McCoy

A 37-year-old newcomer to politics is the Democratic nominee for the special election on St. Patrick’s Day to determine who will serve the remainder of the term of former state Rep. Lou Schmitt, a Republican who resigned at the end of the year to become a Blair County judge.

Caleb McCoy is a registered nurse who isn’t overly fond of the Democratic party, but who finds behavior at the national level on behalf of the Republican party to be “repugnant,” he said after he was the only candidate who came forward Friday in a nominating session on Zoom in which members of the Blair County Democratic Committee who live in the 79th District — comprising Altoona and Logan and Allegheny townships — were the only voters.

Devin Saylor, who has served on the Altoona Planning Commission, and Corinna Griffith, who has run for Altoona Area School Board, had considered running for the nomination, but did not, as the timing wasn’t right for either, according to committee Chairwoman Gillian Kratzer.

Home-schooled at first, then having attended Great Commission elementary and high schools, with libertarian leanings upon graduation, McCoy came from a conservative environment.

He valued “maximum freedom,” he said.

But he came to realize that “if you have all the freedom in the world, but can’t take advantage of it” because you’re unable to pay your bills or can’t exercise your rights, it doesn’t do much good, he said.

The Democrats have not done a good job of standing up for working people, he said.

But the Republicans have done worse with their support of a president who has threatened our nation’s close allies and who has ordered “a Gestapo-style police force” in areas of the country, he said.

He spoke recently with the wife and son of an Altoona man deported to Mexico in July, he said.

“This is the work of the Republican party, and they’re proud of that,” he said. “That is disgusting.”

At the local level, party affiliation matters far less than at higher governmental levels, however, he said.

Most people don’t strongly identify with a party anyway, he said.

McCoy is approaching his candidacy with a “rare” excitement about knocking on doors and talking to people, Kratzer said.

“He is genuinely thrilled about the idea of being a public servant,” she said.

Given the strong Republican edge in voter registration, “the odds are usually slim here” for Democrats, Kratzer said.

“(But) there’s no real point in worrying about it,” she said. “We’re going to do the work, no matter what the odds.”

McCoy was born in Sellersville, Bucks County, but his first home was in Altoona, where his father was from.

He grew up in homes near Pedal Power, then near what is now UPMC Altoona, then near the Jaffa Shrine, he said.

He attended Penn State University for two years, where he met his now-wife, and he graduated with a nursing degree from Mount Aloysius College in 2013. He has worked for a home care firm headquartered in DuBois, for Presbyterian Senior Living in Huntingdon, as a travel nurse with jobs throughout Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware; and now at Presbyterian Village in Hollidaysburg.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.