John T. Yudichak (born May 1, 1970) is an American politician from the Commonwealth of

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

who served as a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate for 14th District from 2011 to 2022. The district included parts of

Carbon Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent—its atom making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds. It belongs to group 14 of the periodic table. Carbon mak ...

, Luzerne, and Monroe Counties. He previously served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the 119th district from 1999 to 2010.

Early life and education

John Yudichak was born in

Wilkes-Barre Wilkes-Barre ( or ) is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Luzerne County. Located at the center of the Wyoming Valley in Northeastern Pennsylvania, it had a population of 44,328 in the 2020 census. It is the s ...

, to Joseph and Sarah Yudichak. Both Yudichak's father and grandfather were coal miners. He graduated from Nanticoke Area High School in 1988, and attended

Wyoming Seminary , motto_translation = Truth, beauty, and goodness , address = 201 North Sprague Avenue , location = , region = , city = Kingston , county = Luzerne , st ...

for one year before transferring to the Pennsylvania State University. He earned a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

degree in English in 1993 and a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Th ...

degree in American Studies from Pennsylvania State University in 2004.

Career

Yudichak worked as an intern for

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

Paul E. Kanjorski before serving as director of development at the Osterhout Free Library in Wilkes-Barre. In 1996, he unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Stanley Jarolin for the Democratic nomination for the 119th District in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, losing by 600 votes. However, he ran for the nomination again in 1998, and defeated Jarolin by more than 800 votes. In the general election, he defeated

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

Jean Sepling. Yudichak was elected to the State Senate in 2010. He easily won the Democratic nomination for the 14th District seat (being vacated by Democratic incumbent

Ray Musto Raphael John Musto (March 30, 1929 – April 24, 2014) was an American politician from Pennsylvania who served as a Democratic Party member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Pennsylvania's 11th congressional district from 1980 to 1981. H ...

) when he defeated

mayor Tom Leighton by a 2 to 1 margin in the May 18, 2010 primary. Yudichak won the general election on November 2, 2010, defeating Luzerne County Commissioner

Stephen Urban Stephen Anthony Urban (born October 27, 1952) is an American politician and former military officer who served as a Luzerne County commissioner from 2000 to 2012 and later as a member of the Luzerne County Council from 2012 to 2020. Early life an ...

. On November 19, 2019, Yudichak changed his voter registration from Democrat to Independent, and ceased to caucus with the Democrats, caucusing instead with the Republican majority. He blamed his party switch on "purist" partisan politicians "who demand that you choose a battle camp. You must pass their litmus test, and declare if you support ‘us,’ or ‘them.’" Yudichak would later say that Democrats' support for environmental activists who opposed the expansion of Pennsylvania's energy industry caused friction between him and the party. On March 17, 2022, Yudichak announced he would not seek re-election, after the redistricting process shifted his district to the

Lehigh Valley The Lehigh Valley (), known colloquially as The Valley, is a geographic region formed by the Lehigh River in Lehigh County and Northampton County in eastern Pennsylvania. It is a component valley of the Great Appalachian Valley bound to the no ...

and placed his home in the 20th Senate District.

References

External links

Pennsylvania Senate - John Yudichak (Democrat)
official PA Senate website
Pennsylvania Senate Democratic Caucus - John Yudichak
official Party website 1970 births Living people Politicians from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania Members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Pennsylvania state senators Pennsylvania Democrats Pennsylvania Independents Pennsylvania State University alumni 21st-century American politicians Wyoming Seminary alumni {{Pennsylvania-PASenate-stub