Republican Fred Keller is Pa.’s newest member of Congress

WASHINGTON — Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District seat is empty no more.

Republican U.S. Rep. Fred Keller, a former state legislator, was sworn in Monday night on the U.S. House floor after winning a special election in May.

Former GOP Rep. Tom Marino resigned from the seat in January, months after winning his fifth term, citing health problems.

“We want to thank him for that service,” Keller said Monday night after he was sworn in.

He was welcomed to the 116th Congress by U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-18th District,  the dean of the delegation, and U.S. Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-15th District. Keller’s family later attended a ceremonial swearing in with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. 

Republican Fred Keller wins special election to represent Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District

Keller spent the hours leading up to his swearing-in setting up shop in the Longworth Office previously occupied by Marino, he told The Daily Item of Sunbury.

“I’m very humbled that people in the 12th District have confidence in me. I won’t let that trust down,” he told the paper.

Keller defeated Democrat Marc Friedenberg, of Centre County, in the May primary. Friedenberg lost his bid to unseat Marino in 2018. Voters in Keller’s north-central Pennsylvania state House district will pick his replacement in an Aug. 20 special election.