{"id":124159,"date":"2026-02-26T15:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T15:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/124159\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T15:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T15:08:09","slug":"mark-pinsley-drops-out-of-pa-07-race-shifts-focus-to-state-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/124159\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Pinsley drops out of PA-07 race, shifts focus to state senate"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the morning of Feb. 18<\/a>, Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley announced his decision to drop out of the PA-07 Democratic congressional primary.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pinsley is instead focusing his campaign in the state\u2019s 16th District, where he\u2019s expected to run alongside Juan Vargas for state senate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pinsley said he didn\u2019t have the funds to financially support his congressional campaign, but the money raised will transfer to his campaign for the 16th state senate district.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe money that wasn\u2019t enough to run a federal campaign is certainly enough to run a state campaign,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Prior to his career in politics, Pinsley considered himself an entrepreneur. After graduating, he started a Massachusetts company, Angel Capital, that raised around $1 million. After selling the company, he shifted his focus to the corporate world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pinsley said he spent much of his career traveling, frequently going abroad. <\/p>\n

He also worked on the corporate side of the health care industry as a global product developer of personal nutrition for several years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy role (in corporate health care) was to get people healthier,\u201d he said. \u201cI would travel all around the world, and we would document things through science, through the scientific process, and show that we were actually making these people healthier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pinsley said he was motivated to enter politics after President Donald Trump was inaugurated in 2016. He said he felt policies proposed during Trump\u2019s campaign would affect his personal and religious identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got into politics because I wanted to help people,\u201d Pinsley said. \u201cI got in because Donald Trump was there. I didn\u2019t get in because I wanted to be a lifelong politician. I have no issues with the people who did get in for that, but I am here to make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2017, Pinsley was elected as South Whitehall\u2019s first Democratic commissioner in 20 years. The following year, he was asked by his party to run for state senate but lost to Pat Browne.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2019, Pinsley was elected Lehigh County controller. He said he initially decided to run for the congressional seat because he felt his community was missing a candidate who was a true progressive and populist.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI have tried to use every lever of power to help the people during my time as Lehigh County controller,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Pinsley said if a Democrat is elected for the 16th state senate district, it\u2019ll be easier to address issues such as minimum wage and the affordable housing crisis. The governorship, state senate and House would all be controlled by the Democratic Party.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shadwick Yoder, the president of Lehigh Valley Young Democrats, said this upcoming election cycle presents an opportunity for Democratic candidates to flip seats.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a very bipartisan issue that Congress increasingly does not do its job and due diligence of enforcing the checks and balances on the executive,\u201d Yoder said. \u201cThat is something that goes with both parties, and I think that having a candidate who has that type of background is really important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yoder said being knowledgeable about how the government should function and understanding what constituents want from a representative are also vital for a candidate\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n

He also said Pinsley\u2019s attentiveness and accountability make him a strong candidate.<\/p>\n

Andreas Marangos, \u201826, the secretary of Lehigh College Democrats, said he spoke with Pinsley after one of the club\u2019s events.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c(Pinsley) was so personable and talked on every issue that we spoke about,\u201d Marangos said. \u201cHe always had something to add to the conversation, which I was able to really appreciate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marangos said when Pinsley announced his decision to drop out of the congressional race, many students were talking about it. He said when there\u2019s a shift like this in an election, Lehigh students remain engaged and continue following local politics.<\/p>\n

The primary election will take place May 19. The general election will follow Nov. 3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the morning of Feb. 18, Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley announced his decision to drop out of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[3946,153,155,154,1197,50],"class_list":["post-124159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-4-min-read","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-feature","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124159","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=124159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}