Democrats set up shop in Sharon
Sep. 12—SHARON — The pin Rianna Czech wears on her collar looks, at first glance, like Captain America's shield.
It's only in looking at the fine print that it becomes apparent that the pin does not represent a comic book hero, but real life heroes.
The pin is for United Flight 93, the passenger jet that crashed Sept. 11, 2001 — 21 years ago yesterday — in Shanksville, Pa. Flight 93 was one of four jets were hijacked that day. The terrorist hijackers flew two into the World Trade Center towers and the third into the Pentagon.
According to the 9/11 Commission's investigation of the terrorist attack, Flight 93 was bound for either the U.S. Capitol building or the White House, but the passengers fought back and forced the hijackers to crash the plane in Somerset County. Flight 93 was the only plane hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001, that took no lives on the ground.
An Army National Guard veteran, Czech said she wears the pin in recognition of the passengers' sacrifice.
She wore the pin Thursday at the grand opening of the Mercer County Democratic campaign headquarters, 107 E. State St. in downtown Sharon. Czech, the Democratic nominee for the state Senate 50th District, was on hand with fellow candidates Dan Pastore, running for the U.S. House of Representatives 16th District in northwest Pennsylvania, and Mercer County Commissioner Tim McGonigle, running for the state House 7th District in eastern Mercer County.
In a county that has grown increasingly Republican in recent years — McGonigle is the only Democrat holding countywide elected office — Kim Powell, president of Mercer County Democrat Women and a field organizer for Pastore's campaign, said she saw a note of optimism among the roughly 30 people who turned out at the opening night event.
The headquarters will provide a location for staging voter engagement and get-out-the-vote activities ahead of the Nov. 8 general election.
"Talking to voters directly is the best way to get them out," Powell said.
Powell said she's seeing it might not take as much effort to get Democrats out this year as in the last few election cycles. She said the Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, which removed protections for abortion rights, has shaken people out of complacency.
"I think the Dobbs decision 100 percent is getting, especially women, activated," she said.
Pastore said he thinks voters, in Mercer County and beyond, are ready for a change. He is running against six-term Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly. A businessman and founder of FishUSA fishing supply shop in Erie County, Pastore says he believes that support for abortion rights is an important issue in the campaign.
He also is expecting support in his own and other down-ticket races — like Czech's and McGonigle's — from strong candidates like Attorney General Josh Shapiro for governor and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate.
Shapiro and Fetterman are facing off, respectively, against Republican nominees state Sen. Doug Mastriano and reality TV star and cardiologist Dr. Mehmet Oz. Pastore said he thinks voters are prepared to reject both candidates.
"They don't want Mastriano, they don't want Dr. Oz from New Jersey," Pastore said. "And they've had enough of Mike Kelly."
