It’s official, Kathy Barnette – an author, 10-year veteran of the U.S. Army Reserves, former adjunct professor of corporate finance, political commentator, and homeschool mom – is running for the United States Senate for Pennsylvania. 

Barnette’s life is a perfect depiction of the American dream; it all started on a pig farm in southern Alabama. Mrs. Barnette describes her youth by saying, “I never knew just how impoverished we were until I grew up. When my grandmother would ask me to help her in the garden, I thought she just wanted to spend quality time with me. I never knew it was for our survival.” But her impressive story does not begin with her being raised on her family’s pig farm; you could say that Kathy’s story began in 1846 with her great-great-great-grandmother, Rhoda, who was a slave. In a Facebook post (along with a photo of Ms. Rhoda), Mrs. Barnette notes, “She was born in 1846. She was a slave. I grew up in the house she lived in. I stand on her shoulders today. Her blood runs through my veins.” Also, before the pig farm, Barnette says, “In addition to being raised as what many would consider ‘disadvantaged,’ I’ll add one more stumbling block to success: I’m the by-product of a rape.”

These “stumbling blocks” did not thwart Kathy’s desire to succeed. She went on to “become the first in [her] family to complete college; spend ten years in the Armed Forces Reserves; work in the financial industry, corporate America, and as an adjunct professor of Corporate Finance.” Mrs. Barnette is also a political commentator and the author of Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain: Being Black and Conservative in America. As Kathy says on her website, “My story only takes place in America. I am not standing outside waiting for someone to admit me into the American Dream. I AM THE AMERICAN DREAM.”

Now, Kathy Barnette is running for the U.S. Senate in the 2022 election.