Scott Wagner

Scott R. Wagner (born September 21, 1955) is an American businessman and politician from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He represented the 28th district in the Pennsylvania State Senate. He was the Republican nominee for Governor of Pennsylvania in the 2018 election, losing by more than 800,000 votes to the incumbent Democrat Tom Wolf.

Early life and education Wagner is from Spring Garden Township in York County, Pennsylvania. He was raised on a farm. Wagner graduated from Dallastown Area High School in 1973. He then spent one semester at Williamsport Area Community College (now Pennsylvania College of Technology), but left school to pursue business ventures.

Business career Wagner bought his first plot of land for $8,500 at age 19, selling it two years later for a $4,000 profit. He then had several successful business ventures including a laundromat and ski shop, as well as buying a number of rental buildings. He also worked as a bail bondsman.

Wagner also owns three other companies, including a trucking company called KBS Trucking. When Ron Miller, an incumbent member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, declared his intentions to run for the seat, Wagner charged the Republican Party with cronyism. Wagner withdrew his name from consideration, but remained a candidate for the regularly scheduled primary election in May 2014. The York County Republicans selected Miller as their nominee, and Wagner chose to run in the special election as a write-in candidate against Miller and Linda Small, the Democratic Party nominee. Wagner ran on a fiscal conservative platform. In the election, Wagner received 10,595 votes (47.7%), Miller received 5,920 votes (26.6%) and Small received 5,704 votes (25.7%). Turnout was less than 14% of all registered voters in the district. He was sworn in on April 2, 2014.

In office, Wagner moved the General Assembly in a more fiscally conservative direction. Wagner used his own money in campaigns to help Republicans win seats in various parts of the state, It was the first time in eleven years of introducing such legislation that it passed a committee, though it did not advance to a vote by the full Senate.

In December 2017, Wagner voted in favor of a bill in the state legislature that would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Governor Wolf vetoed the bill. Wagner later came out in support of a U.S. House bill that would ban abortion as soon as the fetus has a heartbeat. Wagner has also cosponsored bills that would prevent the use of state funds for non-abortion services, such as birth control and cancer screening, at Planned Parenthood.

Wagner has been critical of labor unions, and has stated that he supports right-to-work legislation. In 2014, he compared public sector unions to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Putin, later apologizing for the "unfortunate analogy."

Wagner resigned from the Senate in June 2018 after winning the Republican nomination for governor. Wagner contracted Red Mavericks, a media, strategy and fundraising firm led by Harrisburg political operative and lobbyist Ray Zaborney, after having previously decried the use of political consultants. Wagner resigned from the state senate on June 4, 2018, to focus on his gubernatorial campaign. Prior to the 2018 gubernatorial election, Wagner declined to release his tax returns, suggesting that labor unions will use it to try to organize workers at his company. Wagner's company Penn Waste, which reported $75 million in revenue in 2017, is non-unionized. Wagner originally called for debates in all 67 counties in Pennsylvania. He called Wolf a "chicken" for not having more debates.

In a campaign video, Wagner threatened to "stomp all over" his opponent's face, saying: "Gov. Wolf, let me tell you between now and Nov 6, you better put a catcher's mask on your face because I'm going to stomp all over your face with golf spikes. Because I'm going to win for the state of Pennsylvania, and we are throwing you out of office because, you know what, I'm sick and tired of your negative ads." In a later video, Wagner said, "I may have chosen a poor metaphor. I may have had poor choice of words. I shouldn't have said what I said."

During the campaign, Wagner was endorsed by the NRA Political Victory Fund, which had given him an "A" rating in the past. Wagner said that he would roll back Wolf's Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (in 2015, Wolf expanded Medicaid to 700,000 Pennsylvanians). Wagner pledged to eliminating property taxes, including school taxes, statewide, and adopting zero-based budgeting. supported school uniforms for all students, and spoke out against standardized testing. He expressed support for "clear sentencing and bail guidelines" but did not endorse the elimination of cash bail. Wagner also pledged to reverse Wolf's moratorium on the death penalty, supporting restoration of capital punishment in Pennsylvania. Regarding the opioid epidemic, Wagner said that if elected governor, he would sue pharmaceutical companies.

In the November 2018 election, Wagner was easily defeated by Wolf. Wagner spent more than $23 million on his primary campaign and $22 million on his general election campaign. Wagner self-funded most of his campaign, and was his own largest contributor.

Republican Party financing and Trump support A lifelong member of the Republican Party, Wagner has donated more than $3.2 million to state and local campaigns since 2007.

Wagner is a supporter of President Donald Trump. Wagner has compared himself to Trump, and similarities of style have been commented upon by others. Wagner and the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, Lou Barletta, appeared with Trump at an October 2018 rally in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Antisemitism controversies In 2017, Wagner denounced billionaire businessman and political donor George Soros (a U.S. citizen since 1961) as a "Hungarian Jew" who has a "hatred for America." Wagner rejected calls from Jewish and Christian clergy asking him to apologize for the remarks, and the Democratic Party in the state denounced his comments as anti-Semitic. In September 2018, Wagner approvingly cited an anonymous anecdote circulating on the conspiratorial website InfoWars that complained that "America is 'becoming a nation of victims where every Tom, Ricardo and Hasid is part of a special group with special rights."

2024 Republican primary campaign Wagner had a leadership role the Never Back Down Super PAC which supported Ron DeSantis' campaign in the 2024 Republican Party presidential primaries. After serving as a board member of the Super PAC, he was appointed chairman after the resignation of Adam Laxalt in November 2023 and chief executive officer after CEO Kristin Davison was fired in December 2023.

Personal life Wagner has been married four times. His marriages to legal secretary Candy Overlander, receptionist Ellen Beecher, and translator Silvia Rodriguez ended in divorce. He has two daughters, Katharine and Cristina. Katharine filed a protection-from-abuse order against him in 2006 but no charges were filed. They later reconciled and she has been employed by him for several years and worked on his Senate campaign.