Old Forge resident Frank Scavo, who was among 1,500 people blanket pardoned by President Donald Trump for their actions in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, was elected Tuesday by Lackawanna County Republicans to serve on the state GOP committee.
Scavo, a former Old Forge School Board member, was one of five Republicans from Lackawanna County each elected to a four-year term on the Republican State Committee. Among a field of seven candidates, Scavo received 5,343 votes to place second and win a seat on the state panel.
The state committee, with members from counties allocated based on Republican voter registration numbers, generally steers the party and its platforms, chooses party leaders and organizes statewide.
“Took it back”
Before exoneration under the blanket pardon issued by Trump on the first day of his second term, Scavo pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of demonstrating in the Capitol and served 60 days in federal prison.
Scavo organized five local buses that carried hundreds to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, for Trump’s rally to protest the certification of the presidential election of Joe Biden, a former vice president and a native of Scranton. Prosecution evidence showed Scavo inside the Capitol from about 2:40 to 2:50 p.m. amid the rioting that occurred there; and Scavo recorded a video where he said, “Here we go,” just before entering the Capitol.
A sentencing memorandum by a federal prosecutor said Scavo’s video showed him joining in the chants of “treason” and “defend the Constitution, defend your liberty!” Using vulgar descriptions, Scavo said, “This is top-secret … We’re in the Capitol. Stormed the … Capitol of the … United States at 58 years old. What … is wrong with America?” “Your own personal tour of the freaking Capitol,” Scavo can be heard saying, according to the criminal complaint against him. “We … took it back. Took it back.”
Prosecutors acknowledged there was no evidence Scavo acted violently or destructively while inside the Capitol.
Scavo pleaded guilty in September 2021 in federal court to a misdemeanor count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in the Capitol, in exchange for prosecutors dropping three other counts. At sentencing, Scavo told the judge he felt a “deep sense of regret” for “the crime that I committed.”
Former Old Forge School Director Frank Scavo, circled, climbs stairs inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. In a memo, federal prosecutor Seth Adam Meinero wrote that Scavo was recording with his cellphone as he ascended the stairs. (SUBMITTED / TIMES-TRIBUNE FILE PHOTO)
Former Old Forge School Director Frank Scavo poses before a painting depicting the War of 1812 while illegally inside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021 rioting. (SUBMITTED / TIMES-TRIBUNE FILE)
Former Old Forge School Director Frank Scavo wears a mask that says “End the rain tax” at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, during the rioting there.(SUBMITTED / TIMES-TRIBUNE FILE)
Old Forge resident Frank Scavo served 60 days in federal prison for his role in the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.
Show Caption
1 of 4
Former Old Forge School Director Frank Scavo, circled, climbs stairs inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. In a memo, federal prosecutor Seth Adam Meinero wrote that Scavo was recording with his cellphone as he ascended the stairs. (SUBMITTED / TIMES-TRIBUNE FILE PHOTO)
Expand
“In the past”
Efforts to reach Scavo on Thursday were unsuccessful.
Lackawanna County Republican Party Chairman Dan Naylor said he believes nothing precluded Scavo from getting elected as a county member on the state GOP Committee, and probably even without a presidential pardon on a misdemeanor charge, and no one challenged or contested Scavo’s appearance on the ballot in Tuesday’s election.
“The people voted to elect him to represent the party at this point in time,” Naylor said. “Those things in the past are pardoned and that’s in the past.”
From pardons to polling places
Scavo is the second local person charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot to win an election after being exonerated by Trump’s blanket pardon. Deborah Lynn Lee of Olyphant was elected in November 2025 as a judge of elections in Olyphant’s Ward 3, Precinct 1, according to the results of that election posted by the county elections department. A Republican, Lee ran uncontested for that polling-place post in the 2025 general election and received 112 of the 119 votes cast; there were seven write-in votes.
Lee initially was charged only with four misdemeanors but a felony count added in April 2023 via a superseding indictment accused her of obstruction of an official proceeding, of trying to block Congress’ certification of the Electoral College vote that confirmed Biden as president. But after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in summer 2024 involving the Capitol riot, a judge dismissed the felony charge against Lee.
She pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanors — entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building — but was convicted in a trial in October 2024. Lee was scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 27, 2025, but the blanket pardon by Trump on Jan. 20, 2025, made sentencing moot.
Deborah Lynn Lee of Olyphant, circled, is shown during the Jan. 6 riot in 2021 at the Capitol in Washington. (Courtesy of the FBI)
Scavo has had a long history of involvement in local politics and civic affairs. He served on the Old Forge School Board for 13 years and ran unsuccessfully several times over the years as a Republican for seats in the state Senate and House of Representatives.
The other four Republicans who won election Tuesday to the state GOP committee from Lackawanna County include Scott Twp. Supervisor Michael Giannetta, Scranton resident Marc Pane, former Lackawanna County Commissioner Laureen Cummings of Old Forge and Lynn Kokinda of Moosic. The two candidates who lost included Robin Lee Medeiros and Susanne Preambo Green.
According to the race’s unofficial results of the Lackawanna County Board of Elections, the outcome included:
Republican State Committee (vote for five)
Michael Giannetta: 5,551 votes
Frank Scavo: 5,343
Marc Pane: 4,828
Laureen Cummings: 4,648
Lynn Kokinda: 4,235
Robin Lee Medeiros: 3,627
Susanne Preambo Green: 3,586
Write-ins: 327
Total votes cast: 32,145
As county GOP party chairman, Naylor also serves as a Lackawanna County member on the State Republican Committee, he said. The committee used to have four members elected every four years, but the county party picked up an additional seat because of recent gains in numbers of registered Republicans in the county, he said. The committee members’ terms start now, pending certification of election results, he said. Although this election took place during the primary election, the five winners will not be on the ballot in Nov. 3 general election.
Democrats elect their party leaders
Meanwhile, Lackawanna County Democrats elected their own five state committee members in Tuesday’s primary. Those results included:
Democratic State Committee (vote for five)
Jessica McGuigan: 18,763 votes
Jessica Rothchild: 18,522
Paul McNally: 14,797
Josh Castellani: 13,814
Chris Gaidos: 10,348
Dwayne Heisler: 8,897
Write-ins: 655
Total votes cast: 85,796
According to the results of Tuesday’s election, Lackawanna County had 148,969 registered voters — 76,257 Democrats, 52,281 Republicans and 20,431 nonpartisan.