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![\"Ryan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ryan-crosswell-allentown-scaled.jpg\")
Ryan Crosswell, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress in the Lehigh Valley, speaks to voters in Allentown. (Carmen Russell-Sluchansky)\n<\/p>\nThe candidates<\/p>\n
Brooks has built his campaign around organized labor and working-class appeal and has gained backing from prominent Democrats and labor groups, including support connected to both progressive and establishment wings of the party. His message focuses heavily on wages, public safety and union rights.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThis election is about working-class people,\u201d he told WHYY News. \u201cIt\u2019s that simple, and right now, there\u2019s nobody representing us.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Brooks received endorsements from Gov. Josh Shapiro, state Reps. Peter Schweyer and Mike Schlossberg, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Working Families Party.\n<\/p>\n
Political observers have noted that his endorsements and fundraising may have helped move him toward the front of the field, but some were surprised that the party engaged so heavily before voters choose their nominee.\n <\/p>\n
Borick said it\u2019s traditionally uncommon for a party apparatus to \u201cput their thumbs on the scale\u201d in a party primary, but that it\u2019s likely a long-term strategy.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThis seems to be part of the effort of those in party leadership and elected officials to look for a path that they think might be best for them moving forward in the general election,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
Schweyer said that \u201cultimately, voters will make the final decision\u201d who their nominee is and that many people \u201covervalue\u201d endorsements.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cAs somebody who has endorsed Bob, I just want to make sure that doors are open to him, that people are giving him a look,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
Crosswell said he was \u201cdisappointed\u201d that the party intervened on Brooks\u2019 behalf, but that he\u2019s still confident about his campaign.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you\u2019re seeing the outrage here in Lehigh Valley,\u201d he told WHYY News. \u201cPeople are really mad, and I think it\u2019s actually backfired. There are four credible candidates in this race \u2014 not just one of us. And the people of Lehigh Valley don\u2019t think they want a thumb on this scale.\u201d
\nRyan Crosswell, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress in the Lehigh Valley, speaks to voters in Allentown. (Carmen Russell-Sluchansky)\n<\/p>\n
Crosswell, a former federal prosecutor with the Department of Justice\u2019s Public Integrity Section, resigned after the Trump administration demanded the department drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams in an alleged quid pro quo arrangement.\n<\/p>\n
He said that his role at the DOJ makes him the best candidate to take on Mackenzie and Republicans in Congress.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the reason our campaign has gotten so much grassroots support is people are concerned about the affordability of gas, of groceries, of health insurance, but also, they see the most corrupt administration in U.S. history,\u201d Crosswell said. \u201cAdministration abuse of power is a kitchen-table issue.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
However, he added that his prior work may also be why he didn\u2019t get early party backing.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI never expected to be the endorsement candidate,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re a corruption prosecutor, you don\u2019t get invited to a lot of cocktail parties in Washington and Harrisburg.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Both Crosswell and Brooks were the targets of negative ads, which appeared to support the candidate McClure. An ad paid for by a newly formed political action committee, Lead Left, accused Brooks<\/a> of being associated with election deniers and Crosswell of working for \u201cTrump\u2019s Justice Department.\u201d\n<\/p>\n The same group also ran ads in a Nebraska Democratic primary<\/a>, attacking one candidate as \u201cMAGA\u201d and accusing him of \u201cbetraying Nebraska Democrats\u201d in support of another Democrat. Lead Left\u2019s website<\/a> says it \u201cstands against MAGA extremists who will infect our country with Donald Trump\u2019s agenda.\u201d\n<\/p>\n However, Punchbowl News reported<\/a> that metadata tied to the PAC\u2019s website included links to WinRed, the leading Republican fundraising platform. Little information about Lead Left is publicly available.\n<\/p>\n Borick said such tactics are becoming common.\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve seen this emerging trend in American politics where opposition parties like to engage more so than ever in their opponent\u2019s primaries and try to leverage outcomes that might benefit them in the general election,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n Both Brooks and Crosswell said that the revelation shows Republicans would prefer a challenge by McClure in November, rather than either of them.\n<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re petrified,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cIf they\u2019re going to spend $1.2 million against us, they obviously don\u2019t want to face us.\u201d\n<\/p>\n McClure did not respond to multiple requests for comment through his campaign. However, an analysis of his fundraising shows he may be a weaker candidate going into the general election. As of the end of April, McClure had raised just over $300,000<\/a>, which he supplemented with another $200,000 of his own cash. Obando-Derstine, who was handpicked by Wild to run, raised a little short of $600,000.\n<\/p>\n By contrast, Brooks raised nearly $1.2 million<\/a>, but Crosswell has shown the most prowess in fundraising, bringing in more than $1.75 million<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n That may factor into Crosswell\u2019s confidence.\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to win,\u201d he said, adding that, if he doesn\u2019t, he would support the nominee \u201cfrom day one.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Whether national Democrats\u2019 or Republicans\u2019 attempts to put a thumb on the scale in the primary works, Borick said that given how much the cycle favors Democrats this year, any of the candidates would have a \u201cpath to victory.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \u201cThey all have their own challenges as candidates, and they\u2019ll come up against a well-funded incumbent,\u201d he said. \u201cBut, if you look at their profiles and you look at what they might bring to the table, you could find advantages they might be able to utilize in a general election against Congressman Mackenzie.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The candidates Brooks has built his campaign around organized labor and working-class appeal and has gained backing from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,25694,451],"class_list":["post-196167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-elections-2026","tag-governor-josh-shapiro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196167","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=196167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}