Ray Bilger

Ray Bilger and his wife live on the slopes of Mount Nittany in a house he helped renovate during visits home from overseas assignments.¹ He grew up in Pleasant Gap with a father who worked in factories and as a machinist, and a mother who raised three children and decorated cakes.¹

A Bellefonte Area High School graduate, Bilger entered the Air Force as an airborne cryptologic linguist in August 1986.¹ He served during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.¹ He describes himself as the first college graduate in his family.² His subsequent career included security and intelligence work for the Air Force, National Security Agency and State Department.³

From 2015 to 2017, he served as NSA technical director for cyber analysis.³ Now retired, he describes a career spanning thirty five years and nearly twenty six years spent living abroad.⁴⁵ In his voter questionnaire, he reports fluency in seven foreign languages.⁵

Bilger proposes stronger rural healthcare services, protections for Medicare and Medicaid, and legislation allowing farmers to repair their own equipment.⁶ He also wants data centers to disclose water use and shield residents from higher electricity costs.⁶ He also advocates reclaiming congressional authority over tariffs and war powers.⁴ He is the Democratic challenger to Republican Agriculture Committee chairman Glenn Thompson in November.³