Scott Wagner

Career

Wagner is from Spring Garden Township in York County, Pennsylvania. He owns a waste management business, called Penn Waste, and a trucking company, called KBS Trucking. A lifelong member of the Republican Party, Wagner spent what he called "a significant amount" of his money to support "pro-business" candidates in the 2010 elections for Governor and Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania, the United States Senator, and United States Representative from Pennsylvania's 19th congressional district.

Mike Waugh, who represented the 28th district in the Pennsylvania Senate, announced he would not run for reelection in the November 2014 elections. Wagner declared his candidacy for the seat. Waugh then resigned in January 2014, and a special election was called to fill the remainder of his term, with the date set for March 18. When Ron Miller, an incumbent member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, declared his intentions to run for the seat, Wagner charged the Republican Party with cronyism. Wagner withdrew his name from consideration, but remained a candidate for the regularly scheduled primary election in May 2014. The York County Republicans selected Miller as their nominee, and Wagner chose to run in the special election as a write-in candidate against Miller and Linda Small, the Democratic Party nominee.

Wagner criticized Senate Republicans for supporting Miller, and the Senate Republicans aired television commercials attacking Wagner. In the election, Wagner received 10,595 votes (47.7%), while Miller received 5,920 votes (26.6%) and Small received 5,704 votes (25.7%). Turnout was less than 14% of all registered voters in the district. Wagner became the first write-in candidate to win election to the Pennsylvania Senate. He was sworn in on April 2, 2014.

Wagner is a major supporter of Donald Trump.

Controversy

Wagner rejects the scientific consensus on climate change. In March 2017, Wagner asserted that climate change is the result of Earth moving closer to the Sun and from greater body heat emanating from a greater number of humans: "The Earth moves closer to the Sun every year. We have more people. You know, humans have warm bodies so is heat coming off? We're just going through a lot of change, but I think we are, as a society, doing the best we can." PolitiFact rated the claims as "false" and added "that movement closer to the sun, scientists say, wouldn’t have an impact on climate change... Also, there’s no evidence to suggest human body heat is at all related to global climate change." The scientific consensus is that humans are primarily causing climate change through the production of carbon dioxide which exacerbates the Earth’s greenhouse effect.

In 2017, Wagner referred to billionaire businessman George Soros (a U.S. citizen since 1961) as a "Hungarian Jew" who has a "hatred for America." He further clarified his comments by saying: "Look, He (Soros) has spent a ton of money playing in Republican races everywhere. He has supported a very radical agenda.He was a big supporter of Obama and Obama set this country back eight years.I think everybody's getting their knickers around their ankles over this and there's no reason for that." Wagner said that Soros was born in Hungary and was born a Jew. "If he was Catholic, he would have been 'a Hungarian Catholic." There was nothing offensive meant by that," Wagner said.