Representative Keith J. Rothfus

Keith James Rothfus (born April 25, 1962) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the U.S. Representative for Pennsylvania’s 12th congressional district from January 3, 2013, to January 3, 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he served three terms in the House of Representatives, during which he contributed to the legislative process and represented a district that, for most of his tenure, stretched from the northwestern suburbs of Pittsburgh to Johnstown. He succeeded Democratic Representative Mark Critz, whom he defeated in the 2012 election, and later sought re-election in a redrawn district before leaving Congress in 2019.

Rothfus was born in 1962 in Endicott, New York, and grew up in the Buffalo area. He graduated from West Seneca West Senior High School in 1980. He went on to attend the State University of New York College at Buffalo, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in information systems. Pursuing a career in law, he enrolled at the University of Notre Dame Law School and received his Juris Doctor in 1994. His training in information systems and law provided the foundation for a professional life that combined corporate legal practice with public service.

For most of his adult life, Rothfus worked as a corporate attorney. In addition to his private-sector legal work, he held positions in public service and local government. He was employed by the United States Department of Homeland Security from 2006 to 2007, contributing his legal expertise during the department’s post-9/11 expansion and reorganization. At the local level, he served as a member of the zoning board in Edgeworth, Pennsylvania, reflecting an early engagement with municipal governance and land-use issues. He also served on the board of directors of the Veterans Leadership Program of Western Pennsylvania, a nonprofit organization focused on assisting military veterans in the region.

Rothfus first sought a seat in Congress in the 2010 election cycle, running in Pennsylvania’s 4th congressional district. In the Republican primary, he defeated U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan by a margin of 65 percent to 35 percent, securing the party’s nomination. He then challenged incumbent Democratic Representative Jason Altmire in the general election. The race was closely contested, and Rothfus narrowly lost, receiving 49 percent of the vote to Altmire’s 51 percent. This initial campaign established him as a competitive Republican figure in western Pennsylvania politics and set the stage for his subsequent congressional bid following redistricting.

After the 2010 census, Pennsylvania underwent redistricting, and much of the former 4th district was merged into a reconfigured, Johnstown-based 12th congressional district. In the 2012 election cycle, Rothfus ran for the newly drawn 12th district and won the Republican primary unopposed. In the general election, he faced Democratic Representative Mark Critz, who had earlier defeated Jason Altmire in the Democratic primary after their districts were combined. The race was highly competitive, with outside groups spending nearly $10 million, and Rothfus leading Critz in fundraising for the second half of 2012. Although Critz retained much of his former territory, the redrawn district was more favorable to Republicans. In November 2012, Rothfus defeated Critz by a margin of 52 percent to 48 percent and took office when the 113th Congress convened on January 3, 2013.

During his three terms in Congress, Rothfus served on the House Committee on Financial Services, where he sat on the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit and the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. He also served on the United States House Judiciary Committee. A conservative Republican, he was a member of the Republican Study Committee, a caucus of House Republicans generally associated with more conservative policy positions. On July 20, 2017, he introduced House Joint Resolution 111, which nullified a rule submitted by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau regarding arbitration agreements, reflecting his interest in financial regulatory policy and oversight of federal agencies. His tenure in Congress coincided with a significant period in American politics marked by debates over health care, financial regulation, and the scope of federal authority.

Rothfus successfully sought re-election twice in the 12th district. In 2014, he was re-nominated in the May 20 Republican primary and faced Democratic nominee Erin McClelland in the general election. He won a second term by defeating McClelland 59 percent to 41 percent. In 2016, he again faced McClelland in the general election and was re-elected to a third term, winning 62 percent of the vote to her 38 percent. Throughout these campaigns, he continued to represent a district that extended from the Pittsburgh suburbs eastward toward Johnstown, an area with a mix of suburban and post-industrial communities.

In early 2017, as efforts were made in Congress to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, Rothfus’s stance on health care drew significant attention from his constituents. Approximately 130 constituents requested that he hold a town hall meeting to discuss potential changes to health coverage. When he declined to host such a forum, frustrated citizens organized and invited him to a constituent-sponsored town hall, which he also declined to attend. Some constituents reportedly formed a political action committee to encourage him to meet with them. On June 3, 2017, activists and constituents, expressing dissatisfaction with his refusal to hold a town hall, interrupted a Chamber of Commerce meeting that Rothfus was attending, illustrating the intensity of local engagement with national health policy debates during his tenure.

Rothfus’s congressional career was significantly affected by the redistricting ordered by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in February 2018, which found the existing congressional map unconstitutional and imposed a new one. His district was renumbered as the 17th congressional district and reconfigured as a more compact district in the northern and western suburbs of Pittsburgh. The new 17th district lost its eastern portion, including the Johnstown area, and with it the last geographic connection to the long-serving Representative John Murtha, who had represented the 12th district from 1972 until his death in 2010. The political composition of the district also changed: whereas President Donald Trump had carried the old 12th district by about 20 points, he would have carried the new 17th district by only about 2.5 points, making it far less reliably Republican.

Following the redistricting, Rothfus became a candidate for the new 17th congressional district in the 2018 election. Democrat Conor Lamb, who had won a special election in the neighboring 18th district earlier that year, had his home drawn into the new 17th and filed to run there for a full term on March 20, 2018. The race attracted national attention, and the political action committee America First Policies purchased advertisements in support of Rothfus’s campaign. In the November 2018 general election, Lamb defeated Rothfus, winning 56 percent of the vote to Rothfus’s 44 percent. Rothfus’s service in Congress concluded on January 3, 2019, marking the end of three consecutive terms in the House of Representatives during a period of notable political realignment in Pennsylvania and across the country.