Justin Wagner

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A people-powered campaign fighting for working families, real accountability, and a future you can afford.

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Veteran. Engineer. Pro-Union. Pro-Worker. Ready to fight for PA-16.

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I will hold open, in-person town halls across every corner of this district—regularly, publicly announced, and open to every resident, no matter their politics. Politicians have a reputation for disappearing once they get elected. I won’t. You deserve a representative who shows up, answers tough questions, and listens face-to-face. I’m making a simple commitment: I will show up for real conversations, real transparency, and direct accountability to the people I work for—you. I will hold at least one in-person Townhall in our district every month.

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It’s long past time to raise the federal minimum wage — and tie it to inflation so workers never again lose buying power the way they have over the last twenty years. Prices go up every year; wages should too.

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The housing crisis is hitting working families across the country, and Western Pennsylvania is no exception. Private equity firms and hedge funds are snapping up homes, driving prices beyond what normal people can afford, and destabilizing entire communities. For decades, the federal government played a real role in helping Americans build and buy homes. We stopped doing that, and the market has tilted hard toward investors instead of families. We need to bring back serious federal support for building housing — actual homes regular people can afford, not luxury units that sit empty. The VA home loan program has helped a lot of veterans, myself included, and it shows how powerful a fair lending system can be when it’s done right. We should expand access to similar programs so more Americans have a fair shot at homeownership without being buried under impossible prices or predatory lending. And we need to ban hedge funds and private equity firms from buying single-family homes. Families shouldn’t be competing with billion-dollar investment groups for a place to live. There’s legislation ready right now to put homes back into the hands of the people who live in them, and I’ll support it in Congress. Every family deserves the chance to put down roots. Housing should be achievable — not something reserved for investors and out-of-town money.I support the passage of The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R48849I will also sponsor and sign any bill that puts limitations on corporate housing ownership, re-zones urban centers to fill empty buildings and lots, and puts significant limits on real-estate empires. Every American must be safely, and predictably housed.

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I believe every child deserves a world-class public education, supported fully school meals and safe recreation spaces. Instead of treating trade schools and community colleges as individual financial burdens that bury young people in debt, I will treat them as vital investments in our nation’s infrastructure.

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Data Privacy Artificial intelligence already shapes every part of our lives in western PA(and really, any place in this country). It's in the map app on your phone. It gathers information during screening for cancer. But behind the promise of the good an "AI revolution" will bring lies a difficult reality: AI models lie, human-effort is devalued, energy costs and public health concerns are disregarded, and once again... opportunities for American innovation is lost to foreign companiesLeaving this technology without guardrails is irresponsible at best. At worst, it risks local jobs to automation, exposes our private data to essentially infinite companies without our consent, and it threatens our national security in every way imaginable. We have seen how corporations practice self-regulation. The 2008 financial collapse, the impact of social media on mental health...When I get to Congress, I will push for a rigorous federal safety framework. I will sponsor and champion legislation to establish an Independent Federal AI Safety Authority to enforce binding standards, alongside a national data privacy framework that mandates absolute transparency and a human-in-the-loop review for insurance and employment decisions. I will fight for comprehensive worker-protection bills that fight for compensation for workers displaced by automation. I will push for requiring clear labeling on AI-generated content to defend our elections and bank accounts.For starters, I would sign on to….Pass the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA): This legislation establishes a national data privacy standard that gives people the right to opt-out of data collection and prevents companies from harvesting more personal data than is strictly necessary.Pass the Preventing Algorithmic Collusion Act: This legislation closes loopholes that allow companies to use shared AI software to artificially inflate prices, ensuring that "digital price-fixing" is prosecuted just like traditional monopolies.Read my full position here.

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Without the proper infrastructure to accomidate massive energy and freshwater needs, allowing data centers to be built in our communities is a death sentence. These facilities create massive heat islands that can decimate local wildlife. They often utilize energy infrastructure that can skyrocket YOUR power bill at best. At worst, they can be a huge detriment to public health, leading to increase risk of chronic illness and fatalities. My position is simple. Until the technology is readily available to make these facilities sustainable and safe, I will vote for a moratorium on building them.

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From warrantless surveillance to data mining to metadata tracking, the guardrails that used to protect ordinary Americans have been stripped away. We need to restore real limits, real oversight, and real due process.We need to rein in corporate surveillance. Companies are using AI to track people’s movements, behavior, buying habits, and personal data, and then using that information to manipulate prices and squeeze every last dollar out of families. I’ll support legislation that puts strict limits on corporate data harvesting and bans predatory AI-driven pricing.

