L-13 member makes bid for Pennsylvania statehouse

SIT DOWN WITH Bill Monahan, a Local 13 (Philadelphia) member and Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania state representative in HD-109, and it won’t take long before he starts talking about how he wants to “help the people.” It’s evident he’s a family man with a compassionate heart, a proud fourth-generation Boilermaker and determined to be a voice for working people in his Columbia County district.

Monahan is no stranger to elected office in the state. Five years ago, the mayor of Orangeville, where Monahan lived at the time, stepped down. With only six months left in the mayor’s term, the town secretary rang the 20-year Boilermaker to ask if he’d fill in, then run for mayor when elections came around again. He said yes, won the election and spent about two years in office before he and his family moved out of town so his grandparents could move into his one-story house. The move made him ineligible to be mayor.

Ed Harkins, who until recently headed up L-13’s state government affairs committee, encouraged Monahan to run for the statehouse.

“When he first became mayor, I saw that as a way for him to get his foot in the door with state legislators,” Harkins says. “And it worked out. He would walk into some of those meetings in Harrisburg, he’d mention he was the mayor of Orangeville, and it would open doors for him.”

His stint as mayor is a big reason Monahan is running for state office. The last few years, since he became involved in state politics, he’s wondered how Boilermakers could become more effective at representing the union to those wielding political power.

I come from the working class. I’m trying to work hard to be the person the people need right now.

“After talking with state reps and senators, I found that they don’t know what a Boilermaker is or what one does,” he says. “What better way for a Boilermaker to have a voice than to run for public office? And not just Boilermakers—we need union labor to stand up for working men and women.”

That’s exactly what Monahan aims to do. He wants to be a problem solver for not only those working union building trades, but also the non-union. His platform includes supporting essential workers such as teachers and nurses and acting as a vital liaison for working-class communities. He also has an eye out to stimulate the local economy by supporting vocational education and improving work opportunities for those who make their living in the building trades.

Monahan describes himself as a “boots on the ground” kind of guy. He believes he won’t know the problems people face without talking to them first—something he learned from being a supervisor on job sites.

“If you don’t ask the questions, you truly don’t know what to focus on,” he says. That’s why, before COVID-19 stopped his door-knocking campaign, he went house to house, often wearing a Carhartt jacket and his scarred work boots, listening to concerns from the people he’s asking to vote for him in November.

“I come from the working class,” Monahan says with pride. “I’m trying to work hard to be the person the people need right now. It’s not about self-interest. When they see me, I want them to say, ‘This guy is for us.’ It’s because of my background with the Boilermakers that I’m working hard for hard-working Pennsylvanians.”