This Republican State Senate primary features numerous mailers and digital ads supporting and opposing both candidates, much like other primaries. A new PAC appears to have been formed specifically to target Clovis Crane. The PAGOP has been sending mailers on behalf of Chris Gebhard to attack his challenger. We have also seen endorsements from elected officials for the incumbent, Chris Gebhard. The one I would like to address is the recent editorial by Commissioner Mike Kuhn.
Mr. Kuhn states that as Senator, Chris Gebhard has “applied common sense with conservative principles, and he has served us well.” Since last year, I’ve raised concerns about SB 756, sponsored by Senator Chris Gebhard. I was even publicly fired as the Lebanon County Republican Committee’s office manager in September 2025 because of my advocacy regarding Senator Gebhard’s bill.
In my opinion, there should be regulations on skill games. However, a Republican Senator should not be creating a new tax so high that it puts small business owners and nonprofits out of business. Furthermore, this proposed tax is expected to perpetuate the current pattern of increased government spending observed under the Governor, the Democrat Party, and the Republican majority Senate over the past five years. The State Senate is supposed to be the firewall to keep the Democrat agenda at bay. Yet they have failed to do that when it comes to the budget and the big spending. Senator Gebhard has been lockstep with them the entire time he’s been in office.
The same people in our party who cry, moan, and send mailers out each year concerning school property taxes being raised in Palmyra have been silent when it comes to our own Senator creating a high tax for small businesses and nonprofits. They have also been silent when he voted for the bloated budget and big spending. The same lobbyists who run our local party and sent out the negative mailers against Mike Kuhn are also the consultants for Chris Gebhard’s campaign. I have come to realize over the last three years that the two factions in our party may look like different wings, but they are of the same bird.
I have also been a part of some candidate trainings from Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania, and I can say that their trainings have helped me be able to help conservatives run for office on a local level. I appreciate that they help keep our state elected officials accountable and help good conservative candidates run for State Senate or State Representative. They are not about “defeating conservative Senate Republicans” as Mr. Kuhn claims. They stand up for conservative values and principles when our Republican incumbents do not. They do great work advancing our conservative movement.
Mr. Kuhn also said that Senator Gebhard “can’t be bought by special interests” and that Chris Gebhard is “Mr. Clean”. I would like to ask Mr. Kuhn if he has looked at the campaign finance reports of Senator Gebhard which tell a different story.
The DT firm is a lobbying firm that donates to Democrats and Republicans. Since May 13, 2021, to present, the DT Firm has donated a total of $24,970 to Chris Gebhard, and that’s not counting what the firm’s principal has personally given. The DT Firm is significant because it was also the lobbying firm for Kooth. Kooth is a mental health social media app that was in the 2022 budget as a $3 million grant for public schools to use with students. Kooth targeted children as young as 11 years old by pushing radical gender ideology all without parental notification or consent. On this platform, 11-year-olds interacted with users as old as 18, and the adults that Kooth had as their “well-being professionals’ to monitor the students were not licensed or trained in therapy. Senator Gebhard not only voted for the $3 million in the 2022 budget for Kooth, but he was also on a panel in Arizona talking about the three-month case study of Kooth in Pennsylvania public schools. Records show on the PA Lobbying Services website that Chris Gebhard received $2,317 from Kooth’s lobbyist, the DT Firm, for his advocacy in Arizona on February 15, 2023.
When concerns were raised by conservative grassroots groups about Kooth teaching gender ideology without parental consent, Senator Gebhard cosponsored SB 913, which would still allow Kooth to continue, but this time with parental consent. Instead of removing a dangerous, woke indoctrinating app that did not have trained professionals and had broken parental trust from our children’s schools, Chris Gebhard went along and voted for a bill that would allow this company to continue with our taxpayer dollars.
In December of 2025, I told Chris Gebhard that, as a parent and school board director, I could not support his reelection to the Senate because of Kooth. The reason I started my conservative grassroots group and why I became a school board director was to fight the woke indoctrination and gender ideology. Whether it’s a secret library in Palmyra or a mental health group not allowing parental consent in my own district, I have advocated for and alongside parents to stop the woke agenda from being imposed on our children.
This Senate race isn’t about a gaming company at all. It’s about our children’s well-being and their future. They deserve a fighter who will stand up for parental rights and protect our children from radical gender indoctrination. For this reason, I will be supporting the challenger, Clovis Crane, who is a lifelong conservative, father of four, and has a life of service coaching wrestling at Northern Lebanon, along with his own wrestling club. Being a conservative is more than a political party. As we have seen, Republicans have not stood for conservative values and principles while in office. It’s time for a newcomer in office and We the People to let Harrisburg know that our children are not for sale.
So, no thanks, Mr. Kuhn. We don’t need a woke indoctrinating Kooth Senator.
