In this fall of 2024, we are in a political season that finds our nation divided and bitter. Forbes, NPR, and US News & World Report all report that Americans are anxious about the election and, whatever the outcome, its aftermath.
Enter Jeff Coleman, host of Morning Light, a streaming program designed to provide news with a historical and faith-based emphasis. Coleman wants to present news with a biblical view to remind us that we can have peace even when news reports give reason for alarm.
The program’s goal is to “complete the analysis of the news and not just leave people in a state of suspense or anxiety. Now the soundtrack of our lives isn’t a hymn or a pastor coming in at the last minute. It is the news that is telling us to be anxious for everything rather than being anxious for nothing.”
Jeff Coleman wants to help believers be anxious for nothing.
Coleman’s journey to this season as a news anchor sprouted from the time he spent as the son of missionaries in the Philippines when a grassroots effort unseated long-time dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.
Watching this effort unfold among his neighbors and friends sparked a passion for politics in Coleman. He carried this enthusiasm back to Armstrong County in Pennsylvania after his parents’ missionary term ended and began to volunteer in local elections.
“I started getting involved because of my pro-life convictions. That was the main driver, the main motivator.”
From there, Coleman attended Liberty University where he met Rebecca, who would later become his wife. At Liberty, he continued to feed his passion for the electoral process. After volunteering in various campaigns and graduating from college, he determined to make a run of his own.
Back in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Coleman challenged a long-term incumbent in a 67 percent Democrat district. He points out that, about two decades ago, such districts in Pennsylvania were traditionally in line with coal and steel unions and the Democratic machine.
The advantage for the incumbent loomed large. Things didn’t look positive for this David against his Goliath.
Yet blue collar districts like Armstrong County’s also embraced pro-life ideals and the Second Amendment.
On a “shoestring” budget and “with a dozen or so Liberty University friends,” Coleman formed a campaign team that knocked on 10,000 doors to state his socially conservative message.
He pledged that “We would not denigrate our opponent, that he was going to be ‘Representative.’ I wasn’t going to call him by his first name.” It was important to Coleman “that we won the right way.”
Win he did, by “a razor-thin edge.” At age 25, he became the then-youngest member of Pennsylvania’s General Assembly and an instant rising star in the GOP and in the Philippines.
He proposed to Rebecca on swearing-in day on the House floor.
Coleman’s ousting of a seemingly unbeatable incumbent became a “statewide story.” Because of his Filipino heritage, that country’s government also took notice of his victory and “put me on tour” with the president hosting a banquet for Coleman and Rebecca after their wedding.
A whirlwind had captured the newlyweds. “Press-conferences and motorcades” became the couple’s honeymoon.
“That was not an ideal way to begin a marriage,” Coleman says. The notoriety created “a schedule that was intensive.”
Coleman won a second two-year term, but he and Rebecca were exhausted. They had to decide whether they would have a “real” marriage or an “arrangement predicated on personal appearances.”
Making a “very hard” decision, Coleman declined to run for a third term.
Just when he thought he’d reached the end of his political life, a singular event catapulted him into a new role, that of campaign consultant.
That’s when “the pay raise happened.”
For voters of a certain age in Pennsylvania, “the pay raise” needs no explanation. Legislators padding their pockets via a 1:00 a.m. vote created a vortex that sucked Coleman into managing the race that would ultimately unseat a 32-year-incumbent, the state senate’s President Pro Tempore Robert Jubelirer. What looked like another David and Goliath campaign.
Jeff Coleman’s expertise won the day in more ways than one. His candidate John H. Eichelberger, Jr., ran a Coleman campaign, clean and void of name calling.
Rush Limbaugh noted Eichelberger’s upset of Jubelirer on his radio program that week.
As a newcomer to political consulting, Coleman’s star stood out on the map, but this round of notoriety did not drag him into another whirlwind. His consulting company manages publicity for non-profit companies, limiting its political commitments to “one or two candidates a year.”
Although Coleman’s life now is “much different from what I thought was going to be a fast track to some other office quickly,” he has “no regrets,” only well-developed convictions about how candidates should approach their time in public service.
“What about these other priorities? To be a husband, to be a father? That’s what I didn’t have a vision for [when he was first elected]. People that go into politics need to have a plan of personal accountability. A personal accountability that asks, ‘How are you engaging your spouse? How are you talking to your children? Are you still teachable by a pastor?’”
That accountability, Coleman says, can make all the difference for a candidate, his family, and his community.
“If the goal is to win, you’ll miss the mark. If the goal is to make a name for yourself and think you’re going to leverage that big name for some good things, you’ll miss the mark. If the goal in seeking public office is to be faithful to the call and to lose and give God the glory or win and do the same, then it’s worth the pursuit.”
The Bible shows us that Davids can beat Goliaths by relying on God.
For the Davids out there, priorities and goals matter.
And anyone who keeps those straight need never be anxious about anything.
Photo Credit: Jeff Coleman
