Green Party Challenges Listing of Candidate in PA Congressional District 7

Green Party of Pennsylvania

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, August 12, 2026

MEDIA CONTACT

Chris Robinson, Communication Team Co-Leader
267-977-0570 and media@gpofpa.org

Green Party Challenges Listing of Candidate in PA Congressional District 7

On August 10, the Green Party of Pennsylvania (GPPA) petitioned in Commonwealth Court to set aside the nominating papers of an unendorsed candidate in U.S. Congressional District 7. The district includes all of Carbon, Lehigh, and Northampton Counties, and parts of Monroe County.

The Green Party said that a candidate for Congress, Andrew Tupone, had usurped its name without receiving the approval of the GPPA State Committee. Further, the Green Party said in its petition that the candidate “seeks to use the name of the Green Party to mislead supporters of the Green Party to vote for him.”

GPPA Co-chair Colleen Schmotzer (Allegheny) said, “Since 2000, the Green Party’s brand identity has been our Four Pillars: non-violence, ecological wisdom, democracy and social justice. We only endorsed candidates who agree with the Green Party. Andrew Tupone did not seek our endorsement because he is a life-long Republican.”

Tina Olson (Northampton) said, “I was alarmed to find out that there was a life-long Republican running as a ‘Green’ for U.S. Congress this year in my district. I have been a resident of the Lehigh Valley for over 30 years and a registered Green Party voter since 2020. I have been a contact person for the Lehigh Valley Greens and have never heard of Andrew Tupone. What was most alarming is that Tupone bypassed the entire rigorous vetting process to use our party name without approval. This should lead voters to speculate on Tupone’s possible nefarious motives. He should not remain on the ballot, falsely claiming that he represents the Green Party.”

Co-chair Tim Runkle (Lancaster) of the GPPA said, “The Green Party takes great care to ensure that candidates who represent them uphold the values of the party, and that they conduct their activities transparently and with integrity. There is no room for deception or games in our work. Unfortunately, the Pennsylvania election law permits this type of foolishness and those in the parties who wrote it are the greatest hucksters. Tupone, the Republican, should be removed from the ballot. They have misrepresented themselves to those who signed his nominating papers, they intend to misrepresent themselves to the electorate at large, and their actions damage the Green Party brand.”

GPPA Greenwave Leader Theron Gilliland, Jr. (Allegheny) said, “Because we do not accept corporate donations, the Green Party of Pennsylvania has limited monetary resources; as such, our strategy does not include entering races against progressive candidates. Without control of our ballot line, Republicans with deeper pockets try to hijack the system and impersonate us, and everybody loses. These deceitful tactics have no place in honest electoral politics.”

The Green Party of Pennsylvania (GPPA), https://www.gpofpa.org, is an independent political party which stands in opposition to the two corporate parties. GPPA candidates promote public policy based on the Green Party’s Four Pillars: grassroots democracy, nonviolence, ecological wisdom, and social justice/equal opportunity. For further information about GPPA, please email contact@gpofpa.org. Please follow GPPA on social media: Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/gpofpa/ and Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/pagreenparty/

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