Brian McMurray currently serves as the regional chair of the Southwest PA region following his installment on the leadership team during the Gettysburg Summit on May 20th. 

Brian lives in Dormont with his wife Renee. He grew up in New Castle, PA (northwest of Pittsburgh)— his dad works in a local steel mill and his mother worked in a local bank. Brian’s family was politically conservative and fostered a religious household, but Brian was always more interested in talking about politics than his family was. This translated into his work with the New Castle News newspaper and the Forward Party of Pennsylvania. Aside from his political work, Brian works worked as a recruiter for a staffing agency, until he became a solar panel installer. He continued to pursue this work; he currently works at Green Rack Contracting as a project coordinator.

A founding member institutional in the current operation of the Pennsylvania Forward Party, Brian McMurray was drawn to Forward during the aftermath of the 2020 Presidential Election. He is an avid proponent of third-party politics and the need for Ranked-Choice-Voting to moderate politics. For over a year, Brian has led the communications team and is active on the party’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, all work that is extremely meaningful to him. “It’s been great to talk to so many people that want to get involved. And then to see these people become leaders has been really satisfying,” Brian said. He continues to keep the communications team active, specifically in his work sending out Forward Pennsylvania emails.

As for his opinion of the party in the next four-to-five years, “I see us having built a strong base of state house seats and local races, [and] competing for federal seats. In PA and in other states, there will be Forward candidates making names for themselves on the national stage. We will be getting a lot of criticism coming our way from people worried we will run a candidate in the 2028 Presidential election [as a spoiler.]”

Brian will continue to serve Forward Pennsylvania, even as he sadly has plans to spend the majority of his time in Alaska in the coming months. He and his wife are relocating for a job opportunity she received, and he’s excited to help the Forward party organize in a state with an exemplary election system. “In the rest of the country we talk about how Ranked Choice Voting will help us and other 3rd parties break the Duopoly. It’s very important that we demonstrate this in practice in Alaska.”