Matthew Tuerk was born on March 18,1975 and is an American politician and economic development official serving as the mayor of Allentown, Pennsylvania since January 2022.
25 Facts About Matthew Tuerk
2.
Matthew Tuerk was born in 1975 in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.
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Matthew Tuerk's grandmother was a Cuban immigrant who settled in East Stroudsburg in 1946.
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Matthew Tuerk was raised speaking English but was surrounded by Cuban traditions and food during his childhood.
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Matthew Tuerk's family moved from East Stroudsburg to Boulder, Colorado in 1984.
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Matthew Tuerk earned a BS degree in International Business from the College of Charleston, and received an MBA with a concentration in international economic development from the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina.
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Matthew Tuerk minored in Spanish and Latin American studies, during which time became particularly interested in Latino culture, learning to speaks Spanish and traveling to Latin America.
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Matthew Tuerk spent four years working for an outdoor advertising company in Panama, and later spent some time in Nicaragua.
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Matthew Tuerk became an assistant director of the Allentown Economic Development Corporation in 2008 and spent five years with the organization.
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Matthew Tuerk co-founded Make Lehigh Valley, the region's first "hackerspace" located at AEDC's Bridgeworks Enterprise Center business incubator.
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In 2013, Matthew Tuerk joined the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation, where he worked for seven years.
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Matthew Tuerk began with the organization as its first Director of Research and Innovation.
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Matthew Tuerk left LVEDC in October 2020 to pursue another leadership opportunity.
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Matthew Tuerk was on the executive committee of Muhlenberg College's board of associates, had previously served on the Board of Trustees at Moravian Academy as treasurer of the Old Allentown Preservation Association, and was a member of the Allentown City Shade Tree Commission.
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Matthew Tuerk announced his candidacy as a Democratic candidate for Mayor of Allentown on October 6,2020, about a week after leaving his position at LVEDC.
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Matthew Tuerk was the first candidate to enter the race in what was expected to be a crowded field.
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Matthew Tuerk was relatively unknown to voters at the beginning of the primary election.
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Matthew Tuerk sought to connect with voters who had requested mail-in ballots, since it was the first municipal primary to allow no-excuse voting by mail.
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Matthew Tuerk raised more money than any of the other three primary candidates, and spent $92,000 out of a combined $209,000 spent between the four primary candidates heading into the final two weeks of the race.
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Matthew Tuerk received 2,064 votes, defeating O'Connell and Guridy by less than two percentage points, and Gerlach by three points.
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Matthew Tuerk went on to face Republican challenger Tim Ramos in the general election.
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Matthew Tuerk was sworn in on January 3,2022, becoming the first Latino mayor in Allentown's history.
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Matthew Tuerk's wife Karen is a lecturer in environmental science at Muhlenberg College and they have two daughters.
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Matthew Tuerk says he has completed 18 marathons as a runner.
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Matthew Tuerk speaks four languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French.