Libertarians Ken Krawchuk and John Thomas Kick Off Their 2026 Gubernatorial Race
HARRISBURG – On Saturday, May 16th, Libertarian Party gubernatorial candidate Ken Krawchuk and his lieutenant governor running mate John Thomas held a kickoff rally for their 2026 race for Pennsylvania Governor on the Harrisburg Capitol steps. The Pennsylvania Cable Network will be broadcasting the 90-minute rally to their 3+ million subscribers in the weeks ahead.
In a speech lasting over a half hour, Krawchuk outlined his platform, focusing on what he calls, “The Three E’s: Education, the Economy, and Elections.”
Regarding education, Krawchuk repeatedly emphasized the ongoing crisis where more than half of Pennsylvania’s students can’t read or do math at grade level. His solution is to privatize the schools by granting every child a $11,500 Education Savings Account, thereby allowing parents to choose any private school for their child, and in the process, eliminating property tax. “Privatization is a no-brainer,” Krawchuk insists. “Not only will kids actually get educated, seniors will no longer be tossed out of their homes for failing to pay an outrageous property tax. Best of all, this can all be accomplished without raising taxes. All it takes is to redirect the $11,500 that the state is already providing to the school districts per child and depositing it instead into an Educational Savings Account for each child. And since the cost of a typical, non-elite private education is often around $11,000, every kid can receive a private education at no additional cost to parents or the state. In fact, since the school districts will dissolve, even more tax dollars would be saved by eliminating their administrative bloat.”
Regarding the economy, Krawchuk pointed out how the cost of Pennsylvania’s government has been rising at more than three times the rate of inflation for over 50 years, regardless of which of the two old parties is in power. His solution is to veto all tax increases and to use the line item veto to eliminate pork barrel and special interest spending. In his speech, he outlined over three billion dollars in savings that can be immediately realized by using the line item veto alone. Additionally, to address possible fraud, anyone receiving funding from the Commonwealth must re-apply over the course of his four-year term. “We may find that most of the programs we support are indeed worthwhile. But given the revelations that have been coming from Minnesota and California, it’s a certainty we’ll find at least a few things that are amiss in Pennsylvania. We only have to look.”
Regarding elections, Krawchuk trotted out a long laundry list of items that can be addressed to restore confidence and integrity to our elections. Topping the list is eliminating mail-in ballots and requiring ID to vote. Next is a novel concept he calls Approve/Approve/Disapprove Voting (AADV), where a voter can not only choose which candidates the voter likes, but more importantly which candidate the voter does not like. “Too often people just hold their noses and vote for the lesser of two evils,” Krawchuk observed. “But under AADV, you can send a loud and clear message that a particular candidate just plain sucks.” The way AADV works, each approval garners a candidate a point, but for every disapproval, they lose a point. In the end, the candidate with the highest net score wins. “Had we used AADV in 2016,” Krawchuk maintains, citing studies, “neither Donald nor Hillary would have won.”
In his remarks to the ralliers, lieutenant governor candidate John Thomas said it was Krawchuk’s educational plan that made him want to join the ticket. “When Ken outlined his plan for education, I knew I wanted to be part of that movement. Education has always been front and center in my life. It’s a critical issue for me, and Ken has the best plan to unleash the Keystone state’s full potential.”
The next and most important step for the two candidates is to collect the 5,000 signatures required by law for their names to appear on the ballot November 3rd. That process is already well underway, with thousands of signatures already gathered. They have until August 3rd to submit the final paperwork to the Pennsylvania Department of State.
Ken Krawchuk of Abington is an Information Technology entrepreneur, a patented inventor, a Philadelphia talk show host, an award-winning Toastmaster, and an author. He has previously appeared on the gubernatorial ballot three times, facing Tom Ridge in 1998, Ed Rendell in 2002, and Tom Wolf in 2018, setting consecutive Libertarian Party records for vote totals in each race. He and his wife Roberta are celebrating their 49th wedding anniversary this month, and have three daughters and four grandchildren (so far).
John Thomas is a Cyber School educator. He was the Libertarian Party candidate for U.S. Senate in 2024, placing third in a field of five, and receiving more than enough votes to qualify the Libertarians as a political party in Pennsylvania.
Founded in 1971, the Libertarian Party is the third largest political party in the state and the nation, with over 200 elected and appointed officials currently serving in office in Pennsylvania alone, and many more nationwide. Libertarians believe that you have the inalienable right to conduct your life as you see fit, without interference, so long as you respect the rights and property of others. It’s the Golden Rule on a political level.
For more information about the Libertarian Party, the public is invited to contact the Krawchuk/Thomas campaign at KenK4Pa.com, Campaign@KenK4Pa.com, or (224) Krawchuk (224-572-9248), the Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania at LpPa.org or (800) R-RIGHTS, or the National Libertarian Party at Lp.org or (202) 333-0008.
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