{"id":109021,"date":"2026-02-09T12:16:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T12:16:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/109021\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T12:16:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T12:16:23","slug":"how-lehigh-valley-congress-candidates-are-raising-spending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/109021\/","title":{"rendered":"How Lehigh Valley Congress candidates are raising, spending"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie and the crowded field of Democrats vying<\/a> to replace him in Congress drew their donations from local CEOs, major political action committees and other notable individuals.<\/p>\n

The race is considered one of the most competitive in the country and could determine which party has control of the House of Representatives next year.<\/p>\n

Here is a close look at where the candidates\u2019 money came from in the final three months of last year, and how they spent the contributions.<\/p>\n

Ryan Mackenzie<\/p>\n

Mackenzie brought in just over $651,000 in campaign contributions in the fourth quarter, which covers October through December.\n<\/p>\n

Notable donors to Mackenzie\u2019s campaign include Stephen Schwarzman, billionaire CEO of the private equity firm Blackstone, who gave $7,000; and Howard Leach, business executive and former U.S. ambassador to France, who gave $5,000.<\/p>\n

Locally, Mackenzie received donations from James Deiter, president of local HVAC contractor Deiter Bros.; former Lehigh Valley Health Network CEO Brian Nester, now chief operating officer of Jefferson Health; and Douglas Woosnam, executive vice president of the Eastern Pennsylvania Energy Association. Via a joint fundraising effort, Mackenzie also received $7,000 from David Jaindl, owner of Jaindl Farms and Jaindl Land Co.<\/p>\n

Major political action committee donors include $7,000 from Associated Builders and Contractors, which represents the nonunionized construction industry; $7,000 from the American Hospital Association; and $1,000 from Koch Industries, a multinational conglomerate corporation. Mackenzie\u2019s donors also include committees representing corporations such as CVS Health and DoorDash.<\/p>\n

His campaign spent $255,000 in the final quarter of 2025. Major expenses include $28,690 in digital fundraising expenses, $38,700 in direct mail fundraising including postage, and $87,500 in fundraising commissions for several firms that assisted with fundraising efforts.<\/p>\n

His campaign began 2026 with $1.8 million on hand.<\/p>\n

Ryan Crosswell<\/p>\n

While Mackenzie led fundraising among all the candidates, Crosswell, a former federal prosecutor and Pottstown native, bested his fellow Democrats in fundraising efforts.<\/p>\n

His campaign posted $443,800 in the last quarter of 2025, over $100,000 ahead of his closest Democratic opponent, Bob Brooks. \t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Notable individual contributors to Crosswell\u2019s campaign include Sarah Feinberg, former administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, who gave $7,000, and Rajeev Date, former deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, who gave the same amount.<\/p>\n

Locally, Crosswell received support from Susan Yee, former chair of Lehigh Valley Public Media, and Joseph Fitzpatrick, attorney at prominent local law firm Fitzpatrick Lentz and Bubba.<\/p>\n

He received two political action committee donations: $5,000 from Cross Partisan PAC, which supports Democrats, and $2,000 from the Duane Morris Government Committee, which represents prominent Philadelphia law firm Duane Morris.<\/p>\n

His campaign spent around $265,000 this past quarter, including $96,000 across various firms for fundraising consulting services, around $35,000 in salaries to three campaign staffers, and $25,000 for strategic research from firm Northside Research.<\/p>\n

Crosswell\u2019s campaign had $612,000 on hand at the end of last year.<\/p>\n

Bob Brooks<\/p>\n

Brooks, the former Bethlehem firefighter who leads the Democrats in prominent endorsements, brought in just over $300,000 in the last quarter of 2025.\n<\/p>\n

Some of Brooks\u2019 largest campaign donations came from his wife, Jennifer; prominent local lawyer and prolific political donor Ray Lahoud; and billionaire Nvidia board member and philanthropist Tench Coxe. Each gave the maximum $3,500 one-time donation.<\/p>\n

