Candidate for
United States Senator

Tom Smith's background is a common one in Pennsylvania and across the country, but one that is all too rare in the United States Senate--which may explain a great deal about how our country came to this point in our history.

Tom still lives on the farm in Armstrong County where he grew up. After graduating from Elderton High School in 1965, he postponed college to help his father tend that farm and supplemented his income by driving a school bus. Before too long, Tom had married his high school sweetheart, Saundy, started a family, and went to work in a local surface coal mine.

In 1989, Tom entered the coal business himself, mortgaging everything he had in the hope that he could build a better life for himself and his family. He succeeded, building a series of companies in a highly regulated industry through some tough economic times. When he sold the companies in 2010, they were mining more than a million tons of coal a year and employed over one-hundred people.

Tom and Saundy have a long record of involvement in community organizations and are active members of Mt. Union Lutheran Church. They are the proud parents of seven children and the grandparents of eight. Saundy recently retired after spending nearly forty years teaching in nearby public schools.

Tom has long been active in the political realm as well, supporting conservative causes and a wide array of Republican candidates at the local, state, and national levels.

Few things were further from Tom's mind than a campaign for the United States Senate when he left the coal business--but a seemingly casual question changed that when an old friend asked, "What will our children say to our grandchildren about why our generation avoided the tough decisions and simply passed the bill along to them?"

From that question was born a campaign for the Senate, not to fulfill a long-held ambition or to climb the political ladder, but rather to answer that question: Who will go to Washington to safeguard the American Dream before it is too late? Tom Smith has taken on that challenge, and already his campaign has drawn the support of a wide cross-section of Pennsylvanians.