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Our immigration system has been intentionally broken for decades. Washington politicians use the border as a campaign prop. Fixing it for good makes it impossible for them to generate rage. Americans want a system that secures our borders and stops cartels, but also demands respect for human dignity, due process, and the rule of law.

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I am a veteran, and I know exactly what war takes from people. It costs human lives, and it leaves scars that last for decades after the fighting stops. Because of that, I will never vote to send Americans into another pointless conflict.

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I stand against Israel’s expansionist actions across the Middle Eastern states. I stand against the genocide of the Palestinian people, of which the death toll is estimated to be over 75,000.I stand against sending billions of dollars and millions of man-hours to any foreign country while Americans deal with an affordability and inequity crisis unseen since the Gilded Age. That goes especially for countries whose regimes act as regional pariahs.I will not take money or entertain interests from AIPAC, or any other organization acting on behalf of the state of Israel.

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Fairness is easy. It’s about ending a system where a nurse in Sharon pays a higher effective tax rate than a hedge fund manager. We need to close the 2017 loopholes, tax wealth like we tax hard work, and reinvest that money into PA-16 infrastructure and jobs.

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I will sponsor and champion legislation to fully fund Title I schools, special education, and preschool programs. These investments give our youngest children a strong start while finally giving working parents the freedom to advance their careers. Furthermore, I will prioritize and protect Pell Grant funding to ensure the local colleges and universities that prop up Western Pennsylvania's economies are thriving. We built the strongest economy in human history; we can afford an education system that treats learning as a national asset.Read my full position paper here.

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Right now, our government is failing on both fronts. We are witnessing a breakdown of our most fundamental legal guardrails. By bypassing basic constitutional protections, denying due process, and turning a blind eye to the erosion of habeas corpus for those in our system, the government has allowed immigration enforcement to operate in a legal gray area. As a combat veteran, I swore an oath to defend the Constitution. Watching masked agents act without accountability is beyond inhumane... it is a betrayal of the basic American legal principles we fought to protect. This is cruelty and constitutional overreach.

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Right now, we need to stop a catastrophic, unauthorized escalation with Iran. Launching boat strikes and executing covert operations without explicit congressional approval does not keep us safe. It just risks dragging our country into a devastating regional war that nobody voted for.

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You have a right to bear arms. I am a veteran of the US Army. I served in Operation Iraqi Freedom. I took an oath to defend the Constitution. In Western Pennsylvania, gun ownership is part of our heritage, our culture, and our way of life. Law-abiding citizens have an absolute, unambiguous right to bear arms.As any veteran or responsible gun owner will tell you: with rights come deep responsibilities. Safety means ensuring that firearms stay in the hands of the law-abiding, and out of the hands of violent criminals, cartels, and individuals facing severe mental health crises. We protect the Second Amendment by taking common-sense steps to protect our communities, our schools, and our families.In Congress, I will support practical, constitutional measures that focus strictly on safety without infringing on your rights:Universal Background Checks: If you buy a firearm, you should pass a background check—plain and simple. Closing loopholes ensures that violent felons and domestic abusers can’t bypass the rules that honest Americans follow every single day.Constitutional Red Flag Laws: We must give families and law enforcement a tool to temporarily prevent someone undergoing a documented, severe mental health crisis from harming themselves or others. Any federal framework must include strict judicial due process protections ensuring that a person's rights cannot be restricted without immediate access to a court to defend themselves.Cracking Down on Illegal Trafficking: We need to aggressively prosecute straw purchasers and criminals who traffic illegal firearms into our communities, while leaving law-abiding owners alone.

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Western Pennsylvania’s future depends on clean air, clean water, and healthy land. Our farms, our jobs, and our kids’ health all ride on whether we protect the environment instead of selling it off to the highest bidder.

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Term Limits For Congress and the Senate: Public service should not be a lifelong career. I will vote to limit service to a maximum of 12 years total—6 terms in the House and 2 terms in the Senate.

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Guarantee a Living Income It’s long past time to raise the federal minimum wage — and tie it to inflation so workers never again lose buying power the way they have over the last twenty years. Prices go up every year; wages should too.Here in Western Pennsylvania, families are getting hammered by the cost of housing, groceries, fuel, and medical bills. Workers shouldn’t have to work two or three jobs just to stay afloat. Raising the federal minimum wage is basic economic survival for millions of people, and it would put more spending power directly into our local communities — from Erie to Butler to Mercer County.Any politician who represents this region should be fighting for a higher federal minimum wage. In Congress, I’ll push for a real, across-the-board increase that finally gives working people the paycheck they’ve earned.Workers keep this country running. It’s time their wages reflected that.

