Strader For Congress

Who am I?

I was born the youngest of ten children and I learned at a very young age the meaning of hard work as I watched my mother labor as a waitress and my father who performed hotel room maintenance. My family did their best while living well below the poverty line. With the assistance of local Churches, Food Stamps, and the National School Lunch Program, as well as receiving a public education from Head Start through high school - I know and appreciate the value of what my community provided.

Remembering those in my community who assisted me at a young age, I decided it was time to give something back and in doing so enlisted in the United States Army. In November of 2001, just months after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, I joined as a Radio Communications Operator/Maintainer. I deployed to Jordan as a part of Operation Iraqi Freedom at a high level secret forward operation base where I guarded the ammo supply point and performed my duties encrypting radios, and ensuring my unit could communicate with the other units stationed nearby. Upon returning home I met my husband who also served in the U.S. Army. In October of 2004, after receiving the Army Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal, and the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal I was honorably discharged and moved to Pennsylvania where my husband Dan is from.

Using the skills and training I learned in the service I found employment working full-time as a Supply Technician at Tobyhanna Army Depot in Tobyhanna, PA. In October of 2008 after receiving my bachelors' degree I moved to Jeannette, PA where I began work as a Process Improvement Specialist at Elliott-Turbo machinery Company. In 2009 another job offer came in Chambersburg, PA, this time as a SAP Consultant for Robbins-Gioia where I provided support to Letterkenny Army Depot with their software implementation. Wanting to create our own small business, Dan and I opened Arydan LLC in August of 2010 where we work with other consulting firms and organizations to provide SAP training, implementation, and support.

In January of 2011 I graduated with a Master's degree in Project Management from Keller Graduate School of Management. Deciding it was time to settle down and prepare our children for school, Dan and I chose to relocate our family and business to Kennett Square, PA in July of 2011. Since then I have been working with Accenture and IDS Scheer to support clients with another wave of their software implementation in Washington D.C. and New Cumberland, PA. We are members of the YMCA where our daughter attends preschool, The United Methodist Church of the Open Door and our son is enrolled in the 1st grade at Greenwood Elementary School.

Why am I running?

I decided to run for Congress because our current representative has forgotten why he is there and is no longer a true representative of the people of the 16th district. He doesn't understand that people are struggling each day to make ends meet, put their children through school, afford retirement, and finance their business. We need someone in Congress that is going to stand and fight for these issues because they know and value them. I am that person. I have spent my life serving my community and fighting for the people of this Nation. I will take all I have learned in regard to hard work and dedication and apply it to serving the people of the 16th congressional district.

My Goals

Once I am elected I plan to work with the President and other members of Congress in fighting for the people of this Nation. That means passing legislation that brings jobs back to America and offering incentives to companies to do business in America again. I will also fight to ensure that education is affordable for middle-class families and our public schools get the funding they need to properly educate all children.

My DFA Values

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My Campaign is People Powered!

My campaign is people-powered in that 143 petition circulators worked to get me on the ballot and it was local Democrats who encouraged me to run for office, not a Washington organization. As a result, I have received the endorsements from the only two county Democratic committees who are making endorsements in this race.

Voice support

6 people support this campaign.


About the Endorsement Process

All campaigns seeking a DFA endorsement are first required to complete the endorsement application in order to be considered. Members of the DFA Political team will review applications after submission and make endorsement decisions on a rolling basis throughout the applicable election cycle.

The driving force behind all DFA endorsements is our membership. We gauge DFA member support in a number of different ways. For starters, supporters can publicly show their support on any candidate’s application page. We also utilize endorsement decisions of local DFA groups as a measure of local community support. Finally, if you know a candidate deserving of a DFA endorsement who hasn’t yet applied, we want to hear about them! Please visit the Endorsement FAQ page for answers to frequently asked questions about our endorsement process.

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