Ryan

CRANBERRY TWP — U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly is expected to have competition for his 3rd District congressional seat from a 31-year-old veteran from the township.

Matt Ryan has announced that he will seek the Democratic nomination for the seat that Kelly, a Butler Republican, has held since 2011.

Along with his father, Ryan owns Semper Finance Inc., a management consulting firm that specializes in planning for financially-distressed companies and startup companies alike.

He has a bachelor’s degree in finance from Pennsylvania State University and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Pennsylvania.

Ryan is a veteran, having served for 11 years in the Pennsylvania National Guard. Now a captain, Ryan and his wife, Gosia, both served in Iraq in 2009.

Both his military and business experience have given Ryan a unique world view and perspective, he said, which in turn gives him the confidence to run for Congress at such a young age.

“I’ve seen that both Democrats and Republicans alike are not working for small business,” he said. “And I’ve seen that they aren’t working for the middle class, or for veterans. From my view, they continue to pass legislation without really thinking it through.”

Ryan said he doesn’t have a problem specifically with Kelly. Rather, his fight is against the perception that American government no longer works for the people and is too bogged down in special interests to help ordinary citizens.

“It’s about the whole system,” he said. “There are things Mike Kelly speaks about I agree with. But I’m not one for sound bites to make people feel good in the short term. I more want to execute promises for people in the long term.”

Ryan is not worried that he has a lack of name recognition. That’s because he plans on taking his message to the people who will vote in November.

“The politicians in Washington, they just don’t get how America works,” Ryan said. “They’re not here on the ground. That’s one of the arguments I’ll take to the people of the district. We need what’s best for Butler County being determined by the people of Butler County, to the biggest extent possible.”

For now, Ryan said he plans on “jumping in with both feet forward” on his campaign. That means organizing a staff, distributing campaign materials and creating a website.

It also means gearing up to record enough petition signatures to get his name on the ballot for the May 20 primary, something Ryan is confident will happen.

“The petition process starts in February,” he said. “We’re already building up a database.”

Thomas Qualtere, a spokesman for Kelly, said that the congressman doesn’t have any comment regarding Ryan’s candidacy.

“Mike is not commenting on someone he doesn’t know and isn’t even his party’s nominee yet,” he said.

The 3rd District covers all of Butler County and parts of Armstrong, Clarion, Crawford, Erie, Lawrence and Mercer counties.