Candidates for governor, a U.S. Senate seat and other positions outlined their agendas Saturday night as former Lycoming County Republican Party chairman Harry Rogers received the Alvin C. Bush Republican Service Award at the party’s annual Lincoln Day dinner.

Scott Wagner, a state senator and businessman from York County seeking the Republican nomination for governor, told Lycoming County Republicans that state agencies are out of control, but that it poses an opportunity to greatly improve efficiency. He said the state should lease its liquor retail stores, which he said are losing money. He also wants the state Department of Environmental Protection to expedite unapproved gas drilling permits, praising the economic impact of the gas industry.

The state does not have a revenue problem, Wagner said, “we have a spending and mismanagement problem.”

Wagner accused Gov. Tom Wolf of having a socialist agenda and said he was the only Republican who could beat Wolf.

“We cannot let Tom Wolf be re-elected,” Wagner said.

Pittsburgh-area businessman and rival for the gubernatorial nomination Paul Mango began his remarks by talking about his military service and record as an executive. The West Point graduate said the election is about leadership, comparing the race to an interview to hire a CEO. He said the future of Pennsylvania government is about engaging the people of the state, and his vision is rooted in promoting economic growth.

The third candidate for governor to speak, state House Speaker Mike Turzai, touted his pro-life, pro-Second Amendment stances and added that state officials “need to be making sure there’s more money in your pockets.”

Turzai accused Wolf of being “hip-to-hip” with Planned Parenthood and public-sector unions and criticized Eric Holder, Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi for promoting anti-gerrymandering efforts that have upended the state’s congressional district boundaries.

“There’s an ideological battle going on in the United States,” Turzai said. “We’re on the front line.”

U.S. Rep. Tom Marino, R-Cogan Station, speaking on behalf of the U.S. Senate campaign of U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Hazleton, also invoked the pro-life, pro-Second Amendment stance he and Barletta share.

Marino said Barletta, as mayor of Hazleton, took on illegal immigration and recognized the need to cut Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid. He praised Barletta’s independence.

“He’s not afraid to go against leadership,” Marino said.

Jim Christiana, a state representative from Beaver County and candidate for the Republican nomination to challenge U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, told the crowd in the Genetti Hotel’s ballroom that debts are “generational problems” the federal government must address. He said the Social Security trust fund is on a “bullet train to bankruptcy” and that credit card debt and student loan debt also are weighing Americans down. He placed the blame for the student loan debt passing a trillion dollars on President Barack Obama “nationalizing” student loan financing and criticized Obama’s health care reform law as well.

“Washington derailed the health care industry,” Christiana said.

He cited his work as a state legislator on transparency, noting a bill he sponsored to post every state budget online, as well as his work on school choice and investment in manufacturing infrastructure.

Charley Hall, a past chairman of the county party and 2015 winner of the Alvin C. Bush Republican Service Award, presented this year’s award to past chairman Harry Rogers after praising his hard work and tenacity. Rogers, in accepting the award, spoke about the work he had done in various capacities with the Lycoming County Republican Party and about the lessons he learned as a child in Little League, Boy Scouts and his church.

“I believed in this country and I still do,” Rogers said. “I thank you all for the opportunity to be there.”

The keynote speaker for the evening was Tracy Byrnes, of the Fox Business Channel. She shared how she began her career in journalism, after false starts in other fields, covering the Enron collapse and pension crises. While a reporter for the New York Post and seven months pregnant she was offered a position as a contributor to Fox News Channel, which she later accepted. She was with the company when the Fox Business Channel was launched.

“We were entrepreneurs,” she said. “We were scrappy.”

She talked about the tax reform package signed by President Donald Trump in December and how it has reinvigorated Wall Street. She said increases in wages and salaries are still rolling in, and small business owners are feeling more optimism in the wake of the cuts.

“It makes a world of difference to people,” Byrnes said. “Small business confidence is surging.”

She also called for more women in the financial trading and technology fields, for greater border security and the need for safer schools, emphasizing mental health.

“This country is amazing and we are blessed to live here,” she said.

Two candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives also spoke — the incumbent, Marino, and Bradford County Commissioner Doug McLinko.

Marino said it was his third Lincoln Day dinner for the day, “and I haven’t eaten at any of them.”

He transitioned to more serious matters, noting his vote for the corporate tax rate cut and support for Trump’s efforts to build a wall on the border and infrastructure spending such as roads and bridges. He defended a bill he had sponsored on drug access, criticizing “60 Minutes” as “fake news” for its reporting on the bill and noted it passed both the House and Senate by wide, bipartisan margins. He said problems with the bill surfaced after senators changed one word, raising the burden of proof for the Drug Enforcement Administration to impede certain pharmacies from flooding communities with opioids and said the leadership of the DEA had stated the version of the bill he wrote was fine.

“There is no one around more dedicated to going after drug dealers than me,” Marino said.

McLinko, who is challenging Marino for the nomination for his seat, touted his record on eliminating county debt as a commissioner and cutting municipal taxes as a township supervisor. He also spoke about the toll the opiate crisis has taken on families in the region.