Russ is a life-long resident of Lebanon County. He graduated from Northern Lebanon High School and Lebanon County Vo-Tech in 1981. He entered the workforce as a production laborer at O'Sullivan Corporation in Lebanon, and seven years later pursued his dream of becoming a working musician.

In 1992, his passion for music led him to open a small recording studio in Lebanon. The business subsequently gained regional acclaim and was transformed into the nationally known CD and manufacturing and duplicating service known as Raintree Multimedia.

Prior to being elected to the House of Representatives, Russ was a well-known and highly effective government reform advocate, leading the charge against the infamous midnight pay raise of 2005. His organization recruited over 110 candidates for the General Assembly, the largest such effort in state history by a non-partisan organization.

His group also led the charge in the first-ever non-retention of a PA Supreme Court Justice - Democrat Russell Nigro - which cleared a path for Republicans to take the majority on the Court in 2007.

He was named one of three Citizens of the Year by the Philadelphia Inquirer for his work in 2006. Later that same year, Russ received the Public Service Achievement Award from Common Cause of Pennsylvania and was named Communicator of the Year by the Harrisburg chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators.

First elected to the General Assembly in 2015, Russ introduced a bill to bring industiral hemp back to Pennsylvania as a cash crop, which promises become a billion-dollar industry to benefit the state's farmers, manufacturers, and consumers. The bill passed both the House and Senate unanimously and was signed into law.

His early objections and legislative leadership in 2020 against former Governor Tom Wolf's Covid-related business and school shutdowns eventually led to Pennsylvania becoming the only state in the nation to reduce its governor's emergency powers through constitutional amendments approved by voters in 2021.

His outspoken advocacy for election integrity earned him a seat on the Joint State Government Commission's Election Law Advisory Board in 2021, where he serves as the voice of the House Republican Caucus.

In 2017, Russ successfully shepherded legislation into law providing Lebanon County's municipalities, first responders, and non-profits with a direct revenue stream from gaming revenue, which has provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding for local projects. He was named Republican Chair of the House Gaming Oversight Committee in 2023.

Russ plans to actively continue to pursue legislation to eliminate property taxes, establish medical freedom as a constitutional right, and regulate "skill games" in the Commonwealth, as well as maintain his solid conservative record on issues such as life, firearms rights, and fiscal responsibility.

Russ and his wife Beth live in Annville in a home built by his great-grandparents.

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