On Tuesday, Nov. 5, Pennsylvania residents will flock to the polls to elect their next leaders. As part of Pennsylvania District 6, Meadville residents will choose their next representative to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. On the ballot are Michael Walker as the Democratic candidate and incumbent Representative Brad Roae as the Republican candidate.
Editor-in-Chief Anna Westbrook, ’26, sat down with Walker to discuss his campaign and what he believes college students should pay particular attention to when making their decision.
Roae, who is running for his 10th two-year term, did not respond to several requests for an interview.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Westbrook: Why are you the most qualified candidate to represent your district?
Walker: I am from this area. Everything I have is invested in this area. I built a business up from the ground forward. I’ve been involved in the community and helped build several charities and masons.
Overall, if I’m going to run for an office and represent it, I’m going to represent the people I come from.
As far as qualifications, I have 15 years in heat treatment, working bottom-up and ended up becoming their quality control guy and metallurgist. Then I went from that to opening up my own business. We took it from our concept to having a full-on brick-and-mortar spot so you’re dealing with finances, government paperwork, and it’s an alcohol business so you’re dealing with government certifications and everything else there on both of my jobs. So I have experience in dealing with the government and its ins and outs as well as dealing with the problems that actually plague the local area.
What do you believe to be the most pressing issue facing your district today?
I would say the most pressing issue facing the district today right now is the fact that we have a crumbling infrastructure, which is causing a shrinking population so we have less opportunities being created in the area. It’s causing tax-base issues and a bunch of — it’s an avalanche of problems all based off the fact that we just don’t have the tax base to invest into our infrastructure to build opportunities there.
How do you plan to incentivize people raised in the area to stay and to attract new people to settle down in the district?
You need to create opportunities and jobs. I believe the area itself is beautiful. I mean we got this huge resource that — with our outdoors and everything. All we do need to do is build up the infrastructure and the opportunities and jobs to bring these people in, and I do believe once they come in and see this area itself and have a good paying job, you’re going to see this community get back to where it was at the height at its tool and die boom.
If elected, what would your top three priorities be within the first six months?
Within the first six months, I would be working with the local townships and government structure to receive the federal and state funds that have already been earmarked for infrastructure. We’ve had a pretty big infrastructure act federally and there is spending that’s happening on the state level already earmarked with the state budget, we just don’t have a lot of the infrastructure set up for the townships and stuff to receive these funds. People bought into our area to build it up, so that would be the first thing I’d be working with.
I would also be looking at making Woodcock Park a state park. We can put it up on the Pymatuning park system — kind of extend that in there too not at a whole lot of cost, but actually to be able to keep that part from crumbling and to bring camping and tourism and stuff going into our area. Again, like I said, the outdoors is a huge resource that we have in our area to attract people. Having a state park there would definitely highlight that.
The last thing I would be pushing for is our state constitution — putting women’s rights enshrined into that so that it can’t be assailed and can’t easily be changed by whoever is in office. It’s great that we have a lot of the stuff that we do here in Pennsylvania, but we need to take that a step further and make sure that it’s protected the way it needs to be.
Is there anything about your campaign that you hope college students pay particular attention to?
Whenever I started this campaign, I tried to make it not just about the issues that I’m talking about here, but also about the fact that politics should not be reality TV. What people really should be looking at is platform, endorsements and donations because that forms what that candidate is going to be doing while they’re in office and when they continue in office.
If I think college students and younger people should take anything away from that — my campaign in itself — it should be that look at the candidates. Look at what they’re really about. Look at who’s funding them and try to make the best decision as to what’s going to impact their future because everything that’s happening now, 10 years down the road it’s going to be on you guys.
