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In this upcoming election, Warren County, the primary home of the State House's 65th District, voters actually have a choice. Maybe it's time they take that choice seriously and try something other than unfettered Republican domination and essentially a local one-party state.
After all, on Republican's watch, Warren County has been gifted a continually hemorrhaging population, and a rapidly declining business and services base. At the beginning of Kathy Rapp's 22 long, predominantly unproductive, years in the State House we've seen a reduction of population from 44,400 to 36,765 -- a decline of 17%. Companies have disappeared and not been replaced, massive school closures have taken place, and health care services have been markedly reduced.
Republican voters never seem to be willing to take responsibility that this area is exclusively ruled by their party. If there's a Democratic governor or President those are conveniently blamed, if there isn't, they blame the former Democratic governor or President. What they never seem to do is assign any responsibility to their party and the Republicans that represent us forever and ever and ever producing mediocre results.
Destiny Howard doesn't have all the answers, she may not have the majority of the answers but maybe she has a few different answers. Maybe it's worth giving her a chance. President Donald Trump when he launched his first run of office appealed to urban black voters and asked them to give him consideration and their vote.
He asked them a fairly appropriate question, "What the hell do you have to lose?" That same question could be posed to rural Warren County voters and rural voters in general.
At this point, can the trend lines of this county really get much worse? Is it really worth sending tired, ineffectual Kathy Rapp back for term number 12 at age 75? Is she really going to have any more impact in term 12 than she did in the first 11? It would be refreshing to see this lagging, slowly dying area try something different.
Give it two years, if it's a disaster you can go back to the next Republican from central casting who'll spend 10 terms in office against little opposition. Otherwise, if Rep. Rapp wins, we can be back here in two years, with the population reduced by another 500 or so residents.
Rapp has spent most of her time in office perseverating on the abortion issue, getting one bill in which she was the original sponsor to become legislation according to her own website and her biography lists her other major accomplishment as getting a historical road marker for a brave veteran put in. One could say a pretty scant list of accomplishments.
Meanwhile, despite multiple articles in the newspaper on health care issues, Rapp has accomplished little. She has a complete misunderstanding of some of the major causations of rural health primary care shortages and only offers minimal band-aids for the disease, instead of treating some of the actual causes of the problem.
For instance, despite Pennsylvania and Ohio having virtually the exact same number of students admitted to their respective state's medical schools, Ohio admits more than 200 more Ohio residents per year than Pennsylvania admits Pennsylvania residents. Maybe spearheading an effort to ensure these medical schools more seriously consider rural PA students would foster some doctors interested in rural health care rather than seeing large numbers of students from Dallas, Boston, Charlotte, Nashville, Chicago, Cleveland, and Denver attend medical school in Pennsylvania and then return to their home state. Do you really think those are the doctors that are going to set up practice in Warren, Bradford, Clarion, St. Mary's etc.? They sure haven't to date.
Meanwhile, Rapp's political contributions are populated by a host of drug companies, major corporate pharmacies, insurance companies, and energy companies.........That sure sounds like a list that looks out for the low- and middle-income working-class residents of rural Warren County.
Representative Rapp is a minority member in the PA House and now recent polling indicates there is more than a good chance that Republicans will control no part of the Pennsylvania legislature after this election and they certainly have zero percent chance of controlling the governor's office.
Whatever her claims of power and incumbency are, they will be completely dissipated, not that she has used them effectively in the past anyways.
Ask Tidioute. Here we have a 12-term representative who has watched a small town in her district go without drinkable water for seven months. If there was any time she had the opportunity to use her supposed gift of seniority and influence to get something done this would have been it.
According to the Economist for the first time in over 40 years deaths now outnumber births in reliably Republican counties across America. In 2024, Donald Trump won 81% of American counties, mainly rural ones, which produce 29% of USA GDP. Is this winning? Is this a better option than taking a chance on a young, vibrant non-politician who might have a few different ideas? If the voters of Warren County embrace 75-year-old Kathy Rapp for yet another term and turn away a fresh new voice like Howard one can really only say "As you wish" and that we could have done better but once again said "no."
Michael Suppa is a Warren resident.