Antonio Pineda has announced his candidacy for Lehigh County commissioner.

“I’m excited to announce that I’m running to serve our community as a Lehigh County commissioner,” Pineda said.

A lifelong resident of Lehigh County, Pineda pointed to his roots as his inspiration.

“We need someone willing to fight for our county. This community helped raise me and gave me the tools necessary for a bright future,” he said. “Now, I want to make sure that the same opportunity is available for every single one of us in this community.”

Pineda, a Republican, emphasized the need to make government run more efficiently, pledging to fight to keep taxes low, to support farmland and open space preservation efforts and to keep the community safe by working with law enforcement and the district attorney’s office.

An engineer by profession, Pineda said that is the very approach he will bring to the county government.

“I’m an engineer by training. I identify problems and work to fix them,” he said. “That’s exactly what I’ll do for our county and our community.”

Pineda is a graduate of Whitehall High School. He volunteers in the community, working with senior citizens as board vice president of the Whitehall Active Community Center and serving on the Whitehall Environmental Advisory Council.

He is a graduate of Columbia University, where he earned a degree in earth and environmental engineering. He works locally in the cement industry and previously coached high school football.