Erie County teacher throws hat in ring for 16th District
A new batch of Democrat endorsements suggest an increased seriousness in this year's attempts to take on U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, a Butler native.
Kristy Gnibus, one of several candidates hoping to win the Democratic nomination for the 16th Congressional District, spent the last two weeks touting a slew of endorsements.
Gnibus, a teacher from Erie County, now sports the support of Pennsylvania's Auditor General Eugene DePasquale (who's trying to get himself a seat in Congress, too), state Rep. Ryan Bizzaro, D-3rd, (who was previously floated as a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee pick to battle Kelly) and two members of the Erie County Council.
In a news release, Gnibus said “I am honored to have earned the support of these great community leaders. We all share the same passion, and that is to serve.”
While other Democrat candidates have declared, so far Gnibus remains one of only two Erie County candidates to emerge.
Her residency is of note, as the state's redrawn congressional map from 2018 puts all of Erie into Kelly's district and cuts out some solidly Republican territory that used to be included.
For context, Kelly ran unopposed in 2016 before the redrawn map, then won with just 51.6 percent of the vote in 2018 in the newly drawn 16th District.
Gnibus is joined in the race by Edward DeSantis of Sharon in Mercer County, Luisa Sonnek of Meadville in Crawford County and Matthew Cady of Erie. Cady's campaign has yet to be met with the state-level party endorsements like those Gnibus is now sporting.
Daniel Smith Jr. of Butler County was in the running until he switched out of the race to run for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives against Daryl Metcalfe, R-12th.
The primary filing deadline for the race is Feb. 18.
The 16th congressional district includes roughly the western half of Butler County, plus all of Mercer, Lawrence, Crawford and Erie counties.
