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By MARC LEVY
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Sean Parnell, a decorated Army veteran and regular guest on Fox News programs who became a favorite of former President Donald Trump, is expected to announce his candidacy for the Republican nomination for Pennsylvania’s open U.S. Senate seat.
Parnell, who unsuccessfully challenged Democratic U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb in western Pennsylvania last year, has scheduled a news conference late Tuesday afternoon in suburban Pittsburgh.
Parnell is an Army combat veteran who served in Afghanistan and went on to write a memoir on the war in Afghanistan and author two action novels.
Parnell became a staunch ally of Trump during his candidacy last year. He adopted Trump’s law-and-order rhetoric, got regular campaign stump shoutouts from Trump and picked a speaking slot at the Republican National Convention.
In the congressional race, Parnell showed his mettle in fundraising, raising nearly $4 million before he lost narrowly to Lamb in a politically divided district running from Pittsburgh’s upscale suburbs through former steel towns along the Ohio River to the Ohio border.
Parnell later joined a post-election lawsuit in an attempt to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania’s presidential election.
The Senate seat in the presidential battleground state is being left open after two-term Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey in October that he would not run again.
Both the Democratic and Republican fields are getting crowded, with a year to go until next year’s primary election.
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Follow Marc Levy on Twitter at www.twitter.com/timelywriter.