Guy Reschenthaler

Guy Lorin Reschenthaler (born April 17, 1983) is an American politician, attorney, judge, and U.S. Navy veteran.

Reschenthaler was born in Pittsburgh on April 17, 1983.

He was raised in Pittsburgh's South Hills and graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in 2001.

He graduated from Penn State Erie, The Behrend College in 2004 with a BA in political science.

Upon graduation, Reschenthaler attended Duquesne University School of Law in Pittsburgh, earning a JD degree in 2007.

At Duquesne, Reschenthaler founded the Military Law Society chapter and interned at the U.S. District Attorney's Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh.

After law school, Reschenthaler served in the United States Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps (JAG) in Iraq.

In the U.S. Navy, Reschenthaler deployed to Baghdad, Iraq, in 2009.

In 2010, he was one of three attorneys who defended a Navy SEAL accused of covering up an assault on terrorist Ahmad Hashim Abd al-Isawi while al-Isawi was in custody.

The Navy SEAL represented by Reschenthaler and the other SEALs charged were acquitted of all charges.

Reschenthaler was awarded the Michael Taylor Shelby Award for Professionalism, Ethics and Dedication in the practice of law.

He is serving as the Republican Chief Deputy Whip in the 118th Congress.

He left military service in 2012.

After his Navy service, Reschenthaler returned to Pittsburgh to practice law in spring 2012 before being elected magisterial district judge in Pittsburgh's South Hills in 2013.

In Pennsylvania, magisterial judges typically handle traffic tickets.

He wrote the foreword to Higbie's self-published 2012 book.

He was elected district judge in May 2013.

As a magistrate, Reschenthaler claimed that he would seek to reduce truancy.

In 2013, Reschenthaler briefly co-hosted a radio program with Carl Higbie, who resigned from the Trump administration in 2018 after what were considered "anti-gay, anti-Muslim, racist and sexist remarks he had made on his radio program".

A Republican, he is the U.S. representative for PA's 14th congressional district and was previously a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate, representing the 37th district.

He served as a district judge and in the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps (JAG) during the Iraq War.

Reschenthaler ran in the Republican primary for the reconfigured 14th, again facing Saccone.

This time, he won the nomination with 55.4% of the vote to Saccone's 44.6%.

In the general election, he defeated the Democratic nominee, businesswoman Bibiana Boerio, with 58% of the vote.

Reschenthaler ran for reelection.

He defeated the Democratic nominee, U.S. Marine Corps veteran William Marx, with 64.7% of the vote.

After State Senator Matt Smith resigned, Reschenthaler won the Republican nomination for a special election in the 37th state Senate district in July 2015.

He was sworn in on November 24, 2015.

He defeated the Democratic nominee, Heather Arnet, in the general election to serve the remainder of Smith's term, ending in 2016.

In October 2017, Reschenthaler his candidacy for the Republican nomination in the special election in Pennsylvania's 18th congressional district.

At the Republican Party conference, he lost to State Representative Rick Saccone.

He received 75 votes from local activists and failed to gain a majority in the first round of voting.

He was defeated by 32 votes in the second round.

In April 2018, Reschenthaler denounced the book and disavowed the foreword he had written.

He said he had only read parts of the book.

Reschenthaler was of counsel at Pittsburgh law firm Brennan, Robins & Daley and serves as a member of Penn State Behrend's Political Science Advisory Board.

After a court threw out Pennsylvania's congressional map as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander, the 18th district was renumbered the 14th and made even more Republican on paper.

Democrat Conor Lamb defeated Saccone in the special election for the old 18th, but had his home drawn into the neighboring 17th district (the former 12th district) and sought a full term there.

On December 31, 2020, Reschenthaler and seven other Republican U.S. representatives from Pennsylvania said they would oppose the certification of Pennsylvania's electors when Congress met to count electoral votes in the 2020 presidential election on January 6, 2021.

The eight claimed that state officials had illegally allowed the counting of mail-in ballots that were received after Election Day but postmarked by November 3.