Born in Bellefonte, Ray grew up in Pleasant Gap, a small town in rural Centre County. His father was a factory worker, machinist and veteran, who loved road trips, and his mother raised three children and was a talented cake decorator.

Ray Bilger for PA-15

Ray was brought up with strong working-class values of self-reliance and looking out for others, values that were honed in Boy Scouts, at Bellefonte high school, and in military service, entering the Air Force as an Airborne Cryptologic Linguist in August 1986.

Although often overseas, Ray never lost touch with his roots, traveling home to central PA often to visit family and to help renovate the home on the slopes of Mount Nittany that Ray and his wife have occupied since his mother’s death in 2020.

Ray Bilger was born in Bellefonte and grew up in Pleasant Gap, a small town in rural Centre County. He attended Bellefonte High School. He lives with his wife in a home on the slopes of Mount Nittany.

Ray served in both Desert Shield and Desert Storm; over a career spanning 35 years and nearly as many countries, he distinguished himself as a security officer and intelligence analyst, leading teams for the Air Force, National Security Agency, and State Department. Most recently, from 2015-2017, he was NSA Technical Director for Cyber Analysis.

Ray Bilger most recently worked as the National Security Agency's technical director for cyber analysis. He previously served as an airborne cryptologic linguist in the U.S. Air Force and worked as a security officer and intelligence analyst for the Air Force, National Security Agency, and State Department.

Ray Bilger - Ballotpedia

Ray is a first-time candidate for political office.

2026 Pennsylvania General Election 

America’s children are its future. Giving that future every opportunity to succeed requires a strong public education system—from elementary school through college. That starts with investing in educators and making sure talented, highly qualified people are encouraged to enter and remain in the teaching profession.

Ray Bilger for Congress | PA-15 (Priorities)

Our communities deserve better. Expanding grants to attract and retain top teaching talent in Pennsylvania must be a priority. So must protecting the federal funding that supports critical research at Penn State and ensuring that our children have every advantage possible as they grow, learn, and prepare for the future.

Supports investment in educators and grants to attract and retain qualified teachers in Pennsylvania.

Supports protecting federal funding for critical research at Penn State.

- Supports investment in educators and grants to attract and retain qualified teachers in Pennsylvania.
- Supports protecting federal funding for critical research at Penn State.

Education

This district has the people, resources, and work ethic to do better.

That means creating an environment where small businesses can start, grow, and hire locally; attracting good-paying jobs in manufacturing, defense, healthcare, cybersecurity, robotics, and other industries important to America’s future; and investing in the infrastructure and workforce those employers need.

Fiscal responsibility is part of the equation. Taxpayer dollars should be spent wisely, with independent oversight and transparency. Congress must reclaim its constitutional authority over spending and tariffs rather than surrendering those powers to the executive branch.

Economic policy should ultimately pass a simple test: Does it make it easier for people who work hard to build a good life here?

Fiscal responsibility is part of the equation. Taxpayer dollars should be spent wisely, with independent oversight and transparency. Congress must reclaim its constitutional authority over spending and tariffs rather than surrendering those powers to the executive branch.

Advocates for conditions that help small businesses hire locally and attract jobs in manufacturing, defense, healthcare, cybersecurity, and robotics.

Calls for Congress to retain its constitutional authority over spending and tariffs.

Supports independent oversight and transparency in government spending.

- Advocates for conditions that help small businesses hire locally and attract jobs in manufacturing, defense, healthcare, cybersecurity, and robotics.
- Calls for Congress to retain its constitutional authority over spending and tariffs.
- Supports independent oversight and transparency in government spending.

Economy

Healthcare policy should make care more affordable and more accessible, not push it further out of reach.

That means protecting affordable insurance coverage, lowering prescription drug costs, defending Medicare and Medicaid, strengthening rural hospitals and healthcare providers, and addressing the severe shortage of medical professionals in rural Pennsylvania.

It also means standing up to insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and private-equity interests when their profits come at the expense of patients.

Every Pennsylvanian should have access to reproductive healthcare, including abortion, without political interference. Those decisions belong with a woman, her family, and her doctor—not with Congress.

The right to abortion should be codified in federal law. Emergency reproductive care should be available everywhere, including rural Pennsylvania.

The right to abortion should be codified in federal law. Emergency reproductive care should be available everywhere, including rural Pennsylvania. Representatives should protect access to contraception.

No woman should be forced to carry a pregnancy that threatens her life because a politician has decided that government knows better than she and her doctor.

Supports affordable insurance, lower prescription drug costs, Medicare and Medicaid, rural healthcare providers, and efforts to address rural medical-staff shortages.

Supports federal protection for abortion access, emergency reproductive care, and contraception access without political interference.

- Supports affordable insurance, lower prescription drug costs, Medicare and Medicaid, rural healthcare providers, and efforts to address rural medical-staff shortages.
- Supports federal protection for abortion access, emergency reproductive care, and contraception access without political interference.

Healthcare

Congress’s job should be to make everyone’s lives better—not to make wealthy donors’ lives and members’ own bank accounts better.

That’s why the priorities incorporate banning congressional stock trading—including legislation already introduced by Republican Congressman Chip Roy of Texas—closing the revolving door between Congress and K Street, and overturning Citizens United.
Reform has to start at home.

Reform has to start at home. A constitutional amendment limiting House members to six terms—twelve years—would bring a clear limit to congressional careers. Glenn Thompson is seeking his tenth term in 2026 after more than seventeen years in Congress.

Congress (legislative) is a co-equal branch of the executive and judicial branches. We must return this balance to our system and provide apolitical oversight to the other branches of our government. Partisanship has no role in this obligation.

Pennsylvania US Representative District 15 — VOTE411 Voter Guide. Additional information available on VOTE411.org.

