Republican Rep. Ryan Mackenzie brought his 12 years of experience as a state representative in Harrisburg to Washington in January 2025, and hit the ground running.

He opened four district offices; authored bills that strengthened sanctions against Iran, expanded requirements to exclude unauthorized immigrants from job screenings; and approved funding for state maternal mortality review committees; and resolved over 5,000 constituent cases.

Now, Mackenzie faces a difficult reelection campaign in one of the most competitive, battleground districts in the entire country. Challenging him is Democrat and firefighter union chief Bob Brooks, who has aimed to tie Mackenzie to President Donald Trump’s unpopular policies and high prices of everyday goods.

The Morning Call recently sat down with both candidates to discuss the election, their priorities and why they think they’re the best candidate to represent the Lehigh Valley. The news organization also will be asking both candidates to submit columns on their stances on topics including affordability, immigration, technology and development, and foreign affairs. Those will publish in October.

In his campaign for reelection, Mackenzie has touted his record while also frequently taking aim at his opponent, mostly centering on an ongoing lawsuit against Brooks filed by his ex-mother-in-law.

A tough reelection

In an interview with The Morning Call, Mackenzie listed as accomplishments the tax cuts included in the Big Beautiful Bill; a major bipartisan housing law; millions of dollars in “community project funding” for local businesses and agencies; and the thousands of constituent customer service cases his office has successfully resolved.

“Those are the things I would say that we’ve been very successful at: legislation and certain wins, constituent work, and also bringing resources back to the district,” Mackenzie said.

Mackenzie tows a fine line as a Republican in a swing district, carefully distancing himself from Trump’s most unpopular moves while largely staying in line with his agenda and avoiding any comments that could anger the often vindictive president.

Polls show that Trump’s approval rating stands at a historically low 34%, according to the Economist, posing a risk for vulnerable incumbents like Mackenzie in the elections. While Trump’s name will not be on the ballot, midterm elections are often considered a referendum on the president’s performance.

Asked how Republicans can win back the House given those circumstances — and whether he is putting any distance between himself and Trump — Mackenzie said, “We want to work together on the areas that we agree on, and we also haven’t been afraid to speak out on the issues where we disagree.”

Brooks has characterized the incumbent as a “career politician” out of touch with the Lehigh Valley’s working people and in lockstep with the unpopular president. He’s criticized Mackenzie’s support for the Big Beautiful Bill, which included reductions to social programs like Medicaid and SNAP, and Mackenzie’s support for making Pennsylvania a “right-to-work” state while he was a state representative.

“[Voters] are done with the status quo,” Brooks said. “People are tired. We hear about it all the time, and they want change. I’m offering that change.”

But Republican wins in November, Mackenzie believes, will come down to driving “the highest turnout possible.” The 2024 election saw historic turnout that drove wins for Republicans in the House, Senate and presidency.

Mackenzie remains, by-and-large, a staunch advocate for the president’s agenda — he campaigned with Trump at a rally at the Mack Trucks plant in Upper Macungie Township in June and called Trump “a president who finally stands for working men and women all across the United States.”

“In Washington, President Trump and I are working every day for the past year and a half to give our workers, families and industries a chance to thrive,” Mackenzie said in a stump speech introducing Trump.

Still, Mackenzie has occasionally put some distance between himself and the president: In January, he split with the majority of his party to push for an ultimately unsuccessful effort to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies. Asked if Trump has done anything else he disagreed with, he pointed to the widespread freeze on government grant funding in early 2025.

“There are just going to be instances where we have to go our separate ways,” Mackenzie said.

Iran war: An electoral liability?

But Mackenzie has not put much distance between the president and one of the most unpopular moves of his second term — the ongoing conflict with Iran.

The war, which Trump initiated in February via airstrikes that killed several Iranian leaders including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has led to the largest ever supply disruption of the global oil market and a total cost to the U.S. of $113 billion, with no end in sight to the conflict after ceasefire agreements fell apart in July.

Mackenzie, during his 2024 campaign, made “ending forever wars” a cornerstone of his campaign. He criticized former administrations for embroiling the United States in decades-long conflicts overseas, costing the country trillions of dollars, and specifically said during a candidate debate that he supported neither bombing nor regime change in Iran.

Yet Mackenzie has joined with the majority of House Republicans in opposing any war powers resolutions that would ask the president to withdraw military forces unless he receives authorization from Congress.

Asked how he reconciles his 2024 stance with his votes today, Mackenzie distinguished the Iran conflict from a “forever war” because of the difference in longevity between such conflicts.

“Those conflicts that went on in the Middle East that dragged on for decades, for 20 years, so there is a significant difference between those two situations,” Mackenzie said. “And so we do have to guard against and make sure that Iran does not turn into a forever war.”

He made clear the line that he would not cross: troops on the ground in Iran.

“I think certainly the red line that we’ve drawn is regarding troops on the ground in a conflict like this,” Mackenzie said. “That is a very different military situation than conducting the operations that we have thus far. And so that’s something that we’ve been very clear about, that there should be congressional involvement and oversight, if that were ever to be the case. And it’s something that we do not want to see.”

Economic concerns

The war and other factors like tariffs and a tight labor market have also led to persistent inflation, which is polling as the No. 1 issue for voters this election cycle.

Republicans won in 2024 on lowering costs and criticizing Democrats for unchecked spending that they said spiked inflation, yet the economy still remains a weak point in the eyes of voters.

Mackenzie characterized the tax cuts approved in the Big Beautiful Bill as a “short-term win” for Americans struggling to afford their daily necessities, while acknowledging that long-term improvements to the economic landscape are still needed, and will take time. The $3.3 trillion spending bill, passed last summer, permanently extends the Child Tax Credit; eliminates taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security in most cases; and broadens tax breaks for small businesses.

“These problems didn’t just spring up, you know, in the past year and a half, they’ve been persistent for years,” Mackenzie said.

The bill also reduced funding on social programs like Medicaid and SNAP, which has drawn the ire of Democrats.

Mackenzie highlighted healthcare affordability as a specific priority — over 5 million people are expected to lose their insurance in the ACA marketplace as a result of the expired subsidies according to health news outlet KFF, leading to higher premiums, deductibles and healthcare costs as a result.

He said that he is working on legislation that would address healthcare affordability, though he did not provide specifics because no bills have been introduced yet. He called healthcare affordability legislation his top priority to address in his second term.

“We’re looking at new legislation to figure out ways that we can increase affordability in the [healthcare] space,” Mackenzie said.

The U.S. House is in recess for most of August, and representatives in safe districts may spend that time travelling or spending time with family and friends, but not Mackenzie. He will spend the last full month of summer crisscrossing the district, making his case to voters about why he is the right candidate — and why Brooks is not.

“We have a track record. We’ve talked about all the things that we have been successful in accomplishing during the past year and a half,” Mackenzie said. “We’re going to highlight our positive track record. We’re also going to talk about the things that we want to do going forward.”

Reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at Liweber@mcall.com.