Mike Kelly
Mike Kelly, a Republican businessman who has served in the U.S. House since 2011 and represents Pennsylvania's 16th congressional district, is seeking re-election in 2026 against Democrat Justin Wagner, an engineer.
2026 Races & Market Forecast
Live TruthIndex™ and prediction market consensus for races contested by Mike Kelly.
- Born
- May 10, 1948
- Birthplace
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Education
- University of Notre Dame
Biography & Campaign Analysis
Background
Mike Kelly was born on May 10, 1948, in Pittsburgh and has spent most of his life in Butler, an outer northern suburb of the city. He attended the University of Notre Dame. After college he worked at his father's Chevrolet and Cadillac dealership, and in 1995 he took over the business and added Hyundai and KIA to its lineup. Kelly lives in Butler with his wife, Victoria, and they have four children and ten grandchildren.
Career
Kelly entered Congress after challenging incumbent Representative Kathy Dahlkemper in 2010, winning 55.7% to 44.3% in the district then numbered the 3rd. After the Pennsylvania Supreme Court threw out the state's congressional map in February 2018, his district was renumbered the 16th; he defeated Democrat Ron DiNicola 51.5% to 47.3% that year and was re-elected in 2020, 2022 and 2024, the last time against Democrat Preston Nouri, 63.7% to 36.3%.
Kelly has served on the Ways and Means Committee since 2013, where he chairs the Subcommittee on Tax and sits on the Subcommittee on Health.
After the 2020 election he filed a lawsuit arguing that all mail-in ballots cast in Pennsylvania should be discarded, which the Pennsylvania Supreme Court unanimously rejected on November 28, 2020.
Following the July 2024 attempted assassination of Donald Trump in his hometown, Kelly introduced a resolution calling for a bipartisan House task force to investigate the incident and was selected to chair it.
2026 race
Mike Kelly is the Republican incumbent in Pennsylvania's 16th congressional district, which is located in Northwestern Pennsylvania and contains all of Erie, Crawford, Mercer, Lawrence and Butler counties and part of Venango County.
Re-elected with 63.7% of the vote in 2024, he ran unopposed in the 2026 Republican primary, receiving 44,236 votes. In the general election on November 3, 2026, Kelly faces Democrat Justin Wagner, an engineer who was unopposed for the Democratic nomination.