Supports banning congressional stock trading, closing the revolving door between Congress and lobbying firms, and overturning Citizens United.

Supports a constitutional amendment limiting House members to six terms, or 12 years.

Calls for Congress to provide nonpartisan oversight of the executive and judicial branches as an equal branch of government.

- Supports banning congressional stock trading, closing the revolving door between Congress and lobbying firms, and overturning Citizens United.
- Supports a constitutional amendment limiting House members to six terms, or 12 years.
- Calls for Congress to provide nonpartisan oversight of the executive and judicial branches as an equal branch of government.

Voting & Elections

But enforcement alone is not an immigration policy. America’s immigration system is broken, and both parties bear responsibility.

Fixing that system means securing the border, creating workable legal pathways, and clearing the backlogs that leave people in limbo for years. It also means applying a single standard of accountability to everyone.

That standard must apply to ICE and CBP agents as well.

Officers doing their jobs should wear identifiable uniforms and badge numbers and comply with established use-of-force policies. No masks. No unmarked uniforms. No exceptions.

No masks. No unmarked uniforms. No exceptions. When those standards are violated, independent review panels—not internal chains of command—should determine the consequences. When a U.S. citizen or immigrant dies during an enforcement action, there must be an immediate independent investigation, with charges brought where warranted.

America has leverage — and a moral obligation to use it. Military aid must be conditioned on compliance with the laws of war and the terms of the ceasefire. Support for the Ceasefire Compliance Act follows from that principle.

After decades of service in the defense sector, the cost of foreign wars is clear, as is the importance of careful strategic planning before deploying U.S. forces abroad. Military action should be used only when necessary to defend America. The United States must avoid unnecessary and counterproductive foreign wars with no explicit objective or strategy.

Trump’s war in Iran clearly fails to meet these criteria because it was entered into without an apparent goal, lacked proper planning, preparation, or coordination with our allies, and was not prompted by a direct threat to the United States.

We must support a War Powers Resolution now to rein in Trump’s war in Iran. This would help prevent the loss of precious American lives in a senseless and counterproductive war and restore Congress’s constitutional authority to declare war.

We must engage with the executive branch to ensure that any acts of hostility toward other nations, be they verbal or physical, are well thought out and in the best interests of our nation and our relationships with our allies.

Supports securing the border, expanding workable legal immigration pathways, and clearing immigration backlogs.

Calls for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection agents to use identifiable uniforms and badge numbers and follow use-of-force policies.

Calls for immediate independent investigations of deaths during immigration-enforcement actions and charges when warranted.

Supports conditioning military aid on compliance with the laws of war and ceasefire terms.

Believes U.S. military action should be limited to defending the country and that the United States should avoid wars without explicit objectives or strategies.

Calls for a War Powers Resolution to limit U.S. military action in Iran and restore Congress's authority to declare war.

Calls for congressional engagement with the executive branch to ensure hostile actions toward other countries serve U.S. interests and alliances.

- Supports securing the border, expanding workable legal immigration pathways, and clearing immigration backlogs.
- Calls for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection agents to use identifiable uniforms and badge numbers and follow use-of-force policies.
- Calls for immediate independent investigations of deaths during immigration-enforcement actions and charges when warranted.
- Supports conditioning military aid on compliance with the laws of war and ceasefire terms.
- Believes U.S. military action should be limited to defending the country and that the United States should avoid wars without explicit objectives or strategies.
- Calls for a War Powers Resolution to limit U.S. military action in Iran and restore Congress's authority to declare war.
- Calls for congressional engagement with the executive branch to ensure hostile actions toward other countries serve U.S. interests and alliances.

Foreign Policy and Immigration

Companies that use Pennsylvania’s resources to make money owe something to the communities that provide those resources. That means stronger oversight, real consequences for violations, and making sure the benefits of energy production stay here—in jobs, tax revenue, and investment.

Fracking: “I’m not anti-fracking,” Bilger said, but when it comes to protecting Pennsylvania’s environment, “we need to hold these companies’ feet to the fire.”

Frank: Can Ray Bilger End the GOP’s Winning Streak in the 15th Congressional District?

Five federal priorities should be non-negotiable:
  * Broadband co-investment as a condition of federal tax benefits.
  * Mandatory Community Benefit Agreements.
  * Full water-use transparency.
  * Strict clean-air standards for backup generators.
  * Ratepayer protections to shield families from the costs of data-center demand.

Calls for stronger oversight and penalties for companies using Pennsylvania resources, while directing energy-production benefits toward local jobs, tax revenue, and investment.

Said he is not opposed to fracking but calls for companies to be held accountable for environmental protections.

Calls for federal data-center rules requiring broadband investment, community-benefit agreements, water transparency, clean-air generator standards, and ratepayer protections.

- Calls for stronger oversight and penalties for companies using Pennsylvania resources, while directing energy-production benefits toward local jobs, tax revenue, and investment.
- Said he is not opposed to fracking but calls for companies to be held accountable for environmental protections.
- Calls for federal data-center rules requiring broadband investment, community-benefit agreements, water transparency, clean-air generator standards, and ratepayer protections.

Energy & the Environment

Guns: After rattling off the names of some of the prized firearms in his gun safe, Bilger said he’s all for more comprehensive background checks. As things stand, he said, “I am shocked at how easy it is to buy a weapon.”

Supports more comprehensive firearm background checks.

- Supports more comprehensive firearm background checks.

Public Safety

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Ray Bilger

- Calls for federal data-center rules requiring broadband investment, community-benefit agreements, water transparency, clean-air generator standards, and ratepayer protections.

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- Your US Representative represents the interests of your district in the US House of Representatives, the lower house of Congress. Pennsylvania currently has 19 US Representatives.
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- US Representatives are paid a salary of $174,000/year.

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