Not shy to blast the Biden administration for failing to make Pennsylvania a powerhouse of energy independence, job creation and prosperity, Republican U.S. Senate candidate seeking nomination Carla Sands wants voters to consider her in the May 17 primary election.

In Williamsport on Tuesday to visit friends and dine at the James Restaurant, the lifelong Republican got to know and worked to elect former President Donald Trump and supported the ‘America First’ agenda.

No stranger to the city and region

“I go back and forth to Williamsport all of the time,” said Sands, who said she visited about a year ago during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to see the Little League World Series in South Williamsport but was unable to because of safety precautions.

Her disappointment in not seeing a Little League game has lingered on with watching Democrat policies destroy the state, she said.

“Pennsylvania is no longer a powerhouse of manufacturing,” Sands said.

At one time, a single-wage earner could support a family, but these jobs are off-shore, due in large part to federal and state government incentivizing their production plants be in foreign countries, many of whom are not friendly to the U.S., she noted.

Not only was the Pennsylvania worker impacted, but the shareholders of these companies took a hit, Sands said.

Appointed as ambassador to Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands from 2017 to 2021 by Trump, Sands was one of the few women appointed to serve on his Economic Advisory Council.

“We need to bring back pharmaceuticals, steel production, plants that process earth’s minerals and do not allow China to dominate the production of materials that are used in cell phones, defense equipment and electric car batteries,” Sands said.

Sands observed the success of the “cracker plant” in Western Pennsylvania. The plant create ethylene, a component in plastics, from breaking down oil and gas molecules.

“This state needs four to five of these plants,” she said.

“We also need to find new sources of energy such as hydrogen power and carbon splitting and store the carbon in the ground,” she said.

As ambassador, Sands worked with NATO, the U.S. Department of Defense, departments of Interior and Treasury and the White House to “strengthen relations with allies that had ceded their energy dependence to Russia and China.”

The Democrats want to see programs such as the Green New Deal, which she said negatively impacts farmers by overregulating their water, land and determining how much methane their cows put out, she said.

Overregulation of the energy sector is akin to “renting an apartment and the landlord did not hand out the keys,” Sands said.

The U.S. should not be getting its fuel from places such as Venezuela, she said.

More recently, Sands, who spoke during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), supported a return-to-energy dominance plan — “Operation Warp Speed,” a type of Marshall Plan (A U.S.-plan named after Gen. George Marshall to rehabilitate 17 countries to create stable conditions in the aftermath of World War II).

“We need to harmonize regulations at the state level and lay pipeline and send the product to Philadelphia and ship it to our allies in Europe so they do not need Russian gas,” she said.

Many European Union nations “foolishly turned their back on clean and safe nuclear, clean coal and relied on windmills, solar and importing Russian gas,” she said.

While ambassador, Sands said she worked to free those nations from that dependency and, while acknowledging the U.S. fuel (gas and oil) had a higher price tag, she said, “That is the price of freedom.”

As ambassador Sands worked with European allies to put terminals and harbors in to receive American-produced fuel in countries such as Croatia, Latvia and Poland.

“Pennsylvania, alone, has the energy resources to power the U.S. for 300 years,” Sands said.

During her ambassadorship, she helped Demark, for example, to increase trade and exports to the U.S. by over 43% and that attracted foreign investment, increased pension funds, provided jobs at home and opened up real estate opportunities.

As ambassador, Sands proposed and helped establish the U.S. Consulate in Nuuk, Greenland, and assisted with resolving the Thule Base Maintenance Contract dispute.

She facilitated partnership agreements between the U.S. and the people of Greenland and the people of the Faroe Islands and expanded the U.S. mission in Denmark to include the United States Coast Guard.

In January 2021, Sands received the Department of Defense’s highest civilian honor, the Medal for Distinguished Public Service, for her work to increase security in the high north while countering Russia and China.

For those hoping to see less inflation and policies that stoke inflation, Sands has asked for their vote.

“For those not sure who they want to vote for, think of Carla who will go on the offensive for them,” she said. “I will fight for working families, for senior citizens and working people of Pennsylvania — who have not been well served.”

“They haven’t had a champion, and they need one.”

Sands grew up in Camp Hill. Her father, Jack, continued to grow his chiropractic practice in Camp Hill alongside his own father, while her mother, Barbara, raised her and her six siblings. Sands developed a strong work ethic and found a passion for service early on from her time spent in the Girl Scouts, learning from her parents’ Christian Ministry service, and serving on the student council at Cumberland Valley High School. She developed a love for the Pennsylvania outdoors, spending summers at the Christian Camp Hebron in Halifax, and winters there. Sands first jobs were teaching art at the local middle school on the weekends and after school and working at Hershey Park.

Sands studied biology and chemistry at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Elizabethtown College before receiving her Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Life Chiropractic College. Sands went on to follow in her father and grandfather’s footsteps, being the third generation in her family to practice chiropractic in Pennsylvania. In 1999, she married the love of her life, Fred Sands. After Fred’s passing in 2015, Carla stepped in to lead his company and became the first woman to serve as Chairman & CEO of Vintage Capital Group.