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Candidate for state’s 9th Congressional District stops in South Williamsport

Rachel Wallace, a Democrat candidate for the state's 9th Congressional District, says much of what she is hearing from people she meets on the campaign trail comes down to cost of living.

"This is a really hard time for people to be able to afford their bills," she said during a stop in South Williamsport.

Wallace said she recently attended a picnic for the 250th celebration of the United States, where she asked people, "What do you hope for in the future of our country?"

"Every person I talked to said lower prices," she said.

"It was one of those moments where it was hard for people to feel optimistic for the future when they were just trying to make it through," she said.

A 10th generation Pennsylvanian from Pottsville, Wallace's campaign is focused on such things as making life more affordable again.

"In Congress, I will fight for the people of Pennsylvania's 9th Congressional District every single day," she said, adding how "Republican Dan Meuser forgot about us and our Pennsylvania values. I never will."

Asked if Gov. Josh Shapiro gave her any advice on the campaign trail, she quickly responded.

"He said 'keep it up,'" Wallace said. "He is paying attention to this race because he is seeing the momentum that we have."

"I think when we started, people didn't expect much from this campaign, but I felt strongly at the beginning and I feel strongly now people want change and they want representation that shows up and cares and we don't have that and our race is drawing attention to the deficit in leadership that we have and the opportunity that we have to make a change," Wallace said.

She noted how the governor is "seeing what everyone else is seeing – that this race is on the map now."

Wallace had joined Shapiro at Lycoming College before the primary election.

"We had already started to build a community of people who really wanted change," she said, appreciative of Shapiro's support.

She was asked what she hears from businesses that she talks to whose workers are concerned about price hikes.

She said, "if you have a good business, people will try to stick with you and support you. If you have a good product, I think they'll go for it. But this is a really hard time for small business owners," she said.

Choices are being made changing spending habits and needs versus wants.

"I mean, this is a hard time for people who might have to think about whether they can afford to go out and get a coffee," she said.

"I think people are making tough choices right now about the vacations they are taking, about how much they are eating out, what they can buy at the grocery store," she said.

"We are all trying to navigate how much everything costs right now," she added.

Health care insurance rates

"Just looking at the cost of health care for instance and the expected rate increases 10 to 20 %," Wallace said.

"What people need to understand is that rate increase is coming because Meuser voted it that way last year," Wallace said.

"Part of my campaign, part of why I wanted to get into this, part of what I want to do with this campaign is raise the alarm that people need to understand things don't go up on their own," Wallace said.

"There are drivers behind that and our health care costs are going up because Congress voted last year for increasing the cost of healthcare to help fund tax breaks for billionaires," she said.

"It sounds comical when you say it, but that's what the bill did," Wallace observed.

"We are already paying for it and we are going to pay for it even more next year," she said.

Accountability and care

"We deserve, especially in this part of Pennsylvania, to have someone who's fighting for us, not for just the wealthiest people in the country who are doing just fine," Wallace said.

Data centers

Just as there is a data center proposed in Muncy Township in Lycoming County, 9 or 10 of 12 counties in the 9th District are either having a data center built or fighting one from being built, Wallace observed.

In the communities that Wallace is talking with about them she said "people feel like they are the ones that are being asked to pay the price and they are going to pay more for their electricity," she said.

"They are going to worry about the impact of their quality of life," Wallace said.

"These big companies – they are not worried .. they're not from here, there's gonna be no accountability," she said.

"People want to know that they're not going to be the ones who bear these costs," Wallace said. "We need leadership to make sure that that's not going to be the case."

"We're part of a community," Wallace said. "I think part of the conglomerization of Pennsylvania and the economy in general has shown us that when people in our community are not the ones making these things happen it's a lot harder to have accountability," she said.

As an example, the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau invited her to a press conference where Wallace listened to farmers tell their stories about potential negative consequences of data centers and their impact on them as farmers.

She was told by some farmers that they were going to lose $70,000 a year for what they are able to produce because of eminent domain for a project that is for a private company that provides "What for Pennsylvania?" she asked.

Data center proposals and the tariffs are two issues that appear to be making people in communities less likely to interact and seem to place burdens on small businesses including the small family farmer and business owner.

"We have this consolidation in industry and everything becomes you're either big and your corporate and or your international or you're a farmer who's just trying to make it work," she said. But she said members of the community calling for accountability will be the driving force for positive change.

"There is a sense that on the community level we can control what's happening here and we can be accountable to each other," she said.

As a daughter of a pastor, family values and community involvement and service to community matter to Wallace.

"I think church is a place where that happens," she said.