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Senator Mike Folmer

Mike Folmer may be best known for the 87 year old, landmark produce store that bore his family name in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. But it's from a lifetime of living and working in the Lebanon community that he's maintained a solid reputation as a civic leader and businessman.

Much of Mike's early life was spent defying the odds. With the help of a next door neighbor, a gifted reading and speech teacher, Mike overcame a significant speech impediment – a defining victory in his young life.

As a college student at Grace College in Winona Lake, Indiana, Mike paid tuition by selling produce door-to-door in a converted pick-up truck from his father's business. It was the first of many successes as an entrepreneur. Mike received a degree in History from Grace College in 1978.

For nearly thirty years, Mike's passion for people has earned him the trust and loyalty of his customers, clients, and constituents. As a financial consultant, sales manager, and public servant, honesty and professionalism have defined his life's work.

Mike is a founding member of the Constitutional Organization of Liberty, a community-wide educational project designed to promote awareness of America's founding principles.

In 1986, Mike pulled an upset victory to Lebanon City Council campaigning as a conservative Democrat (he would later follow Ronald Reagan's example by re-registering as a Republican). As the Council's Director of Public Safety, Mike fought local labor unions on excessive contract demands and introduced a plan to trim hundreds of thousands of dollars from the cash strapped community's annual budget. Mike honored a term-limits pledge, retiring after just one term in office.  

Two decades later, running on a "Promise to Pennsylvania," a pledge to advance government reform, tort reform, the elimination of wasteful state spending, and lower taxes, Mike pulled another upset victory to win a seat in the Pennsylvania State Senate. He was reelected to a second term in 2010.

In his first term, Senator Folmer had five bills signed into law. Act 76 of 2007 establishes rights for foster children and foster parents; Act 127 of 2008 strengthens the child custody rights for military personnel deployed overseas; Act 29 of 2009 is a land transfer provision for Lancaster County; Act 89 of 2010, clarifies powers and duties of police officers employed at state military institutions and police powers at military installations; Act 125 of 2010 adds bioterrorism to the Pennsylvania Crime Code.

He currently serves as Chairman of the Communications and Technology Committee and Vice Chair of the Education Committee. Other committee assignments include Inter-Governmental Operations; Labor and Industry; State Government; and Urban Affairs and Housing.

Mike and his wife, Shelia, reside in Lebanon City and have two grown children and seven grandchildren.