Rick Coplen
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Rick Coplen (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Pennsylvania's 10th Congressional District. He lost in the Democratic primary on April 23, 2024.
Biography
Rick Coplen was born in Corvallis, Oregon. He served in the U.S. Army from 1981 to 2001. He earned a bachelor's degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1981 and a graduate degree from Princeton University in 1992. His career experience includes working as a teacher. Coplen has been affiliated with rotary clubs and the Employment Skills Center.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: Pennsylvania's 10th Congressional District election, 2024
Pennsylvania's 10th Congressional District election, 2024 (April 23 Democratic primary)
Pennsylvania's 10th Congressional District election, 2024 (April 23 Republican primary)
General election
General election for U.S. House Pennsylvania District 10
Incumbent Scott Perry defeated Janelle Stelson in the general election for U.S. House Pennsylvania District 10 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Scott Perry (R) | 50.8 | 203,460 |
 | Janelle Stelson (D) | 49.2 | 197,048 | |
| Total votes: 400,508 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. House Pennsylvania District 10
The following candidates ran in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Pennsylvania District 10 on April 23, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Janelle Stelson | 43.7 | 26,591 |
 | Mike O'Brien | 23.2 | 14,103 | |
 | Shamaine Daniels | 14.4 | 8,773 | |
 | Rick Coplen | 9.0 | 5,464 | |
 | Blake Lynch | 5.6 | 3,388 | |
 | John Broadhurst | 3.8 | 2,322 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.3 | 208 | ||
| Total votes: 60,849 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Bob Forbes (D)
Republican primary election
Republican primary for U.S. House Pennsylvania District 10
Incumbent Scott Perry advanced from the Republican primary for U.S. House Pennsylvania District 10 on April 23, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Scott Perry | 95.3 | 61,596 |
| Other/Write-in votes | 4.7 | 3,043 | ||
| Total votes: 64,639 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
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Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Coplen in this election.
2022
See also: Pennsylvania's 10th Congressional District election, 2022
General election
General election for U.S. House Pennsylvania District 10
Incumbent Scott Perry defeated Shamaine Daniels and Steven Long in the general election for U.S. House Pennsylvania District 10 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Scott Perry (R) | 53.8 | 169,331 |
| Shamaine Daniels (D) | 46.2 | 145,215 | |
 | Steven Long (Independent) (Write-in) | 0.0 | 0 | |
| Total votes: 314,546 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. House Pennsylvania District 10
Shamaine Daniels defeated Rick Coplen in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Pennsylvania District 10 on May 17, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Shamaine Daniels | 52.6 | 32,260 |
| Rick Coplen | 47.4 | 29,128 | |
| Total votes: 61,388 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for U.S. House Pennsylvania District 10
Incumbent Scott Perry advanced from the Republican primary for U.S. House Pennsylvania District 10 on May 17, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Scott Perry | 100.0 | 84,646 |
| Total votes: 84,646 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Brian Allen (R)
Endorsements
To view Coplen's endorsements in the 2022 election, please click here.
2020
See also: Pennsylvania State Senate elections, 2020
General election
General election for Pennsylvania State Senate District 31
Incumbent Mike Regan defeated Shanna Danielson in the general election for Pennsylvania State Senate District 31 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Mike Regan (R) | 60.5 | 95,228 |
 | Shanna Danielson (D) | 39.5 | 62,123 | |
| Total votes: 157,351 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Pennsylvania State Senate District 31
Shanna Danielson defeated Rick Coplen and John Bosha in the Democratic primary for Pennsylvania State Senate District 31 on June 2, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Shanna Danielson | 43.4 | 12,187 |
| Rick Coplen | 41.8 | 11,717 | |
 | John Bosha | 14.8 | 4,145 | |
| Total votes: 28,049 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Pennsylvania State Senate District 31
Incumbent Mike Regan advanced from the Republican primary for Pennsylvania State Senate District 31 on June 2, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Mike Regan | 100.0 | 35,634 |
| Total votes: 35,634 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign finance
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Rick Coplen did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
2022
Rick Coplen completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Coplen's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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My mother and grandfather, Mexican immigrants who fought to integrate public facilities in their hometown, instilled in me the values of hard work, service, and treating everyone with dignity. My working-class upbringing took me to West Point and international duty as an active-duty military officer.
I’m a husband of nearly 35 years, father of two extraordinary adult daughters, West Point and Princeton graduate, US Army combat (82nd Airborne in Panama) and peacekeeping (Bosnia) veteran, teacher of economics and strategic leadership (Elizabethtown College, US Army War College, US Military Academy at West Point), Chair, Rotary Veterans Initiative (college scholarships for veterans), and Board member, Employment Skills Center (adult literacy and job training skills).
Additionally, I am a published author and lecturer, Past President of the Rotary Club of Carlisle (led the Central PA relief effort after Superstorm Sandy), and Team leader supporting the Secretary, Department of Homeland Security with daily briefings in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
I am running for Congress to help bring everyone the opportunity to pursue their unique American dream. We need collaborative leaders who stand up for our democracy and bring us together for the common good. I am such a leader.
- I will defend our democracy by defeating Scott Perry. He is a clear and present danger to our electoral system, national unity, and democracy. His perpetuation of the “big lie” about the 2020 election undermines the credibility of our electoral system and our collective future. He voted to throw out the votes of all Pennsylvanians on Jan 6th and refuses to testify regarding his involvement in the insurrectionist plan to assault the US Capitol and nullify a valid vote of the American people. I fulfilled the oath of office to support and defend the US Constitution in combat, peacekeeping, briefing senior US Army leaders daily on global threats, and teaching West Point cadets. I have always fulfilled my oath. I always will.