Brooks received political action committee contributions from the group Medicare for All, Save Democracy PAC and Blue Hen PAC, which is associated with U.S. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware. He also received contributions from committees representing unions including the International Association of Sheet Metal Workers and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.<\/p>\n

Unlike most of his opponents, who are largely building up their war chests and have yet to do any major advertising spending, Brooks spent $89,000 on advertising via firm Ascend Digital and $22,000 for media production to LC Media. Other major expenses include $30,000 in salary expenses to two staffers and $8,600 on financial compliance services.<\/p>\n

His campaign spent $204,500 last quarter, and ended the year with $341,000.<\/p>\n

Lamont G. McClure<\/p>\n

Former Northampton County Executive McClure, who was the first candidate to jump into the race in early 2025, continued to lag behind his opponents in fundraising, posting about $22,000 in fundraising for the last quarter of 2025.<\/p>\n

Prominent McClure donors include Christopher Weiler, owner of Easton-based Weiler Abrasives, who gave $2,500; Diana Morganelli of Morganelli Real Estate, who gave $1,500; and Maureen and Jack Weiner, owners of Northeast Business Consulting, who gave a combined $4,000.<\/p>\n

McClure received one PAC donation: $500 from Friends of Stephen Barratta, which represents the Northampton County district attorney\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n

His campaign spent $22,500 this past quarter, including $10,000 on financial compliance consulting and $3,200 on fundraising consulting.<\/p>\n

His campaign has $287,000 in the bank, which includes most of a $200,000 personal loan McClure lent his campaign in September.<\/p>\n

Carol Obando-Derstine<\/p>\n

Obando-Derstine, a former PPL engineer who joined the race with the support of former Lehigh Valley Democratic Rep. Susan Wild, brought in just over $100,000 in campaign donations during the reporting period.<\/p>\n

Notable donors who gave a maximum $3,500 donation include Annette Cumming, executive director of the Cumming Foundation and member of the Planned Parenthood Federal Action Committee; Antoinette Turnquist, chief operating officer of Omaha Public Schools; and David Meehan, physician with Lehigh Valley Physicians Group.<\/p>\n

Obando-Derstine also received support from PACs including the Latino Victory Fund, Elect Democratic Women and Barragan for Congress, which represents California Rep. Nanette Barragan.<\/p>\n

Obando-Derstine spent just under $105,000\u00a0last quarter, including $37,000 in digital consulting, $33,700 in payroll fees and taxes and $6700 in text messaging services.<\/p>\n

Her campaign ended 2025 with $123,000 in the bank.<\/p>\n

Mark Pinsley<\/p>\n

Pinsley, Lehigh County\u2019s controller, brought in $52,088 in campaign contributions during the period, all of which came from individual donations.<\/p>\n

Notable donors include Jeff Huggett, senior vice president of Minneapolis real estate firm Dominium, and Nat Kreamer, CEO of solar energy software company Clean Power Finance, each of whom gave $1,000 to Pinsley\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n

Major expenses to Pinsley\u2019s campaign included $2,065 for campaign staff, $1,400 in freelance labor via Upwork, $13,000 in consulting fees and $3,100 in digital consulting.<\/p>\n

Pinsley\u2019s largest expense was a $32,000 unexplained expenditure to Capital One Bank, out of $56,000 in quarterly spending. According to a Pinsley campaign spokesperson, the Capital One spending is a series of expenses charged to a credit card, but the Federal Election Commission has not yet processed the campaign\u2019s data, which is why details were not included.\n<\/p>\n

Pinsley\u2019s campaign ended 2025 with $50,000 in its coffers.<\/p>\n

Two additional Democratic candidates, Aidan Gonzalez and Lewis Shupe, did not file finance reports for end-of-year 2025, as they entered the race in January.<\/p>\n

The primary election is May 19 and general election takes place Nov. 3.<\/p>\n

Reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at Liweber@mcall.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie and the crowded field of Democrats vying to replace him in Congress drew their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,836,182,139,50,432],"class_list":{"0":"post-109021","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-headlines","10":"tag-allentown-news","11":"tag-election","12":"tag-local-news","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}