Robert Prah Jr. has been campaigning for more than a year, and he’s got the Army-green notebook to prove it.

Prah, a Democrat from Rostraver, will appear on the ballot during a special election March 17 to fill the remaining nine months of the vacant state House seat representing the 58th District, which stretches from Monessen to Jeannette.

In that notebook, Prah dutifully keeps information about nearly every voter he has encountered on the campaign trail.

“I carry it around everywhere I go to write down comments and issues, along with names and numbers of everyone I meet with. I want to know who my constituents are after the election to be able to talk about the issues with them,” Prah said.

To do that, Prah will have to defeat two other candidates to fill the vacancy left by the resignation in early January of state Rep. Justin Walsh, who was elected the the Westmoreland County Court of Common Pleas.

Republican Eric Davanzo and Libertarian Ken Bach, both of South Huntingdon, want to replace Walsh in Harrisburg. None of the candidates are facing opposition in their party’s primaries in April and, as a result, are likely to make up the field of candidates seeking a full two-year term in the November general election.

The 58th district covers Adamsburg, Arona, East Huntingdon, parts of Hempfield, Jeannette, Madison, Monessen, Mt. Pleasant, North Belle Vernon, Penn Borough, Rostraver, Sewickley, Smithton, South Huntingdon, Sutersville and West Newton.

Davanzo, a union carpenter, is making his first run for public office. Bach, who owns an automotive repair shop, serves as a Yough school board member.

“I’m a blue-collar worker. I think people relate to to me. I’m just a guy who in the summer gets up at 5 a.m. to drag the field for my daughter’s softball game,” Davanzo said.

Bach, a former Democrat who switched his party affiliation earlier this year after he lost to Prah for the party nomination in the special election, said that as early as last year, he planned to run against Walsh to bring attention to proposals to revamp the state’s tax system and increase funding to local schools.

“I’ve been complaining so long, and no one will do anything about it, so that’s why I’m running,” Bach said.

Each of the candidates brings his own views to the race.

Prah, 38, works as the director of military and veteran affairs at California University of Pennsylvania. He has been affiliated with the military since 2001, when he enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves serving in Iraq as a member of the Pennsylvania National Guard. He holds the rank of major in the Army Reserves.

Prah said he wants state government to continue to focus on plans to ease the opioid and suicide epidemics that have plagued the region for the better part of the last decade.

“I’ve lost so many friends, teammates and service members I served with, so this is of huge import to me,” Prah said. “I had a friend that took three weeks to get into a rehab center, then something happened and he died. We need to provide more resources and treatment placements and also need to improve things on the back end to support families and provide resources for families,” Prah said.

Prah previously served as the mayor of Smithton and served on borough council before he moved to Rostraver in 2017.

He said he favors laws that protect unions, opposes right-to-work and payroll support legislation and would back an increase in the minimum wage.

Davanzo, 43, said his focus in Harrisburg will be to support legislation to help lure businesses and industry to the region and specifically to the 58th District. He also said he wants to find alternatives to property taxes as the primary funding source for local and school taxes.

“I feel that our region has been forgotten about and I think we could do better. Let’s make sure we can give people the tools to succeed,” Davanzo said.

He said he has not yet formed opinions on any specific issues, wanting to research and weigh proposals and legislation before declaring his positions.

Bach, 52, who served four years in the U.S. Navy, said his campaign is focused on a platform to better fund schools. To do that, he supports a pending bill in the state House that will replace property taxes with sales and income taxes. He also wants to allow school boards to convert teacher pensions to 401Ks.

“The people I talk to, they don’t talk about anything else. Property taxes are their No. 1 issue,” Bach said.

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)