Mike Kelly

The second longest-tenured congressman from Pennsylvania faces a challenge in his bid for a ninth term in Washington.

Democrat Jason Wagner, a Mercer borough councilman, is looking to unseat incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Butler, in the 16th Congressional District in November. The district includes all of Butler, Lawrence, Mercer, Crawford and Erie counties and part of Venango County.

In Kelly’s eight previous runs for office, only one November race has been competitive — a 4.2 percentage-point win over Erie attorney Ron DiNicola in 2018. About 51% of the district’s registered voters are Republicans, while 34% are Democrats. The rest are independents or members of another party.

Kelly, 78, has served in Congress since 2011. He defeated first-term U.S. Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper, a Democrat from Erie, to go to Washington. Married with four adult children and 10 grandchildren, the Butler native earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame, which he attended on a football and academic scholarship.

Kelly, who took ownership of family-run Kelly Chevrolet-Cadillac Inc. in the mid-1990s and expanded it to include Hyundai and KIA franchises, said he decided to run for Congress after the federal government temporarily took a controlling interest in General Motors following a bailout in 2009. He said the government informed him that, as part of its restructuring of the auto giant, he could no longer sell Cadillacs.

“I never realized how invasive a species the government can be,” said Kelly, who took the matter to arbitration and won.

Kelly has served on the powerful Ways and Means Committee since 2013 and currently chairs its Subcommittee on Tax. Ways and Means, the oldest committee in Congress, is the chief tax-writing committee in the House and has jurisdiction over Social Security, Medicare and other social services programs.

More than half of the bills introduced by Kelly have been related to taxation, according to the legislative tracking website GovTrack.us.

“I believe that the tax code should be simpler, taxes should be lower and that the federal government needs to be careful not to pick winners and losers,” Kelly said, contending that will drive economic growth.

Regarding affordability and inflation, which recent polling consistently ranks as a top concern among Americans, Kelly argued that when President Donald Trump returned to the White House, he inherited an economy that experienced cumulative inflation of more than 20% during former President Joe Biden’s four years in office.

FactCheck.org reported that prices grew 4.34% during the first 18 months of Trump’s second term. Comparing that to cumulative inflation during the first 18 months of the previous nine presidential terms, the rate in Trump’s second term was lower than it was under Presidents Joe Biden (12.27%), George H.W. Bush (7.67%) and second-term George W. Bush (5.90%). Prices grew less during the first 18 months of both terms served by Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and the first terms of George W. Bush and Trump, according to FactCheck.org.

“It’s hard to dial things back once they get out in front of you,” Kelly said. “The cost of energy drives the price of everything. How do we lower that? We are blessed with incredible amounts of domestic energy sources.”

Kelly said he supports an “all-of-the-above” and “everything-below” energy strategy, citing hydropower, coal, natural gas, nuclear power, biofuels, oil, and solar and wind power.

He said he also supports providing “robust funding” for the military while reducing overall federal spending and the size of government, and ensuring that veterans get the benefits and care they deserve.

Kelly touted his ability to work across the aisle. About two-thirds of the bills he sponsored during this legislative session had at least one Democratic co-sponsor, according to GovTrack.us.

“We do get criticized for doing that, but I don’t see it as Democrat policy or Republican policy. Is there something we can do together that makes sense for the three-quarters of a million people that we each represent? I think if we get it back to that, that’d be marvelous,” Kelly said.

According to the Institute for Legislative Analysis, Kelly voted in line with the Republican platform about 77% of the time in 2025, ranking 154th out of 429 in the House.

Wagner did not return messages for this story.

He grew up in Mercer County’s Greenville area. After studying at ITT Technical Institute and Youngstown State University, Wagner enlisted in the Army and later served in the Army Reserve.

Married with four children, Wagner has worked as a senior automation engineer for the past 15 years. He lives in Mercer and serves on borough council there.

“I am running for Congress to make our communities safer, stronger and more self-reliant,” Wagner wrote on his campaign website. “I believe Western Pennsylvania deserves real representation — someone who will fight for local veterans and labor, for affordability and opportunity for working families, to ensure all of us have access to healthcare, and ensure every school has the tools they need to prepare for the next generation.”

Other priorities cited by Wagner included reforming the justice system, protecting the environment, keeping the U.S. out of “endless wars,” and protecting and expanding Social Security.

Kelly had a significant fundraising advantage over Wagner as of June 30, according to the latest Federal Election Commission filings. Kelly had more than $1.3 million in available cash as of June 30, compared to about $37,500 for Wagner.