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MEET JOHN
I am a fourth generation American of Irish descent. My family has its roots in the coal mining region of northeast Pennsylvania.
My grandfather was a coal miner from Scranton with a fourth-grade education whose family survived the Great Depression thanks to a strong work ethic, sacrifice and, like millions of American families, the public support programs of the New Deal.
My father was a truck salesman and among the first in the Broadhurst family to get a college education.
Working-class kids could afford college in the early post-war era. America’s commitment to higher education was then the envy of the world.
My parents, Bill and Selma Jean, raised eleven children and left a legacy of love and generosity.
During my college years at Villanova University, I worked for my father as a truck driver, crisscrossing all of south central Pennsylvania, the Mid-Atlantic and beyond. This is how I discovered what today is the Pennsylvania 10th district….as a truck driver.
Today, my siblings are teachers, retail workers, union members, caregivers, consultants, business
executives, Democrats, and Republicans.
But this is not a ‘bootstraps’ story.
It’s a story of family, of faith – a story of community.
After college, I worked for most of the mid-90s and 2000s in China and Europe as an entrepreneur and business consultant in the media and marketing sectors. My clients included American and European companies seeking to develop international markets.
By my 30s, I was financially independent and had richer business and cultural experiences than I could have imagined growing up. I met and married a wonderful woman, my wife Nathalie, and had three children – Ben, Paul and Juliette. Life was good.
In the winter of 2019, our family was devastated by the death of our son, Benjamin.
Such events change personal trajectories in ways large and small.
There is a before and an after.
This campaign is not a reaction to any one event. It is instead the result of decades of study of American history and a frustration with a political establishment which has overlooked working families, the middle class, and the most vulnerable members of our society.
PUBLIC SERVICE: WE ARE RESPONSIBLE
My experiences, both personal and professional, have shaped the person I am today. Insights gained over the years, through good times and bad, have made me realize how lucky I am – How lucky we all are! - to be American.
From years spent abroad, I have seen how policies formulated in Washington affect millions of people not just in the U.S. but around the world. Back at home, I have also seen the slow retreat from the core tenants of American democracy – voting rights, collective bargaining, progressive taxes, public investments in infrastructure, education and healthcare – has weakened our social contract and, for far too many, has led to feelings of despair and hopelessness. I grew up in an America with a ‘can do’ spirit. We have to rekindle this spirit today.
The U.S. is the richest, most powerful country in the world. But when it comes to investing in our people, protecting our democracy and working to build a more resilient, more just society, the defenders of the status quo offer the same tired excuses for inaction. These voices often come from the same circles which opposed the New Deal, Civil Rights, Voting Rights, Women’s Rights and a many of the greatest advances in our nation’s history.
Extremists now incite us to fear foreigners, fear intellectuals, fear books, fear anyone who does not look, act or talk like us - incite us to lash out in anger, reject our neighbors, reject reason, reject facts. We’ve got too much work to be burdened by fear.
The United States once set the standard in nearly every aspect of human activity. The eradication of disease, the creation of a large middle-class, public education, infrastructure and the most rigorous democratic institutions in the world – these were all the results of our collective action –working together.
This was thanks not to ideology but to pragmatism, robust institutions, constant experimentation, public investments, individual initiative and a commitment to shared prosperity. We must never forget that government played a critical role at each step of the way.
We have often failed to live up to the promise of America. But each time the forces of progress gather strength and try again. We have to regain confidence in our ability to bring about positive change together - our future depends on it.
John
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