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When I get to Congress, I will oppose any cuts to Medicare or Medicaid and fight to strengthen both programs. I will sponsor legislation to protect the ACA by permanently closing coverage-denial loopholes, while capping out-of-pocket costs and eliminating surprise five-figure emergency bills entirely. To directly lower the cost of living for our seniors and families, I will co-sponsor bills mandating that Medicare aggressively negotiate prescription drug prices, block any attempt to hand these programs over to private companies, and push for a Medicare-for-All system so every American can get quality treatment without fear of losing their home, their savings, or their chance at recovery. My promise to you is simple: if the rest of the free world can protect their citizens from medical ruin, so can the United States of America.

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Iran is part of a reckless pattern of threats that damage global stability. I oppose the dangerous posturing aimed at Venezuela and Cuba, as well as the aggressive rhetoric toward Panama and Greenland. Saber-rattling is not a substitute for a real national security strategy.Isolating and abandoning our allies is not how a first-rate Military strategizes.

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As any veteran or responsible gun owner will tell you: with rights come deep responsibilities. Safety means ensuring that firearms stay in the hands of the law-abiding, and out of the hands of violent criminals, cartels, and individuals facing severe mental health crises. We protect the Second Amendment by taking common-sense steps to protect our communities, our schools, and our families.

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Climate change is not theoretical. We’re living with the floods, the bad air days, and the rising costs associated right here, right now. In Congress, I’ll push for real action to cut emissions, invest in clean energy jobs, and make sure our communities aren’t left behind as the world changes around us. And I’ll do it by following the science, not lobbyists or wishful thinking.

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I believe Western Pennsylvania deserves real representation-someone who will fight for local veterans and labor, for affordability and opportunity for working families, to ensure all of us have access to healthcare, and ensure every school has the tools they need to prepare the next generation.We need someone who will fight for a reasonable justice system, one that actually upholds justice. We need someone who is considering an Earth that is going to be healthy and safe for our children, and our children’s children. We need someone who will hold wealthy elite to the highest standards, and act swiftly when the powerful violate the basic tenets of the social contract. We need someone who will not sell out our votes. We need someone who will show up and listen to us, here in our district. I do not think these are tall demands.

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Ban Members of Congress from Trading Stocks: Politicians should not be enriching themselves by buying and selling individual stocks while in office while voting on laws that impact their own portfolios. That's corruption, plain and simple. I will vote to end this conflict of interest permanently.

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Healthcare is a human right. Send me to congress, and I will co-sponsor and vote to pass The Medicare For All Act (H.R. 3069).Read my full position paper here.

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Create Clear, Legal Pathways: Establish a workable path to citizenship, protect DACA recipients, and expand transparent, legal pathways for agricultural and essential workers who keep Western Pennsylvania’s economy moving.Read my full position here.

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No more blank checks. No more unauthorized conflicts. No more pointless wars.I will vote for legislation that reigns in unilateral executive war-making, defunds unauthorized military actions, and forces any president to come to the House floor for a debate and a vote before putting our troops in harm's way. I will also vote to support our service members when they return home by funding robust mental health care, expanding veteran housing initiatives, and ensuring no veteran is left behind after their service is over.Read my full position here.

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Overturn Citizens United: It is time to end the era of unchecked dark money and corporate influence in our elections. I will vote to overturn this ruling and put regular voters back in control of our democracy.

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Enforce a Code of Judicial Ethics for the Supreme Court: Every institution must ultimately answer to the public. I will vote to implement a mandatory, enforceable code of ethics for the U.S. Supreme Court and its Justices.

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Make Taxation Fair Again In the 1950s and 60s, America built the strongest middle class the world has ever seen. Top income rates were over 91% for the ultra-wealthy. Eisenhower understood that those who benefit most from the American system have the greatest responsibility to maintain it.Since then, the burden has shifted onto the backs of workers. In the 1950s, the corporate tax rate was 52%. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 was the ultimate bait and switch for Pennsylvania families.It slashed the corporate rate from 35% to 21%, the largest transfer of wealth from the middle class to billionaires in history.Companies used the cash for $1 trillion in stock buybacks to enrich Wall Street. The wealthy got permanent cuts, and their bill added $2 trillion to the deficit, leaving our children to pick up the tab for billionaire tax breaks.Fairness is easy. It’s about ending a system where a nurse in Sharon pays a higher effective tax rate than a hedge fund manager. We need to close the 2017 loopholes, tax wealth like we tax hard work, and reinvest that money into PA-16 infrastructure and jobs.American workers deserve their fair share. I will vote to pass tax policy that does not allow working-class families to pay a higher tax rate than billionaires.