MEET BRIAN
Brian Wrightson is a lifelong Northeastern Pennsylvanian and public servant who has spent his career making sure working families have the tools they need to be safe, connected, and able to build a good life right here at home.
Born in 1969 and raised in Jessup, Brian grew up in a working-class family shaped by the region’s immigrant roots. His mother’s family came from Italy, settling in a neighborhood where neighbors looked out for one another. His father’s family traces back to Scotland, with ancestors who arrived in America on the Mayflower and later worked the coal mines and shale pits of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Brian’s grandfather was a union foreman in the mines, his father was a former shop steward for a local sheet metal union, and his family — like so many in the region — earned everything they had through hard work.
Neither of Brian’s parents graduated from college, and money was often tight. Brian was raised largely by his grandparents, Helen and Eddie, whom he proudly credits with instilling his values. His grandmother was a caretaker; his grandfather, a World War II veteran, was a self taught accountant.
Brian became the first person in his family to earn a college degree. He worked full-time while attending school full-time, often on overnight shifts. As a teenager, Brian worked in a union book bindery, as a member of Graphic Arts International Union Local 97B. When a workplace accident severed part of his thumb, it was the union that stood by him and fought to make him whole. That experience left a lasting impression about dignity at work and the importance of standing up for working people.
A Career Built on Solving Real Problems
Brian’s professional life spans telecommunications, technology, emergency management, public safety, education, and economic development. Early in his career, he helped build and manage large-scale network systems across the country. After nearly ten years in the private sector, Brian took a significant pay cut to serve in Lackawanna County Government– because he believed that his skills should be used to strengthen the community that raised him.
For a decade, Brian worked in county government, developing software systems, managing networks, and modernizing communications infrastructure. In 1996, he built his first communications tower and answered his first 911 call. During major floods and emergencies, Brian volunteered in emergency call centers simply because help was needed.
Brian later served as Director of Emergency Services for the American Red Cross, overseeing disaster response across ten counties in Northeastern Pennsylvania. He helped modernize how the Red Cross responded to emergencies, coordinating with first responders to ensure faster, more effective aid when families were at their most vulnerable.
His work earned recognition from FEMA and the FAA, and he served as FEMA Liaison for Lackawanna County Emergency Management, Land Mobile Radio Communications Infrastructure Construction Manager for Lackawanna County, and a member of the Northeast Pennsylvania Regional Counter-Terrorism Task Force.
Bringing Opportunity to Rural Communities
Today, Brian is the owner and operator of Fire Tower Communications, managing communications infrastructure and broadband expansion across Monroe, Lackawanna, and Wayne Counties. He has spent years driving back roads, walking farms, and climbing towers to bring reliable internet access to communities that have been ignored for too long.
Brian knows firsthand what rural broadband means — not as an abstract policy, but as a lifeline. He has watched children in farmhouses experience high-speed internet for the first time, small businesses finally compete online, and families gain access to telehealth, education, and opportunity.
For Brian, broadband is about fairness. A dairy farmer in Cherry Ridge, a forklift operator in Jessup, and a shop owner in downtown Stroudsburg all deserve the same access to opportunity as anyone else in Pennsylvania.
A Life Rooted In Community
Beyond his professional work, Brian has devoted his life to community service. He has served as the Vice Chair of the Archbald Community and Economic Development Committee, Vice Chair of the Jessup Planning Commission, and an honorary member of local fire departments. He has coached and officiated youth sports, taught as an adjunct college instructor, and helped lead Little League Baseball across multiple counties.
Brian and his wife have five children and five grandchildren, with a sixth due soon. In 2017, Brian lost his oldest son in a tragic car accident, an experience that forever deepened his empathy for families facing unimaginable loss and reinforced his belief that leadership must be rooted in compassion.
Brian is also driven by a deeply personal frustration: watching his children consider leaving Northeastern Pennsylvania because good jobs, affordable housing, and opportunity are too scarce. He believes no child should have to choose between staying close to family and building a future.
Why Brian Is Running
Brian Wrightson is running for State Senate because he believes life has become too expensive for too many people, and because too many politicians are disconnected from the realities working families face.
He knows what it’s like to worry about paying bills, to choose between fixing a car and paying the mortgage, and to watch neighbors struggle as costs rise faster than wages. He believes no one should have to choose between bald tires in a snowstorm and keeping their home warm.
Brian isn’t a career politician. He’s running for office to fix things.
He believes the biggest challenges facing District 40 — affordability, healthcare access, transportation, utilities, housing, clean energy, and broadband — are all connected. When one part fails, the whole community feels it. His approach is practical and rooted in listening.
Brian believes progress starts with honest conversations, mutual respect, and common sense. He doesn’t pretend to have all the answers, but he promises to work every single day to find solutions that make life just a little better for everyone.
Brian Wrightson is ready to bring competence and compassion back to Harrisburg — and to fight for a Pennsylvania where working families can afford to stay, grow, and thrive.
