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Rep. David Hickernell ’83 is an Elizabethtown College graduate who went on to become the House Representative of Pennsylvania’s 98th District.

During Hickernell’s time at Etown, he was involved with a variety of extracurriculars — including Student Senate. He was also a psychology major and was on the tennis team.

Most significant to his later career path, however, was an internship that he acquired the summer after his first year.

Hickernell went to work at Rep. Kenneth Brandt’s office in Harrisburg. At that time, Brandt was serving as the House Representative of Pennsylvania’s 98th district. This is the same position  that Hickernell holds today.

Hickernell initially fell into the job due to a neighbor of his having a connection with Brandt.

“I really had no interest in government or politics, but I needed a summer job,” Hickernell said. “I needed a summer job and [Brandt] needed a summer intern. So, we got hooked up, and I spent the summer in Harrisburg doing an internship with him.”

Throughout his time at Etown, Hickernell continued to work with Brandt in varying capacities, despite the fact that he was initially resistant to it.

“[In my junior year] … [Brandt] called and said that he was opening district offices. He asked me if I would like to work part time for him in his local office,” Hickernell said. “I originally said no, I was too busy. I was a college student, I was on the tennis team at the time. So, [Brandt] came back to me a few times … and eventually it was my mother that convinced me that it would probably be a pretty good idea to earn some extra spending money.”

Hickernell spent his junior and senior years of college working with Brandt in his Elizabethtown district office.

Despite this, Hickernell continued to be focused on career goals separate from politics.

“My real career goal was [that] I wanted to be a college professor. My plan was to go and get a PhD in psychology, and I really wanted to teach college,” Hickernell said.
While Hickernell was in the process of applying to graduate school, he was still working with Brandt.

Brandt offered for Hickernell to work in Brandt’s Harrisburg office after he graduated in May, and Hickernell accepted.

“I said yes, it’d be an opportunity to make some money and I could save for my future education, I would take a couple of years and do this,” Hickernell said. “A couple of years turned into 18 years of working on the staff for the House of Representatives.”

From that point on, Hickernell began to develop a substantial career in the sphere of Lancaster County politics.

While his initial goal of a professorship got pushed to the side, he was finding success elsewhere.

In 1999, members of the Lancaster County Republican Party encouraged Hickernell to run for an open position in the courthouse. Hickernell ran for Lancaster County Clerk of Courts in 2000.

He won this position and was working it when he was again approached by local members of the Republican Party.

“So, I’m now doing this new courthouse job, and, two years into that, folks from the district … started to approach me as to whether I would be interested in running for [the 98th district] house seat,” Hickernell said. “It was currently held by another Republican who a lot of people were unhappy with.”

With encouragement from the party, Hickernell put out an exploratory committee before running for House Representative of Pennsylvania’s 98th District.

“[In 2002] I ran for office against a sitting Republican, which at that time you didn’t really do in Lancaster County,” Hickernell said. “On Election Day we were fortunate enough to win … and so here I sit today, 17 years later and nine terms in.”

Hickernell credits his psychology B.A. from Etown for assisting him in his political career.

“My psychology [major] has come in handy in this job because you deal with a lot of personalities, and a lot of folks that come to you with problems. Being able to relate to them, and understand them, and be empathetic [is important],” Hickernell said.

Hickernell encourages students to embrace fluidity in their career path.

“I never had a political science course when I was at Elizabethtown, it was one of those things where fate happened — a door opened, so I walked through it,” Hickernell said. “You don’t need to have a political science degree to be able to hold public office.”

“You’ll find as you go through your life that a lot of times that’s how things happen, you don’t necessarily plan things,” Hickernell continued.

In the spirit of career fluidity, Hickernell had the opportunity to live out his collegiate ambitions when he co-taught a government course at Etown with associate professor of political science Dr.Kyle Kopko.

“It was an opportunity to do something that I always wanted to do, and it was a great experience for me,” Hickernell said.

Hickernell is currently running for his tenth term in the U.S. House of Representatives. He has worked consistently to be a bipartisan representative, reflecting the diversity of the community he serves.

“As a representative, you represent everybody. We don’t ask people when they come in the door whether you’re a Democrat, a Republican, an independent, or whether you’re registered at all,” Hickernell said. “Our job is to help as many people as we can and to try to represent the majority of people as best as we can.”