Mike Folmer is a Republican State Senator in the 48th district of Pennsylvania.
Mike 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, 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. In 1975 , Mike married his high school sweetheart, Sheila. Three years later, he graduated from Grace College in Winona Lake, Indiana.
For nearly thirty years, Mike’s passion for people has earned him the trust and loyalty of his customers and clients. As a financial consultant and sales manager, 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.
Mike Folmer and his family are members of the Church of the Servant Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Palmyra where he teaches a children’s Sunday School. The Folmers have two grown children, Michael and Elizabeth, and are proud grandparents. 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.
