Meet Gary Lotz for State House
Raised in the Mon Valley and shaped by a life in Pittsburgh’s most vibrant economic years, Gary Lotz is running for State House to rebuild our region with jobs and careers fit for the 21st Century.
Born in McKeesport, Gary remembers the days when clothing stores, appliance outlets and department stores lined its streets as industrial jobs fed and clothed generations of working families.
Lotz spent his college summers working for Koppers, the Fortune 500 company that built the steel mills that built America. He attended the University of Virginia, where he earned degrees in Economics and Foreign Affairs, and then Tulane University, where was awarded his Master of Business Administration.
His working career saw him rise through the ranks at Koppers and later the Dick Corp., the construction firm that built Pittsburgh International Airport and redeveloped historic Union Station in the nation’s capital. As Vice President of Sargent Electric, Gary was deeply involved not only in upgrading power plants to reduce emissions but in the transition from coal to clean-burning natural gas. The reliability and security of the region’s power grid is what keeps Gary awake at night.
With both a son and a daughter now working out-of-state, Gary Lotz knows that the region cannot succeed if it fails to attract young people.
“Given the opportunity, both of my children would live in Pittsburgh if they could find comparable jobs here at home,” he says. “We need to focus on jobs and the economy instead of being distracted by culture wars and virtue signaling.”
He is an advocate for school choice, which he says is the best route to holding schools accountable and allowing children an escape route from failing institutions.
“I went to a really good public high school and it’s not particularly good anymore,” Gary says. “It was a middle-class high school. Everybody’s dad worked for US Steel or Westinghouse. We need to shore up the middle class with good jobs to make communities stronger and our public schools better.”
A career businessman, Lotz has no plans to become a career politician. He’s pledged to serve three terms and move on, all while rejecting the lavish perks and per diems that Harrisburg careerists enjoy at the taxpayer's expense.
Likewise, he’s determined to call a halt to wasteful spending in Harrisburg. While his opponent is pushing for taxes that will raise working families’ heating bills, Gary Lotz says he’ll be an ardent supporter of the energy industry and the jobs it continues to create.
“We can have success and a clean environment. We can have energy and clean water. We can build things and still have clear skies,” he says. “It’s not one or the other, the way self-styled progressives suggest.”
Gary and his wife Penny have lived in District 33 for over 34 years. By public service, he hopes to make all of the 33rd State House District a place other families can enjoy good lives as well.