Former councilman running for US Senate
John McGuigan was the youngest person ever elected to Norristown Council.
Many may remember John McGuigan from another era in Norristown politics.
Following his run in the early 1990s as the youngest person to be elected to Norristown Council and as the youngest elected official in Pennsylvania, the Norristown native moved out of Norristown and focused on his career in technology while raising his family.
The Villanova University graduate recently announced his plans to seek the Democratic nomination for United States Senator.
In a letter to the Pennsylvania State Democratic Committee, McGuigan summed up his agenda by saying “the American dream must be restored by stopping the erosion of the middle class, welcoming those seeking to better themselves through effort and opportunity, implementing Medicare For All, and properly funding public education at all levels” and adding that government itself must be reformed.
“I support the fundamental beliefs of the Democratic party but the Democratic leadership is more concerned with being in charge than solving problems,” said McGuigan, who now lives in Upper Providence with his wife Lisa, two daughters and a son. “We talk often about more everyday common people who should be involved in government, and yet we incorporate the same old names time in and time out, running for this office or that office, not really accomplishing anything and then running for another office. I just want to point out that there are people like myself who have had enough of politics as usual and want to get involved and change things. Two years ago we thought Toomey would be in the race and at that time we looked at the contest as a family and thought that we could do better. I thought it was worth the risk in order to have the benefits, of bringing equality to the criminal justice system, ending mass incarceration, saving the environment, looking at Medicare for all. Healthcare is a huge issue. It shouldn’t be that you have to have a job in order to have health coverage. We should all have affordable health coverage. I know a lot of people who are stuck in bad jobs with abusive bosses and they’re only keeping the job because they need the health coverage, and the stress they put on their families because of it is sad. And nobody talks about that. My wife and I get frustrated with the Democratic party for not talking about it in those terms. There’s got to be more to life and that. We need to work for affordable health coverage. I don’t know of any other country in the world who looks at our medical system and says we need to do that. I believe we can cover the majority of Americans if we stop looking at health coverage as a business and look at it as a fundamental human right.”
McGuigan is actively campaigning well ahead of the 2022 primary election.
“None of the names I’ve heard have inspired me, and I hope to inspire other people,” he said. “I think the people expressing interest in running don’t really have the temperament or the judgment to hold that type of an office. I think they’re more interested in tweeting or expressing their personal brand than solving problems. And that’s the one thing we need, people who are going to come with ideas and solutions and are willing to advocate for those solutions and be willing to work with everybody within the Democratic party, the Independents. We need criminal justice reform so people can feel safe in their home, a judicial system that is blind to race, religion and sexual orientation … all the things we grew up believing it is supposed to be but as we learned in the last couple of years it’s not really that way. So, until we can fix our criminal justice system I’m not sure how people can be motivated to fix some of the more complicated issues. At the end of the day, if you don’t feel personally safe that’s got to be your number one concern. There is so much wrong to let what I think are substandard candidates to solve these problems. I don’t know anybody who looks att he current system and is happy with it. Trying to point out the flaws and make some changes is what we’re doing.”
McGuigan confirmed that he is also a “big antiproperty tax person, especially when it comes to funding public schools. We
struggled in Norristown because so many properties were tax exempt, such as county properties. Also, with an aging population that doesn’t have disposable income and is taxed on the value of their house that they only experience if they sell it, and very often that’s what it forces them to do. That’s another frustration on why I’m getting involved and what I hope to expose in the next year.”
Restoring natural resources is another priority he will be advocating for, McGuigan noted.
“If I rewind the clock a couple of years that’s one of the things that disturbed me the most about the Trump administration was the attack on the environment. We need to look at renewable energy and sustainable union jobs that support sustainable energy.”
Officially, Pennsylvania Attorney General John Fetterman is the only other candidate also seeking the Democratic nomination.
An incident that occurred seven years ago in Braddock was recently revived by Fetterman’s own campaign, McGuigan pointed out.
“They’re doing a tactic that says let’s put this out there now so a year from now when people bring it up in the heat of the campaign we can say it’s over and done with. He thought he heard what he thought was automatic gunfire and it ended up being allegedly bottle rockets. He’s saying maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t,” McGuigan said. “He called the police, went looking on his own, found a jogger, pulled a shotgun out and held the jogger at bay while the police arrived and they found nothing. In the seven years since this incident it’s pretty telling to me he hasn’t learned anything in seven years and that with all the social injustices being brought to light that he says he wouldn’t do anything different. I’m really surprised that the Democratic party isn’t holding him more accountable. Why didn’t anybody bring this up before? Why wasn’t there an investigation?”
Incessant filibustering on the senate floor destroys the potential of many deserving bills getting passed, McGuigan pointed out.
“There are a lot of solutions that have passed the House but don’t get their day in the sun because of a stupid filibuster. We are a government of the majority rules. They don’t even debate things anymore. Filibustering is just done to kill legislation. And this is a problem with government. It’s not a Democratic problem, it’s not a Republican problem, it’s a government problem. When the Republicans are in power they don’t like the filibuster, the minority does. And when the opposite happens, they switch. This is what frustrates the American public and the political parties need to wake up.”
Despite what it will mean for the prolific career he’s built over the years, McGuigan said he feels obligated to run for the Senate seat.
“I never thought I would do this again but I can’t sit back,” he said. “It’s out of an obligation that I’m getting involved. With a college age student now and another on the way and one more behind her, I’m not really looking to take a pay cut to campaign.
This is out of a sense of duty. I can’t stand back and watch the planet get destroyed and watch the healthcare system get worse and worse for people. Everything is broken. We need people with real world experience. I’m tired of career politicians who don’t know what it’s like to look for a job, who don’t know what it’s like to apply for health coverage or apply for unemployment tell me how I need to live my life. They have no perspective on what it’s like day to day. I get up every day and I work for somebody. I’m tired of politicians who have no perspective on that telling me what they think is best for people who do that every day.”