May 13, 2018 3 min read

It’s possible to be deeply dismayed by the first 15 months of the Trump administration while acknowledging all the scandal and pandemonium has delivered a not inconsiderable silver lining: It’s increased civic awareness and engagement in quantum leaps. It’s hard to imagine a President Hillary Clinton shaking citizens out of their torpor in similar fashion.

The Women’s March and the March for Our Lives are among the most visible manifestations, as are the number of candidates running for office this year, from the school-board level all the way up to governor’s offices and U.S. Senate seats. This has been reflected in the lively contests taking place on the Republican and Democratic sides for the newly configured 14th Congressional District, which includes all of Washington, Greene and Fayette counties, and part of Westmoreland County. Although most prognosticators have assumed that the newly drawn lines will make it easy for a Republican to win the seat and then keep it for the foreseeable future, four Democrats have nevertheless entered the race.

They all bring impressive credentials. Bob Solomon is an emergency room doctor who has worked at facilities in Canonsburg and Wheeling, W.Va. Adam Sedlock is a Uniontown-based psychologist; Tom Prigg is a Washington native and research associate at Carnegie Mellon University, and Bibiana Boerio is a Latrobe native and a former automotive executive who has worked for Ford and Jaguar.

For the most part, the candidates have staked out similar positions, calling for the preservation of the Affordable Care Act, making higher education more affordable and protecting the environment. But there’s one candidate who is a standout in the field, who combines pragmatism with a fluency in policy that should make her a clear choice for Democratic voters, and that’s Bibiana Boerio.

Along with her work in the auto industry, Boerio also served one year as the interim president of Seton Hill University in Greensburg and was chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak during his tenure in Congress. While forcefully advocating for job growth and protecting seniors, she also possesses a down-to-earth sense of pragmatism. She realizes goals like universal health care will not materialize with a wave of the wand, but must be done through incremental steps and persuasion of voters who might be resistant to such ideas. We were impressed with her easygoing accessibility, and through her work in higher education and the private sector, we believe she would be able to reach across the aisle and actually get things done.

On the Republican side, Rick Saccone, the state representative from Elizabeth Township, is waging another congressional campaign after being narrowly defeated by Democrat Conor Lamb in the much-ballyhooed March special election to fill out the term of disgraced former U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy. This time, Saccone is facing another strong challenge, this one from Guy Reschenthaler, who represents Mt. Lebanon, Bridgeville, Upper St. Clair and other South Hills communities in the state Senate. Reschenthaler would probably not stray greatly from Republican orthodoxy if he makes it to Capitol Hill, but his grasp of national issues appears to be limited to a series of carefully digested talking points. Saccone, on the other hand, seems to have much greater insight on both foreign and domestic policy, and his years of work as a negotiator in North Korea would serve the country well at this moment of flux on the Korean peninsula. He would be a stronger choice for Republican voters.