennsylvanian conservative values at the convention,” he wrote in response to a series of emailed questions prior to the start of the convention.

“As a U.S. Navy veteran and lifelong conservative, I am proud to support President Trump’s renomination because our values represent the best path forward to preserve the American dream for future generations, and President Trump is the best candidate to deliver this for the American people.”

Trump in 2016 carried all four counties that comprise the 14th Congressional District over Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. At that time, Reschenthaler was a state senator.

But his aspirations for higher office became apparent in the autumn of 2017 when he narrowly lost out to state Rep. Rick Saccone to become the Republican nominee in a special congressional election to fill a vacancy due to the resignation of Tim Murphy, a Mt. Lebanon Republican. Saccone went on to lose to Democrat Conor Lamb in March 2018.

The state Supreme Court redrew Congressional District lines as part of a gerrymandering case. Lamb ended up in the 17th Congressional District, and Reschenthaler next threw his hat in the ring for the newly created 14th District, again squaring off against Saccone. Republican voters chose Reschenthaler.

Because Republicans currently hold the presidency, tradition calls for their convention to follow the 2020 Democratic National Convention, a virtual event last week that was necessitated by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Republicans were convening in Charlotte, N.C., but the president announced plans to move the event to Jacksonville, Fla., until the rate of infectious disease in that state scotched it as an alternative.

“The virtual convention is the right thing to do to keep people safe and keep our economy open,” Reschenthaler replied to an inquiry about the event’s format.

Reschenthaler was monitoring the words of Democratic nominee former vice president Joe Biden and other speakers Aug. 17-20, claiming they “went to great strides to hide their radical policies from the American people” on health care, tax increases and climate change.

“Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders said it best speaking at the first night of the convention: ‘Together we have moved this country in a bold new direction … Many of the ideas we fought for, that just a few years ago were considered ‘radical’ are now mainstream.'”

Reschenthaler was on a list of delegate candidates that Trump endorsed before the Pennsylvania primary, along with podcaster Rose Tennent and eventual alternate delegate choices Tom Uram of North Strabane and Melanie Stringhill Patterson of Washington Township, Fayette County.

Voters chose three delegates, and although attorney Scott Avolio, president of the Westmoreland County Bar Association, was not included on Trump’s list, he noted, “Nevertheless, the voters spoke, and I was elected to be a delegate in the 14th.” Avolio finished second in balloting after Reschenthaler.

Speaking tonight is Vice President Mike Pence, who will give his address from Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Md. The use of federal properties as backdrops for political purposes during the convention is still being debated.

In Reschenthaler’s next political hurdle on Nov. 3, he’ll be facing Delmont Democrat Bill Marx.