HARRISBURG – The House’s GOP leader on Saturday said a lawmaker elected to serve as Republican caucus chairman in Pennsylvania in the 2020-21 session.
Rep Mike Reese, R-Westmoreland / Somerset, “is at peace with his family on Saturday afternoon at his late death at Excela Health Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg after an apparent brain aneurysm,” Kerry Benninghoff, the majority leader, also said in a statement. statement said posted on Reese’s official Home website and his Facebook page.
Reese was 42.
To honor Reese, Governor Tom Wolf ordered the state flag on all state and public buildings and grounds to fly half-staff.
“I express my sincere condolences on the passing of Representative Mike Reese,” Wolf said in a statement. “We think of Mike’s family, colleagues and voters. Mike was a good man and a strong leader, and the people of Western Pennsylvania lost a dedicated lawyer.”
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Reese, who was first elected to the State House in 2008, served as the GOP caucus secretary of the House in the 2019-20 session.
“More than a friend to us all, and one of our caucus leaders, Mike was a devoted husband and father,” Benninghoff said, calling Reese “a model legislator who thoughtfully put his voters first.”
Reese said he recently learned on December 7 that he had tested positive for COVID-19 and was quarantined the previous week after learning of his exposure to the virus.
Reese is survived by his wife, Angela, and three children.