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John Yudichak Edit Profile

politician

John T. Yudichak is a Democratic member of the Pennsylvania State Senate, representing the 14th District since 2011.

Background

John Yudichak was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, to Joseph and Sarah Yudichak.

Education

He graduated from Nanticoke Area High School in 1988, and attended Wyoming Seminary for one year before transferring to the Pennsylvania State University.

Career

The district includes parts of Carbon, Luzerne, and Monroe Counties. He previously served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1999 to 2010. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English in 1993.

Yudichak worked as an intern for United States. Representative Paul East. Kanjorski before serving as director of development at the Osterhout Free Library in Wilkes-Barre.

In 1996, he unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Stanley Jarolin for the Democratic nomination for the 119th District in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, losing by 600 votes. However, he ran for the nomination again in 1998, and defeated Jarolin by more than 800 votes.

In the general election, he defeated Republican Jean Sepling. He received a Master of Arts degree in American Studies from Penn State in 2004.

Yudichak was elected to the State Senate in 2010.

Achievements

  • He easily won the Democratic nomination for the 14th District seat (being vacated by Democratic incumbent Ray Musto) when he defeated Wilkes-Barre mayor Tom Leighton by a 2 to 1 margin in the May 18, 2010 primary. Yudichak won the general election on November 2, 2010, defeating Luzerne County Commissioner Stephen Urban.