Congressman Chris Deluzio quietly launched his bid for re-election Tuesday evening, a rollout that had the workmanlike style that has characterized much of the Democrat’s approach to representing Pennsylvania’s 17th District. And he offered that focus as an antidote to the dysfunction that has provided much fodder for political headlines over the past year.
“I look at what’s going on in Washington, what the House Republican majority has meant,” he told a clutch of reporters gathered at a painters union hall in Collier. “They’ve taken us from crisis to crisis. They’ve been focused on some of the most extreme culture war fights you can imagine."
“I contrast that with what I’ve been trying to do for our region,” he added. Those activities in his first term include efforts to help secure a half-billion dollars in federal money to the district, as well as assure improved safety along rail lines that pass through populated areas, and to fend off the acquisition of U.S. Steel by a Japanese producer.
“We've got more work to do, and I'm asking folks for another two years to keep doing it," he said.
Rail safety initiatives took on added urgency after the derailment of a freight train carrying hazardous material through East Palestine, Ohio, a year ago. And Deluzio cited it as a top priority going forward: The community borders on Pennsylvania, and Deluzio said “I talk to people all over this district who live near the tracks. They’re worried it could be the next derailment hits their neighborhood.”
But while there has been some bipartisan support for rail safety measures in Congress, Deluzio says Republicans have blocked it. “It’s a travesty we haven’t gotten it passed yet.”
Deluzio won the seat once held by Conor Lamb by presenting a similar profile. A Navy veteran who saw deployments to Iraq, he’s touted strong union convictions and participated in a bid to unionize fellow faculty members at the University of Pittsburgh, where he worked on cyber security matters that included work on election integrity.
There was no mystery about Deluzio’s plans to run, and on Tuesday his campaign moved smoothly into the groundwork of circulating petitions to assure him a place on the Democratic ballot. After speaking with journalists he met with supporters; a statement from his campaign said he told them that "We can build a government that serves all of us, not just the rich and powerful. Together we can build a future where the union way of life is secure, where our freedom is protected, and where folks can grow up, work, build families, and retire with dignity."
The campaign also boasted of raising more than $1.5 million from 5,400 donors in the cycle.
Whatever happens between now and November, there is almost no scenario in which Democrats control the White House and both chambers of Congress with majorities large enough to overcome procedural hurdles like the Senate filibuster.
But he noted that in the first two years of President Joe Biden’s administration, Congress passed big-ticket investments in infrastructure and other priorities. “The last Congress passed transformative legislation” including infrastructure bills and health protections for veterans exposed to toxic military burn pits.
“We can accomplish a lot if Democrats do regain control” even by thin margins, he said. “[And] I think, if given the chance to govern, some of my Republican colleagues are interested in joining us.”
Deluzio can expect to face Republican opposition this fall, most likely from state Rep. Rob Mercuri, who announced his bid for the seat last year. Other Republicans, including Jesse James Vodvarka, may also appear on the GOP ballot this spring.
The 17th district includes Beaver County and a broad swath of Allegheny County suburbs, and it’s been considered a swing district with the potential to play a role in deciding control of the House. The Cook Political Report, which tracks such battlegrounds, ranks the district as “leans Democratic” — not entirely a toss-up but not a gimme for Democrats either.
Deluzio has governed accordingly, backing the cause of organized labor and generally serving as a staunch Democrat, but one who has avoided becoming a lightning rod for conservatives and has at times criticized the administration. He recently garnered headlines for calling on Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to resign after reports that Austin had been hospitalized without notifying anyone in the chain of command.
“It was a breakdown in the chain of command that can never happen,” he said. Austin “has certainly been someone who’s offered this country many years of service, but that failure was unacceptable to me.”
Like Senator Bob Casey, Deluzio has also tossed a flag on the Biden administration’s rollout of tax credits to establish hydrogen fuel cells: The Pennsylvania Democrats have expressed concern that the credits might exclude natural-gas energy sources in Pennsylvania.
Unlike some Democrats, like Summer Lee from the 12th District next door, he has largely avoided controversy over Israel and its response to the Oct. 7 terror attacks by Hamas. (Deluzio in fact took a trip to Israel backed by AIPAC, the country’s highest-profile advocacy group in the United States.) But he has lately been critical of the country’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has recently said he would not allow Palestinians to have a homeland of their own.
Deluizo told reporters he found that “outrageous,” given that a two-state solution has been the basis for years of policy in the region. “And the Biden administration has correctly been pushing the Israelis … to be more protective of civilian life and to turn the corner to a different phase of this war.”
When asked what leverage Congress might have, though, he repeated that Republican leadership precluded even votes on foreign policy initiatives. “The dysfunction I see in the current Republican majority in the House has hampered us in a lot of ways,” he said.
His own solution to that gridlock, he said, was to focus on district needs. “I’m never going to hesitate when it’s right for the region,” he said. “I think it’s the job I’m sent to do.”
