With the special election for Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District now less than two months away, Democratic candidate Marc Friedenberg is opening his third campaign office and first this election cycle in Centre County.
Friedenberg, a Ferguson Township resident, will host an opening for the new office, located at 908 Pike Street in Lemont, at 7 p.m. Tuesday. The event is open to the public and the office will then be open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.
He previously opened a campaign office in Sunbury earlier this month and held an opening for his Williamsport office on Monday night.
“I am humbled and grateful for the outpouring of support coming into this district,’ Friedenberg said in a news release. “We are going to do all that we can to speak to make the case for a better and smarter government.”
Friedenberg is running against Snyder County Republican state Rep. Fred Keller for the U.S. House seat vacated by five-term Republican Rep. Tom Marino, who resigned from Congress in January to take a private sector job. Marino had defeated Friedenberg in November’s general election.
Snyder is in the midst of his fifth term in the state House.
Facing the challenge of flipping a traditionally Republican-held area, Friedenberg said he is investing heavily in a grassroots field program. Among his senior staff hires since launching the campaign is field director Josh Levin, who recently oversaw a pair of successful campaigns in Iowa that flipped House seats from red to blue.
“What we are seeing here is a tremendous amount of local activists ready and willing to do the work needed to win this election,’ Levin said in a news release. ‘By implementing grassroots organizing, we are empowering the community to raise their own voices and build a lasting movement to continue past this special election.”
Gov. Tom Wolf set the special election to coincide with the May 21 primary election. The winner in the 12th District race will serve out the remainder of Marino’s term ending in January 2021.
In Centre County, the 12th District includes Ferguson Township, State College, Harris Township, College Township, part of Halfmoon Township and the Penns Valley Area. It also includes portions of Bradford, Clinton, Juniata, Lycoming, Mifflin, Northumberland, Perry, Potter, Snyder, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga, Union, and Wyoming counties.
Friedenberg is an attorney and faculty member at Penn State, where he teaches cybersecurity and cyber law. A graduate of Penn State and Columbia School of Law, he previously represented investors who were defrauded by Wall Street banks in the lead-up to the 2008 financial crisis.
