Michael Thomas (Pennsylvania)

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Michael Thomas
Image of Michael Thomas

Libertarian Party

Elections and appointments
Last election

November 8, 2022

Education

High school

Lakeview High School

Bachelor's

Mercyhurst University, 2008

Graduate

Mercyhurst University, 2010

Personal
Birthplace
Warren, Ohio
Religion
Christian
Profession
Analyst
Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign Twitter

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Campaign YouTube

Michael Thomas (Libertarian Party) ran for election to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to represent District 1. He lost in the general election on November 8, 2022.

Thomas completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Michael Thomas was born in Warren, Ohio. Thomas earned a bachelor's degree and a graduate degree from Mercyhurst University in 2008 and 2010, respectively. His career experience includes working as an intelligence analyst.[1]

Elections

2022

See also: Pennsylvania House of Representatives elections, 2022

General election

General election for Pennsylvania House of Representatives District 1

Incumbent Patrick Harkins defeated Michael Thomas in the general election for Pennsylvania House of Representatives District 1 on November 8, 2022.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Patrick Harkins
Patrick Harkins (D)
 
79.7
 
13,327
Image of Michael Thomas
Michael Thomas (L) Candidate Connection
 
20.3
 
3,394

Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 16,721
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Pennsylvania House of Representatives District 1

Incumbent Patrick Harkins advanced from the Democratic primary for Pennsylvania House of Representatives District 1 on May 17, 2022.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Patrick Harkins
Patrick Harkins
 
100.0
 
6,038

Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 6,038
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Endorsements

To view Thomas' endorsements in the 2022 election, please click here.

Campaign themes

2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Candidate Connection

Michael Thomas completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Thomas' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

I am an intelligence analyst, and I am deeply concerned that the dysfunction by both parties in Washington & Harrisburg is destroying innocent Americans. We need a fresh voice, who will speak up for working Pennsylvanians, against the abuses of the Establishment. Neither Republican nor Democrat, I am a Libertarian. I can be found at MGT4PA.com. My socials are @MGT4PA.
  • Pennsylvania needs to expand the Commonwealth's dispensary system to create more competition in off-patent medications like insulin & epinephrine, thus making them more affordable for working Pennsylvanians.
  • Our District can leverage its Flagship Opportunity Zone to attract the investment capital to manufacture these affordable off-patent medications.
  • Our legislature has fallen far short in oversight responsibilities, and needs Representatives who are no beholden to the Party Establishment.
We need to find & undo the ways that government is raising the cost of living for working Pennsylvanians. Our dysfunctional parties right now seem more focused on pointing fingers at each other than on making the deals that will leave working Pennsylvanians more free.
The War on Small Business: How the Government Used the Pandemic to Crush the Backbone of America
A legislator's first core responsibility is Constituent Services, responding when a constituent's claim to a public service has been lost, or when their rightful access to public services has been denied, is a lawmaker's first priority. One example is when an unemployment claim gets lost in the system.

The second core responsibility is Oversight. Legislation should be considered carefully, implemented responsibly, and monitored vigorously. It should be monitored for abuse, unintended consequence, and obsolescence.

A legislator's third core responsibility is legislating. Drafting, winning support among other legislators, and voting on legislation. Exercising this responsibly requires keeping a pulse on the community, and on the relevant issues.
I would like to find common ground that disparate political factions can embrace to pass legislation that expands liberty and prosperity for hardworking Pennsylvanians.
My father is a mobile locksmith. As soon as I was old enough to hold a flashlight, he'd take me along with him, teach me the job and pay me in Chicken McNuggets. Eventually I was a lineman on the high school football team, and a valuable asset drilling through safe hardplate. By this point my compensation had risen to Big Macs. He wasn't sure whether to be more disappointed or proud the day I demanded to be paid in money.
A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation, because it highlights how an early First Lady built relationships between legislators across factional divides to produce a healthy political atmosphere. We live in an era when each half of the country seems certain that the other half wants them dead or enslaved; we need leaders who will reach out and see each other as countrymen first, adversaries second.
Raymond Holt. Devoted, hardworking, and highly professional, he faces challenges with dignity and inspires his team to become better versions of themselves.
A healthy competition where "iron sharpens iron" as checks & balances produce better government for the people.
As he mounting dysfunction in Washington, DC crushes more and more working Pennsylvanians our Commonwealth must look for ways to stand up for us. We need to find ways the government is making necessary goods like food, energy & medicine prohibitively expensive, and counter those to make these goods affordable again. We need to protect the citizens of our Commonwealth from infringements on liberty.
Without the need for conference a legislature can operate more efficiently, though perhaps not as well. The duplication of legislation inherent in a bicameral body offers more opportunity to study the legislation under consideration, how best to implement it, and to perform its oversight vigorously.
I believe that one of the strengths of a legislature is that having hundreds of elected officials in one body gives a great deal of room for diverse experiences. When the legislature skews too far toward membership with "previous experience in government or politics," it can easily become captured by parochial interests.
It's too easy to dehumanize and vilify parties whose perspectives differ dramatically from ours. In the social media/cable news age, this tendency has siloed us and convinced so many of us that the "other side" wants us dead. We have to know each other outside of the political arena in order to find common ground and stop hating each other. This is a principle that goes back at least to Dolly Madison's efforts during her husband's Presidency to cultivate communication and understanding among Washington's factions by hosting social gatherings.
Redistricting is properly done by a committee of legislators who are held accountable at the ballot box.
Labor & Industry

Tourism & Recreational Development
Game & Fisheries

Liquor Control
Ron Paul
Pennsylvania ranks 45th out of 50 in post-COVID economic recovery. I'm only running because I want to help protect hard-pressed working Pennsylvanians from the dysfunction in Washington, DC & Harrisburg that's squeezing them so hard. I have no plans to seek different office.
One constituent I was speaking with rents a modest home with his wife & kids. They need some public assistance to get by. He gave up some valuable family time in a recent month, because he was offered ~$400 worth of overtime. He later learned that the overtime kicked his household income over a threshold that cost them ~$700 worth of public assistance.

This is not a system that provides a "hand up." This is a system that kicks you back down as you're just starting to get back up. We need to modernize our public assistance means tests to look more like the Earned Income Tax credit. The EIC is designed to taper recipients off, removing the benefit gradually as income increases. Nobody seeking to leave public assistance should be on net financially worse off for working extra hours.
There's a reason emergency powers are typically vested in an Executive. And the legislature should provide a strong check on abuse of those powers.
My guiding principle is, "Will this legislation leave us freer tomorrow than we were yesterday?" Within that framework, there is typically a great deal of room for compromises that respect the concerns of a great many stakeholders.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

See also

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External links

Candidate

Pennsylvania House of Representatives District 1
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    		•

    Footnotes

    1. ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on October 11, 2022


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