GOP Senate candidate Bartos campaigns in Johnstown

Mar. 25—JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — For months, Jeff Bartos has been working to position himself as the Republican running for U.S. Senate who, in his words, is for "Main Street, Pennsylvania," as opposed to other candidates who have "parachuted" into the commonwealth for political reasons.

Three candidates — David McCormick, Dr. Mehmet Oz and Carla Sands — moved to the state to run in the primary after U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, a Republican, announced he would not seek re-election.

Bartos, from Montgomery County, is a lifelong Pennsylvania resident and business owner.

"The contrast in this race gets clearer every day," Bartos said during a telephone interview on Friday when he visited Johnstown. "I'm fighting for the people of Pennsylvania, and these tourists are fighting each other."

When asked about issues voters are discussing on the campaign trail, Bartos said, "What I'm hearing from our fellow Pennsylvanians over the last couple months is inflation is taking a bigger and bigger chunk out of families' budgets. Working families who survived the pandemic and the shutdowns are now getting crushed by runaway inflation.

"The war in Ukraine is concerning to everyone of course."

An estimated 4 million Ukrainians, mostly women and children, have become refugees during the war.

Plans are being developed by a local nonprofit, Vision Together 2025, to bring Ukrainian refugees to the Johnstown region.

Bartos did not discuss the specific local program or anything directly involving Pennsylvania, but instead said, "The surest way to handle the humanitarian crisis that is unfolding is to get the Ukrainians the weapons that they need to win this war against Russia."

He also addressed what he called the nation's "broken" immigration system and issues at the United States-Mexico border.

"The sons and daughters of Main Street, Pennsylvania, continue to be poisoned by fentanyl manufactured in the People's Republic of China and smuggled across our southern border. ... We need to secure our border," Bartos said. "And then we need an immigration system that works for our economy. For too long, our immigration system has been a political football, but it hasn't worked for our economy."

Bartos also accused President Joe Biden, a Democrat, of being involved in a "war on American energy, war on Pennsylvania energy" with the goal of "looking to put fossil fuels out of business."

He described Pennsylvania's natural gas reserves as being a "vital national strategic asset of the United States."