Cris E. Dush is an American far-right politician. A

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 ...

, he has been a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate since 2020, elected from the 25th District. From 2014 to 2020, Dush was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, elected from the 66th House district, which encompasses Jefferson County and Indiana County.

Education and career before politics

Dush graduated from Brookville Area High School in 1979. He was a member of the

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sign ...

from 1982 to 1990 and a member of the

Pennsylvania Air National Guard The Pennsylvania Air National Guard (PA ANG) is the aerial militia of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States of America. It is, along with the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, an element of the Pennsylvania National Guard. As commonw ...

from 2000 to 2016.State Rep. Cris Dush seeks re-election
''

Jeffersonian Democrat Jeffersonian democracy, named after its advocate Thomas Jefferson, was one of two dominant political outlooks and movements in the United States from the 1790s to the 1820s. The Jeffersonians were deeply committed to American republicanism, which ...

'' (March 6, 2018). From 1995 until his retirement in January 2012, Dush was employed by the

Pennsylvania Department of Corrections The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PADOC) is the Pennsylvania state agency that is responsible for the confinement, care and rehabilitation of approximately 37,000 inmates at state correctional facilities funded by the Commonwealth of P ...

as a prison corrections officer.

Political career

Dush was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 2014, representing the 66th district. In March 2018, Dush introduced resolutions, co-sponsored by 12 other Republicans state legislators, to

impeach Impeachment is the process by which a legislative body or other legally constituted tribunal initiates charges against a public official for misconduct. It may be understood as a unique process involving both political and legal elements. In ...

four

Pennsylvania Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System. It also claims to be the oldest appellate court in the United States, a claim that is disputed by the Massachusetts Supreme Ju ...

justices in response to the court's decision in ''League of Women Voters v. Commonwealth'' that struck down a Republican-drawn Pennsylvania congressional district map as a partisan gerrymander that violated the state constitution's requirement of "free and equal" elections.Mark Scolforo
GOP plan to impeach 4 Pennsylvania justices remains in limbo
Associated Press (April 21, 2018). Dush made this proposal after the

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

rejected a request from Republican legislative leaders in Pennsylvania to block the redrawn congressional map. Dush asserted that the justices' decision constituted "misbehavior in office" and was a judicial infringement on legislative power. The attempt to impeach the justices was denounced by Chief Justice Thomas Saylor, and failed after House Republican Leader David L. Reed decided not to support it. In November 2019, Dush announced he would not seek a fourth term in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, noting a promise he made to only serve three terms when he was first elected in 2014. In January 2020, Dush said he would seek the Republican nomination for

Pennsylvania Auditor General The Pennsylvania auditor general is the chief fiscal officer of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It became an elected office in 1850. The current auditor general of Pennsylvania is Republican Timothy DeFoor. History The office of the auditor ...

, joining a race against two other Republicans seeking the nomination. The next month, however, Dush left that race and announced that he would run for the state Senate instead, for the 25th district seat left open by the retirement of

Joe Scarnati Joseph B. Scarnati III (born January 2, 1962) is an American politician from the U.S. State of Pennsylvania. A member of the Republican Party, he served in the Pennsylvania State Senate as the member from the 25th District from 2001 to 2020, a ...

. Dush won the race for the seat against Democrat Margie Brown. In 2020, Dush compared Governor

Tom Wolf Thomas Westerman Wolf (born November 17, 1948) is an American politician and businessman serving as the 47th governor of Pennsylvania since 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he defeated Republican incumbent Tom Corbett in the 2014 gu ...

's handling of the

COVID-19 pandemic in Pennsylvania The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached the U.S. state of Pennsylvania in March 2020. , the Pennsylvania Department of Health has confirmed 1,464,264 cumulative cases and 29,814 deaths in the state. , Pennsylvania has administered ...

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. A group of Jewish organizations, including the Philadelphia branch of the Anti-Defamation League and the

Jewish Federation The Jewish Federation (JFED), is generally a secular Jewish non-profit organization, found within many metropolitan areas across the United States with a significant Jewish community. They provide supportive and human services, philanthropy, fi ...

of Greater Pittsburgh, condemned Dush's Nazi analogy as "offensive and wrong". After the 2020 U.S. presidential election, Dush was one of 26 Pennsylvania House Republicans who called for withdrawing certification of presidential electors, despite Joe Biden winning Pennsylvania by over 80,000 votes with no evidence of fraud. This was also after federal appeals brought by the

Trump Trump most commonly refers to: * Donald Trump (born 1946), 45th president of the United States (2017–2021) * Trump (card games), any playing card given an ad-hoc high rank Trump may also refer to: Businesses and organizations * Donald J. T ...

campaign were dismissed due to lack of evidence. Afterward, Dush traveled to Arizona along with fellow senator Doug Mastriano, and state house member Rob Kauffman, to observe its 2021 Maricopa County presidential ballot audit, which the

Maricopa County Board of Supervisors The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors is the governing body of Maricopa County, a county of over four million in Arizona. The five supervisors are each elected from single-member districts to serve four-year terms. Primary elections and general ...

called a "spectacle". The audit was ordered by Arizona's Republican senate majority, the rationale for which was generated by widely discredited conspiracy theories. One firm involved had previously audited the 2020 election in Pennsylvania. The

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...

warned the audit participants that they may have broken the law in compromising the integrity of those

Maricopa County, Arizona Maricopa County is in the south-central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 4,420,568, making it the state's most populous county, and List of the most populous counties in the ...

ballots. In September 2021, Dush chaired a Republican-led committee that approved subpoenas for a wide range of data and personal information on voters. Dush opposed proposals by Democratic Lieutenant Governor

John Fetterman John Karl Fetterman (born August 15, 1969) is an American politician who is the United States senator-elect from Pennsylvania. A member of the Democratic Party, he has also served as the 34th lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania since 2019. Fe ...

to legalize the adult use of marijuana in Pennsylvania. In 2022, he sponsored legislation to prohibit ballot drop boxes in Pennsylvania elections.

References

External links

Official campaign websiteOfficial Pennsylvania State Senate profile
* , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Dush, Cris Living people People from Jefferson County, Pennsylvania Republican Party members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Place of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American politicians 1961 births Republican Party Pennsylvania state senators