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Weird

As I sat eating delicious scrambled eggs at the John Murtha Johnstown – Cambria County Airport while waiting for my opponent, Representative John Joyce, to speak, I wondered – what does this dermatologist from Altoona say to keep the good people of Pennsylvania’s 13th Congressional District voting against their own interests and putting him into a Washington, D.C. office?

I observed him from across the room. In his usual suit-jacket-and-unbuttoned-oxford-shirt-sans-tie, he stood around, speaking quietly with members of Cambria’s Regional Chamber of Commerce (CCRC) whose Governmental Action Committee (GAC) had invited him, not me, to speak. In a change from years past, and pretty much any other political forum ever, the CCRC decided to host separate fora for us candidates “this year.” Well, that was certainly better than Blair County’s Chamber of Commerce who was rumored to forgo the forum this year in order not to “anger the congressman.” So I sat respectfully with other women who had also breakfasted at the table closest to the podium, and he never introduced himself to us, his constituents.

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What was I expecting exactly – that he would acknowledge our humanity? Silly me. It’s not like he respected our valid Pennsylvania electoral votes when, in a blatant attempt to trash them, he signed the Texas Amicus Brief in December 2020. In refusing to certify them on January 7th, 2021 after Trump’s violent insurrection, I believe he broke his oath to the U.S. Constitution. And he certainly didn’t respect our agency over our own bodies when he voted against the Women’s Health Protection Act and cosponsored the unscientific Life at Conception Act, so why would I expect him to ever approach us and shake our hands?

After an introduction by Greg Winger, chair of the CRCC GAC, Representative Joyce was off! In a pleading voice and at a breakneck speed that seemed beyond what one would choose for others to take in, he tumbled out many, many words, but his theme of “Us versus Them” broke through. He began by noting how his family had lived in the area for generations, then detoured through his wife’s childhood. Yet, I couldn’t help but contrast his ancestral fervor to the faraway origins of the greatest advocate Johnstown had ever known – former Representative, and Democrat, John Murtha – after whom the airport where Rep. Joyce was speaking at that very moment, was named. To the people of Johnstown who also named Route 219, various cancer centers, and university buildings, in addition to other treasured locales after the longstanding congressman, it didn’t matter that he was born and primarily raised in West Virginia and later, Westmoreland County. It mattered what Murtha did for Johnstown.

But Joyce doesn’t do for Johnstown like Murtha did. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. While there are grumbles about how and when to use the rare windfall of funds from the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act, the America Rescue Plan Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, the fact is, that Representative John Joyce voted against all three. Sure, board members of the Vision Works 2025, local business owners, and politicians had been questioned repeatedly about when and how the funding will be implemented for projects in and around Johnstown – some of those people were at that very breakfast – but had any of them, or any other voters from Johnstown, ever considered that the funding wouldn’t be there if more members of Congress had voted like Representative Joyce?  

I turned back to his speech. Having established the “Us” in his narrative, he moved on to the “Them,” and they were, unsurprisingly…immigrants. According to him, “we all are a border state” and by extension immigrants are just bearing down on us with their crime and fentanyl, which he noted for its extra foreignness because, he claimed, “the ingredients are made in China.” Nevermind that the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol who are on the frontlines of this illegal trade state on their website that fentanyl, “often times enters the U.S. through common trade pathways, such as air cargo and express courier…these shipments can be declared as legitimate goods because some do have a legitimate purpose.” No, Representative Joyce has decided that immigrants who seek asylum from persecution are to blame and so he went down to the border on our tax money and…and…“touched bags of fentanyl”?  

The rest of his speech was a plea for us to believe that he is just a bi-partisan politician, looking out for our health even though he recently voted with 45 other extremists for Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene’s amendment to defund NATO and he’s “proud” to be endorsed by convicted felon Trump.

Perhaps, the good people of PA-13 haven’t been paying attention, but the truth is, he doesn’t represent us and I’m running so he never will again.

beth farnham
Website | + posts

Elect Beth Farnham as US Representative for Pennsylvania’s 13th Congressional District on November 5, 2024 to preserve our Democracy, recreate a functioning Congress, defend Public Education, and enshrine into law our Reproductive Freedom, Gun Safety, Universal Healthcare, and Immigration Reform.

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