HERSHEY, Pa. — Chuck Duncan is not the kind of guy who sits on the sidelines.

Duncan, who serves in the National Guard and was deployed to Jordan last year, was outraged when his local board of supervisors decided to raise property taxes to pay for a $32 million community center here. “I saw that as irresponsible, so I decided to run. It was as simple as that,” Duncan said.

On Tuesday night, he battled it out in a three-way primary for Derry Township supervisor — and won.

Duncan is one of several local candidates in Pennsylvania being funded by the new Kennedy Democrats PAC, which is recruiting and supporting moderates in the mold of JFK and his brother Robert who can wrest control of down-ballot seats from the GOP.

Robert F. Kennedy’s eldest child, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, is backing the project along with her cousin, former Congressman Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island.

She said they’re tackling the state of Pennsylvania first because of its crucial role in elections. “Pennsylvania is an extraordinarily important state,” Kennedy Townsend told The Post. “If we are able to win over Democrat voters we have lost in rural areas for the general-election races in the fall, we can build a great bench not only for the future but as a support system for the presidential election in 2020.”

Between 2009 and 2016, Democrats have lost more than 1,000 down-ballot seats in state and federal races across the country. It wasn’t until last year’s midterms that they started to make a comeback. The Kennedy Democrats PAC aims to promote candidates who can speak to local concerns instead of the issues that matter in Washington and Manhattan.

“I think the Republicans did a very good job over the years on focusing on local elections,” said Kennedy Townsend. “And we are saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to go back and we’re going to make sure we can win Erie County and Bucks County and smaller county elections, because those local leaders in local seats end up becoming the next member of Congress or governor or US senator.”

Two local Democrats co-founded the PAC: Patrick Murphy, the first Iraq War veteran to serve in Congress, and Scott Wallace, a progressive Democrat. Murphy represented Bucks County in the House of Representatives for two terms until he lost the seat in the 2010 wave election, and Wallace failed last year in his bid to upset the incumbent Republican in that same seat.

The first phase for the Kennedy Democrats is to target eight Pennsylvania counties this year: Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Dauphin, Centre, Northampton, Berks and Monroe, mostly at the county commissioner level.

“Our second phase will be the 2020 presidential election,” Murphy said. “The third phase is to replicate this model in targeted states such as Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida and North Carolina.”

The Kennedy Democrats PAC rolled out quietly two months ago with little fanfare and no press. They won their first race in April, a special election for a state senate seat in western Pennsylvania — a district President Trump won handily in 2016.

Their candidate, Pam Iovino, a former Navy captain, ran on fixing roads and bridges while her Republican opponent ran on comparing her to progressive New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Iovino won, a victory that placed Democrats within reach of upsetting the majority in the state’s upper chamber for the first time in a decade.

“Kennedy Democrats are focused like a bulldog on these post-industrial/suburban areas in Pennsylvania where we can compete and win,” said Murphy.

Their second round of success came Tuesday, when they swept an astounding 11 out of 11 primary contests they competed in, including Duncan’s seat.

Even though Trump visited Hershey on his “Thank You” tour right after he won the 2016 election, Duncan said he was able to appeal to Democrats who voted for the Republican president. “They saw past me being black. They saw past me running as a Democrat,” he said. They “heard what I was saying about infrastructure issues and spending, and they pledged to vote for me.”

Duncan’s next challenge — and the challenge for all Kennedy Democrats who won their primary races on Tuesday — is to win those seats come November.

According to Murphy, the PAC has raised “well over six figures” in just two months and is planning private fundraisers throughout the year.

Wallace, a philanthropist and the grandson of FDR’s second vice president, Henry A. Wallace, says he’s pragmatic about supporting moderate Democrats.

“My grandfather was a big fan of JFK, and when he won he said it felt like a sort of passing of the New Deal torch,” he said. “And that’s a part of what inspires me.”

Salena Zito is the author of “The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics” (Crown Forum), out now