Congressional candidate visits Horse Trading Days
ZELIENOPLE — The annual Horse Trading Days Festival crowd included the Erie Democrat who is challenging U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, a Butler native, in November for the newly drawn District 16 congressional seat.
Candidate Ron DiNicola spent Friday shaking hands and giving potential voters an opportunity to say what they’d like to see in their representative.
“I’m learning a lot from talking to people, and not just Democrats, talking to Republicans, talking to independents, talking to business owners, workers, working families,” the attorney and former U.S. Marine said. “I’m learning a lot from the experience. It’s been very valuable.”
DiNicola said he’s familiar with Butler County from his many years living in Western Pennsylvania and that he is encouraged by the region’s economic expansion and especially its education offerings.
“I’m excited about Butler because I think Butler has got some solid economic development going on and has a strong post-secondary education system that helps train workers,” he said.
“We are working on similar kinds of expanded post secondary education in other parts of the region, and I think a lot of them could learn something from the Butler Community College experience.”
DiNicola said he’s been trying to make appearances in Butler County at least once or twice a week.
In recent weeks, he found himself in a surprisingly close race with incumbent Kelly, with the Cook Political Report scoring the race as “lean Republican,” a slight shift from “likely Republican,” a few months ago, DiNicola said.
“We’ve got very encouraging information from our research that this is a competitive race,” DiNicola said. “We feel that our message is resonating with voters, (a message of) increasing economic opportunity, trying to help support sustainable communities, protecting Social Security and Medicare.”
He said he was encouraged by a recent endorsement from End Citizens United, an organization pushing for transparency in campaign contributions.
As a candidate, DiNicola said he wants to provide representation for people across the political spectrum.
“I see it as a prime responsibility to go down there with an attitude that I represent all of the people not just Democrats but also Republicans,” he said. “I think that it’s time for new leadership on the Democrat side and also on the Republican side.”
