Senator Mike Folmer

Mike Folmer may be best known for the 87 year old, landmark produce store that bears his family name in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. But it's from a lifetime living and working in that 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 the school 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.

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, elimination of wasteful state spending, and lower taxes, Mike pulled another upset victory to win a seat in the Pennsylvania State Senate. He currently serves as Chairman of the Senate Communications and Technology Committee, Vice-Chairman of the Senate State Government Committee, and a member of the Urban Affairs and Housing, Education, and Labor and Industry Committees.  

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

Mike and his wife, Shelia, reside in Lebanon City and are members of the Church of the Servant Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Palmyra. The Folmers have two grown children, Michael and Elizabeth, and seven grandchildren.