{"id":197748,"date":"2026-05-20T11:40:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T11:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/197748\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T11:40:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T11:40:07","slug":"lehigh-valley-primary-election-takeaways-progressives-win-key-races","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/197748\/","title":{"rendered":"Lehigh Valley primary election takeaways: Progressives win key races"},"content":{"rendered":"

Democratic and Republican voters turned out across the Lehigh Valley on Tuesday<\/a> to choose their candidates for big races in November.<\/p>\n

While there were few contested primary races, Tuesday set the stage for one of the biggest contests in November, that between Democrat Bob Brooks and first-term Republican Rep. Ryan Mackenzie in the Lehigh Valley congressional race<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here are some key takeaways from the primary elections.<\/p>\n

Progressive candidates victorious in key races<\/p>\n

Democrats in the Lehigh Valley chose candidates backed by progressive groups in races across the ballot.<\/p>\n

Allentown City Council member Ce-Ce Gerlach ran in the 22nd state House primary<\/a> as a progressive Democrat, with widespread support from left-leaning groups including the Working Families Party and Democratic Socialists of America. She declared victory around 10 p.m., with unofficial results showing her with a strong lead over incumbent Rep. Ana Tiburcio, who won a special election for the seat in February with backing from the county and state Democratic parties.<\/p>\n

Voters also favored Mark Pinsley in the Democratic primary for the 16th state Senate district<\/a>. The progressive Democrat and Lehigh County controller led teacher Bradley Merkl-Gump in votes in the race to face incumbent Republican Sen. Jarrett Coleman in November.<\/p>\n

In the biggest race of the night, voters also backed Bob Brooks in the 7th Congressional District primary<\/a>. Brooks, who will take on Republican incumbent Ryan Mackenzie in November, entered the race with a wide array of support, from moderate Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro to progressive Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.<\/p>\n

Speaking of Brooks \u2026<\/p>\n

Nothing could stop Bob Brooks<\/p>\n

In a crowded Democratic primary, the former Bethlehem firefighter emerged as a clear favorite. In addition to support from Shapiro and other prominent Democrats, Brooks had a formidable fundraising machine backing his campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cBob did run a good campaign,\u201d said former Northampton County Lamont G. McClure in his concession speech. \u201cPolitics isn\u2019t fair. You work with what you have. And he did it brilliantly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both McClure and Ryan Crosswell threw their support behind Brooks. Carol Obando-Derstine did not deliver a concession speech, and said she would take some time with her supporters before contacting Brooks.<\/p>\n

Voter turnout on par with past primaries<\/p>\n

While voter traffic at polls appeared slow throughout the day Thursday, voter turnout was actually on par with previous primary elections, according to unofficial results and state data.<\/p>\n

As of 11 p.m., Northampton County was reporting turnout at 19.6 percent, and Lehigh County was reporting 16.9 percent. Pennsylvania is a closed primary state, so only registered Democrats and Republican can vote \u2014 leaving out the large segments of voters who are unaffiliated or registered with third parties.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s lower than the last mid-term elections, in 2022, when voter turnout in both counties was over 30%.<\/p>\n

Voter turnout was 16.4 percent in Lehigh County and 17.9 percent in Northampton in the May 2025 primary election, in which municipal and school board races dominated.<\/p>\n

Ballot problems didn\u2019t seem to matter<\/p>\n

Despite errors in about 4,000 mail ballots in Lehigh County, officials reported a smooth night for election results.<\/p>\n

The only major issue Tuesday occurred in Catasauqua, after an \u201cunknown explosive device\u201d was thrown from a vehicle outside a polling place<\/a>. Voting was briefly disrupted by the large police presence but continued, with voters being asked to enter the polling location at a different entrance.<\/p>\n

Right into election season season<\/p>\n

The last takeaway from Tuesday\u2019s election is that election season is far from over.<\/p>\n

Some of Brooks\u2019 Democratic opponents were quick to back his campaign against Mackenzie.<\/p>\n

\u201cMackenzie needs to go,\u201d said McClure in his concession speech Tuesday night. \u201cHe absolutely needs to go. It doesn\u2019t matter what the vehicle is to make that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brooks also went on the offensive, calling Mackenzie a \u201ccareer politician\u201d out of touch with the Lehigh Valley\u2019s working people.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has worked in Harrisburg, and he is working on Congress. He has never had a job outside politics, not a day in his life,\u201d Brooks, who had earlier touted his own many jobs including bartender, dishwasher, and snowplow driver, said of Mackenzie.<\/p>\n

Mackenzie\u2019s campaign fired back, calling Brooks a \u201ccon-man\u201d who was hand selected by the Democratic Party to run.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese groups steamrolled local Democrats and hijacked the democratic process in order to nominate a corrupt political insider, a wealthy lobbyist with a vast stock portfolio, and someone who has a record of stealing from his own family,\u201d said Mackenzie for Congress spokesman Arnaud Armstrong. \u201cThe establishment Democrat machine has done this for one reason: they know that Bob Brooks will follow orders from his political bosses, just like he did as a union boss. The people of the Lehigh Valley and the Poconos will reject this dumpster fire of a candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Democratic and Republican voters turned out across the Lehigh Valley on Tuesday to choose their candidates for big…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,836,433,182,139,434,28,29,50,432],"class_list":["post-197748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-election","tag-lehigh-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-northampton-county","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-politics","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197748","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=197748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}