- I will serve ALL the residents of our PA 10th Congressional district better than the incumbent. I will more effectively advocate for all the issues that matter most to the people of PA 10. In the face of increasing challenges, I will help bring everyone the opportunity to achieve their own unique American Dream, especially our children and grandchildren. Doing so requires that everyone can access the tools and opportunities they need to help themselves: high-quality public education and workforce training, affordable and accessible healthcare, clean air and water, and a sustainable environment.
- “United, we can ALL do better!” Those words appear on our yard signs but are not merely a slogan. It is my commitment to every person in our district. My approach to public service and public problem solving is that of a servant and facilitative leader who brings people of all walks of life together to build unity and create community-led collaborative strategies that use common sense solutions to address our most complex public problems. We can use this approach to increase family wages and access to affordable quality health care, overcome covid-induced learning losses, reduce addictions, make our streets safer, and reduce threats to our clean air, water, and sustainable environment. “United, we can ALL do better!
The COVID-19 crisis reinforced my already intense passion for significantly improving our ‘people-building’ systems so that we all become as well-educated, healthy, resilient, and innovative as we can be. Therefore, my public policy passion is to help build bi-partisan legislative coalitions to strengthen public education/career and technical training, affordable and accessible healthcare, and a livable environment with clean air and water. We can do so much better in each of these areas in Pennsylvania and America! In Congress, I will advocate aggressively for universal pre-K across America as well as college and career student debt relief.
I am also passionate about helping transform the process of how we solve major public policy problems. We can only solve the most complex societal issues by building strong community-led partnerships that include the public, private, non-profit, and civil sectors, including academia, faith communities, and 'we the people.' In the PA 10 we face many complex challenges, including stagnant wages; rising prices for essentials like groceries, gas, childcare, and healthcare; Covid induced learning losses; mental health challenges; addictions; unsafe streets; and threats to our clean air, water, and sustainable environment.
Working together, we can again inspire ourselves to address all those challenges by achieving the same type of collaboration sparked by JFK’s brilliant challenge, “We choose to go to the moon.”
Lincoln, JFK, RFK, and MLK
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
2020
Rick Coplen completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Coplen's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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Realizing that all the young people I had just interacted with in a middle school did not have the learning skills needed to achieve their dreams, I started to cry. Then, I committed myself to ensuring we do better for all our children.
Today I live that commitment by serving on the Carlisle Area School District Board (since 2015), the Employment Skills Center Board (adult literacy and job training skills), and as Chair, Rotary Veterans Initiative (college scholarships for veterans).
My education and life experiences enable me to make good on that commitment. I am: husband (32 years), father of two extraordinary adult daughters, West Point and Princeton graduate, Teacher of economics and strategic leadership/communication (Elizabethtown College, U.S. Army War College, U.S. Military Academy at West Point), U.S. Army Combat (Panama with the 82nd Airborne) and Peacekeeping (Bosnia) Veteran, Published author and lecturer, Past President of the Rotary Club of Carlisle (led the Central PA relief effort after Superstorm Sandy), and Team leader supporting the Secretary, Department of Homeland Security with daily briefings in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. While in high school I drove for 'Meals on Wheels' and founded a community service youth group called ""Operation Action.""
- My service goals in the State Legislature focus on making significant improvements in our 'people-building' systems, namely education/career and technical training, healthcare, and a habitable environment with clean air and water. We can so much better in each area. First, I will help build bi-partisan legislative coalitions that significantly increase the state share of funding for public education (K-12, College, Career and Technical), allocate that funding fairly, and ensure that high quality education and training are delivered to every person in PA. This will provide a strong, resilient, and innovative workforce, thus powering an economy that provides family sustaining wages and a high quality of life for all of us.
- Second, I will help build bi-partisan legislative coalitions that significantly improve accessible and affordable healthcare for everyone in PA. We will improve healthcare for all, including the well-being of the entire person, both physical and mental health. We will reduce prescription drug prices by enacting legislation that empowers a Prescription Drug Affordability Board to set reasonable limits on what companies can charge for them in the Commonwealth. We will also eliminate surprise medical billings. Additionally, I will aggressively advocate for the U.S. Congress to take action, including rapid passage of the ""Lower Drug Costs Now Act"" which is commonsense, bipartisan legislation to lower the cost of prescription drugs.
- Third, I will help build bi-partisan legislative coalitions that significantly improve the quality of our environment, providing clean air and water for all of us. This is critically important for the health and well-being our children ... and their children! We should invest in and catalyze PA and local community partnership actions that clean up our environment and create clean energy jobs with family sustaining wages! Climate change is a real threat to our children's future and I am proud that Pennsylvania defied President Trump and individually joined the Paris Climate Accord. Meanwhile, we have much work to do to provide all our citizens clean air and water.
The COVID-19 crisis reinforces my already intense passion for significantly improving our 'people-building' systems so that we all become as well-educated, healthy, resilient, and innovative as we can be. Therefore, my public policy passion is to help build bi-partisan legislative coalitions to strengthen public education/career and technical training, healthcare, and a truly habitable environment with clean air and water. We can so much better in each area in Pennsylvania!
I am just as passionate about helping transform the process of how we solve major public policy problems. The COVID-19 crisis highlights complex societal problems that we can only solve by building strong community-based partnerships that include the public sector (local, state, and national government), private sector (small and larger businesses), the non-profit sector, and the civil sector, including academia and 'we the people.' Working together, we can again inspire ourselves to achieve the same type of collaboration sparked by JFK's brilliant challenge, "We choose to go to the moon."
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
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Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on May 8, 2022
