Mike Kelly (Pennsylvania politician)

Kelly personally benefited on the Paycheck Protection Program (coronavirus relief), as three of his car dealerships obtained a combined total of between $450,000 and $1.05 million not to lay off staff.[7] Kelly's spokesperson defended Kelly, saying those car dealerships were a "small family business" and that the jobs were "at risk because of [Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf’s] business shut down order."[7]

2010

Kelly challenged incumbent Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper in 2010.[8] He won the election by 10%,[9] largely by running up his margins outside of heavily Democratic Erie.

2012

Kelly defeated Democrat Missa Eaton 55%–41%.[10] His district had been made slightly friendlier in redistricting. The district was pushed slightly to the south, absorbing some rural and Republican territory east of Pittsburgh. At the same time, eastern Erie County was drawn into the heavily Republican 5th district. The 3rd and 5th were drawn so that the boundary between the two districts ran along the eastern boundary of the city of Erie.

2014

Kelly defeated Democrat Dan LaVallee of Cranberry Township 60.5%–39.5%.[11]

2016

Kelly ran unopposed and received 100% of the vote.

2018

After the Pennsylvania Supreme Court threw out Pennsylvania's original congressional map in February 2018, Kelly's district was renumbered as the 16th and made slightly more compact. It regained the eastern portion of Erie County that had been drawn into the 5th. To make up for the increase in population, its southern portion was pushed to the west, ending just outside of Kelly's hometown of Butler.[12]

PoliticsPA wrote that the new 16th was far less safe for Kelly than the old 3rd. Public Policy Polling found that Kelly had a 48% to 43% lead over Democratic opponent Ron DiNicola.

Kelly ultimately defeated DiNicola 51.6%–47.2%, his first close contest since his initial run for the seat.

2020

Kelly defeated Democrat Kristy Gnibus of Erie 59.34%–40.66%, an improvement over his performance in 2018. Kelly received 210,088 votes to Gnubus's 143,962.[13]

Ratings

Kelly has received the following ratings from advocacy organizations:[14]

• United States Chamber of Commerce: 95%
• The Club for Growth: 71%
• FreedomWorks: 55%
• The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws: D
• American Civil Liberties Union: 5%
• League of Conservation Voters: 4%
• Planned Parenthood Action Fund: 4%

Committee assignments

• United States House Committee on Ways and Means
  • Subcommittee on Oversight (Ranking Member)
  • Subcommittee on Health

In addition, Kelly serves as the co-chair of the Northeast-Midwest Congressional Coalition, a bipartisan group of U.S. Representatives from the 18 Northeastern and Midwestern States.[15] He is an appointed member of the President's Export Council.

When speaking at a Mercer County Republican Party event in 2017, Kelly advanced the conspiracy theory that former president Barack Obama was running a "shadow government" to undermine President Trump.[16][17][18] When asked about these remarks, Kelly said that they were meant to be private.[19][16] After the remarks made national news, Kelly's spokesperson said that Kelly did not believe that Obama "is personally operating a shadow government".[16][17][18]

Kelly has argued against the release of President Donald Trump's tax returns by the House Ways and Means Committee.[20]

In December 2019, Kelly likened the impeachment to the Attack on Pearl Harbor.[21] He said the date in which Trump was impeached is "another date that will live in infamy," referring to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's December 1941 statement about the Pearl Harbor attack.[21]

Amid ballot counting in the 2020 election, Kelly filed a lawsuit to stop Pennsylvania from allowing voters to "cure" (fix mistakes on) their ballots.[22] After Joe Biden won the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Kelly filed a suit arguing that all mail-in ballots cast in the state (more than 2.5 million) should be discarded, which would result in flipping the state to Donald Trump.[23] Or if that was not possible, that the electors for president should instead be chosen by the Republican controlled legislature.[24] If successful, this suit would have retroactively disenfranchised millions of voters in the Pennsylvania election.[24] However, on November 28, 2020, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court unanimously rejected Kelly's suit, additionally ruling to "dismiss with prejudice." The court's order stated in part:

The want of due diligence demonstrated in this matter is unmistakable. Petitioners filed this facial challenge to the mail-in voting statutory provisions more than one year after the enactment of Act 77. At the time this action was filed on November 21, 2020, millions of Pennsylvania voters had already expressed their will in both the June 2020 Primary Election and the November 2020 General Election and the final ballots in the 2020 General Election were being tallied, with the results becoming seemingly apparent. Nevertheless, Petitioners waited to commence this litigation until days before the county boards of election were required to certify the election results to the Secretary of the Commonwealth. Thus, it is beyond cavil that Petitioners failed to act with due diligence in presenting the instant claim. Equally clear is the substantial prejudice arising from Petitioners’ failure to institute promptly a facial challenge to the mail-in voting statutory scheme, as such inaction would result in the disenfranchisement of millions of Pennsylvania voters.[25][26]

In December 2020, Kelly was one of 126 Republican members of the House of Representatives who signed an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit filed at the United States Supreme Court contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election, in which Joe Biden prevailed[27] over incumbent Donald Trump. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case on the basis that Texas lacked standing under Article III of the Constitution to challenge the results of the election held by another state.[28][29][30]

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a statement that called signing the amicus brief an act of "election subversion." Additionally, Pelosi reprimanded Kelly and the other House members who supported the lawsuit: "The 126 Republican Members that signed onto this lawsuit brought dishonor to the House. Instead of upholding their oath to support and defend the Constitution, they chose to subvert the Constitution and undermine public trust in our sacred democratic institutions."[31][32] New Jersey Representative Bill Pascrell, citing section three of the 14th Amendment, called for Pelosi to not seat Kelly and the other Republicans who signed the brief supporting the suit. Pascrell argued that "the text of the 14th Amendment expressly forbids Members of Congress from engaging in rebellion against the United States. Trying to overturn a democratic election and install a dictator seems like a pretty clear example of that."[33]

In July 2014, Kelly compared the Environmental Protection Agency to terrorists while attacking EPA regulations limiting power plant emissions, saying "You talk about terrorism – you can do it in a lot of different ways,... But you terrorize the people who supply everything this country needs to be great – and you keep them on the sidelines – my goodness, what have we become?"[34]

In September 2018, Kelly was rated 0% by the Clean Water Action group.[35]

On August 1, 2012, Kelly called the HHS mandate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) - which requires health insurers or employers that provide their employees with health insurance to cover some contraceptive costs in their health insurance plans - an attack on Americans' constitutionally protected religious rights and that August 1, 2012, would go down in infamy as "the day that religious freedom died".[36]

On October 27, 2020, Kelly appeared to mock Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden's speech impediment during a campaign call for President Donald Trump. Kelly mimicked Biden's stutter, quipping, "We-we-we, we'll work it out, we'll work it out." Kelly went on to add, "Let him [Biden] go ahead and mumble and bumble whatever he wants," and joked about giving the 77-year-old Biden tapioca.[37]