Scott Barger describes his time as a professional pastor as his dream job, but after his father died in 2015, he returned to Pennsylvania to lend a hand his mother.
Barger was born and raised in central Pennsylvania, and upon returning to the region, he helped run the family business, which included a radio station. In January, he mounted a primary challenge to incumbent state Republican Jim Gregory (R-Blair) for the state’s 80th House District.
“Sitting back and complaining about the political climate doesn’t really change anything,” he told the Capital-Star. “And so, with some not-so-gentle encouragement from friends and acquaintances, we decided to get involved and try to be a part of finding solutions, rather than sitting on the sidelines and complaining about the problems.”
Barger defeated Gregory, a three-term incumbent, to 8 points in the primarieswhich some sockets described as nervous. Barger had no Democratic challenger in the general election.
His campaign website emphasizes its positions on a variety of issues, including its support for “Florida-style public metering.” change the shape of public educationwhich some other conservative states are following. He also opposes a regional greenhouse gas initiative and wants to defund Planned Parenthood. Barger would also seek to pass “work welfare” legislation that would require “healthy, able-bodied citizens to perform work or community service in order to renew benefits,” and supports state pension reform.
He enters the House of Representatives at a time when Pennsylvania will once again have a divided legislature. But he believes there is common ground in finding solutions to public education.
“The one thing we have in common is that none of us believe that children’s education should be limited by their zip code,” Barger said. “And I really think there’s a growing kind of compassion… I don’t want to say frustration, but a shared fear that if we keep doing what we’ve always done, we’ll still get what we want,” I always got that.
He added that he believes it’s time to look at how the state funds schools and he supports school vouchers.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Capital-Star: Tell me about your neighborhood and what is unique about it.
Barger: So the 80’s is a very rural area. They are conservative working people. Almost all of the district is in Blair County, but there is a little bit adjacent to Huntington County, but there is a lot of agriculture, a lot of outdoor activities, mountains, handsome pastures, trails and so on.
This is the most American community you’ve ever seen. We get a petite town feel, baseball, apple pie and all that, and I like that. I love representing this district.
Capital-Star: So what do you think is the most pressing issue facing voters in your district?
Barger: We have a president who won the popular vote and the Electoral College, and the issues that drove this campaign were primarily borders and the economy.
And I think here in Pennsylvania, when I was knocking on doors, the most crucial thing on everyone’s mind was economics.
My first priority is… what can we do to free up the economy here in the Keystone State? How should we respond to the nationwide concern that our economy should do better?
Now more regional, I think there’s a lot of frustration with the way public education is run across the state. We have concerns about petite school districts like here in the 80th District, but there are also very grave concerns from urban centers in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia that the way we have been doing public education for so long is not entirely working in all boxes. I believe that solutions to these problems can be found.
Capital-Star: What is your top legislative priority once you are sworn in? Can you talk about the bills you plan to introduce or support?
Barger: Well, as you know, we Republicans will be the minority in the House. So the legislative agenda is really set by the other side.
However, my agenda, and what I encourage my Republican colleagues to join me in this agenda, is that let’s work with Democrats to develop bills that are solutions to some of the problems that I’ve talked about that actually can not only to get out of committee and be approved by the House, but it’s something that senators on the other side of the building will also consider voting for.
You know, we all want the same thing in our communities. We want good schools, we want unthreatening neighborhoods, we want opportunities for our children to succeed in life. Well, we all want that, whether we are Republicans or Democrats. So the question is: how to get there? So my personal legislative agenda is to work with the Democrats who I think will run the House next year and for the next two years to find bills that actually have a chance of passing the Senate that will solve some of these problems.
