Justin Wagner

Justin Wagner met his wife, Amanda, while both were serving in the Army in South Korea.¹ They have four daughters, whom they have educated at home.¹ Away from work, he coaches youth hockey, plays music in a local band and builds LEGO sets with his children.¹

He grew up in Greenville and Transfer, graduating from Reynolds High School in 1998 before studying at ITT Technical Institute and taking classes at Youngstown State.¹ His early jobs included bagging groceries and loading steel plates into a furnace while attending classes.¹

Wagner trained as a flight operations specialist, served with the 6th Cavalry in South Korea and the 4th Infantry Division in Texas, and deployed to Iraq in 2006.¹ After active duty, he served with an Army Reserve engineer company in Butler.¹ His civilian engineering work has included Seattle's water and wastewater systems.¹ He now works as a senior automation engineer in the life sciences industry and serves on Mercer Borough Council.²

His platform calls for raising the federal minimum wage, expanding Medicare and strengthening public education funding.² He also supports banning congressional stock trading and promises a public district town hall each month.³ He is challenging Republican incumbent Mike Kelly for the northwestern Pennsylvania seat.²