{"id":307128,"date":"2026-10-15T10:21:34","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T10:21:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/307128\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T10:21:34","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T10:21:34","slug":"pennsylvania-house-race-pits-mackenzie-vs-brooks-tests-gop-playbook-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/307128\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania House Race Pits Mackenzie vs. Brooks, Tests GOP Playbook | Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2014 The dominant theme of this year\u2019s midterm elections has been how voters feel about Donald Trump\u2019s second term as president. But with Trump\u2019s approval ratings<\/a> at historical lows<\/a>, the Republican incumbent in Pennsylvania\u2019s critical 7th Congressional District is trying to make it about something else: the personal faults of his opponent.
\n <\/p>\n

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The 7th District spans Lehigh County and Northampton County in the Lehigh Valley of eastern Pennsylvania, with the remainder covering rural Carbon County and a portion of Monroe County. The district has an industrial heritage: The Lehigh Valley \u2013 home to the cities of Bethlehem and Allentown \u2013 became a symbol of Rust Belt decline but has rebounded in more recent years, driven by growth in industries such as healthcare and transportation. The valley\u2019s population has grown as well<\/a>, fueled by an influx of Latinos, who account for more than a fifth of the district\u2019s population.<\/p>\n

Politically, the 7th is a swing district within a swing state. Trump won the district in 2024 by a 51% to 48% margin, and recent congressional races here have been competitive between the parties.<\/p>\n

The race is competitive again this year, and the district\u2019s seat could be a key building block for Democrats in assembling a majority in the House. It\u2019s one of four tight 2026 House contests in Pennsylvania, and a sweep of those seats \u2014 which analysts consider plausible<\/a> \u2014 would essentially erase the Republicans\u2019 narrow majority on its own.<\/p>\n

As Trump was winning the district in 2024, Republican Ryan Mackenzie was ousting a Democratic incumbent by an even smaller margin: 1 percentage point. Now, though, the political environment is far worse for Republicans running for Congress, especially for those whose voting record can be mined for alignment with Trump\u2019s policies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 7th District race has been considered nip and tuck<\/a> the entire midterm cycle. Mackenzie faces Democrat Bob Brooks, a longtime Bethlehem firefighter and president of the Pennsylvania Professional Firefighters Association.<\/p>\n

Brooks does not have a college degree, and he leans into his blue-collar life story. Democrats have struggled to attract voters with a similar working-class profile in recent elections, and the party\u2019s desire to reverse that trend helps explain Brooks\u2019 pre-primary support both from moderates like Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and progressives like independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.<\/p>\n

A September Franklin & Marshall College poll<\/a> found Brooks leading Mackenzie 45% to 40%, while interviews and an early October visit to the district suggests the race could be slipping away for the GOP.<\/p>\n

\u201cAffordability in healthcare is something that we should be focusing on in a bipartisan way,\u201d Mackenzie said.
\n <\/p>\n

Yet in framing the race\u2019s top issue as a question of \u201ctrust,\u201d Mackenzie began the interview by contrasting himself with Brooks, whom he called \u201ca known racist.\u201d \u201cHe is a crook, and he is a scumbag,\u201d Mackenzie said. He repeated the \u201cracist\u201d and \u201ccrook\u201d accusations later in the interview.<\/p>\n

An aide followed up with details, referencing Brooks\u2019 messy legal battle<\/a> tied to money owed to his former mother-in-law; reports that Brooks did not disclose<\/a> the debt when applying for COVID-19 relief funds and that he failed to purchase<\/a> required workers\u2019 compensation insurance for a lawn care business he owned; that he called<\/a> union firefighters with side gigs as volunteer firefighters “scab(s)” and “sh\u2013bags” on social media; an accusation aired in a blog post that he was allegedly a steward at a social club<\/a> in the early 2000s that had an unofficial whites-only policy; and Facebook posts<\/a> from Brooks that included one featuringpro-gun and far-right imagery not long after a mass shooting targeting Latinos in Texas.<\/p>\n

The Brooks campaign vehemently denied the social club accusation, which has not been otherwise reported. They also pointed to the Democrat\u2019s apology<\/a> encompassing the social media post with the far-right imagery and said the legal dispute has been settled<\/a>. Campaign spokesman Benny Stanislawski told U.S. News that Mackenzie \u201cis desperately throwing whatever he can at the wall to see what sticks because he knows he can\u2019t run on his own record.\u201d
\n <\/p>\n

\"Christopher<\/p>\n

Louis Jacobson for U.S. News<\/p>\n

Christopher Borick, a political scientist and longtime pollster in the Lehigh Valley, in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 3. <\/p>\n

Christopher Borick, a political scientist and pollster at Lehigh University<\/a> in Bethlehem, said that in this year\u2019s political environment, Stanislawski is probably right that policy will outweigh personality.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand why Mackenzie would target\u201d Brooks personally, because Brooks is \u201crough around the edges,\u201d Borick said. \u201cIt\u2019s an age-old playbook. But I don’t know if it’s the playbook for the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Borick said he recently attended a town hall for older adults in the district where Mackenzie was present. The incumbent \u201cgot hit hard,\u201d Borick said. \u201cHe got challenging questions on the Iran war, why he hasn’t broken with Trump, and gas prices \u2014 issue after issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Brooks, who has no prior experience running for public office, didn\u2019t make the race as personal as his opponent during recent public appearances. In a pep talk to a packed room of volunteer union canvassers from the Pennsylvania State Education Association, Brooks urged \u201cbetter pay, better working conditions, better health care,\u201d and protections of rights for union members.<\/p>\n

To the extent that Brooks is focusing on Trump, it\u2019s that he says Mackenzie is enabling most of the president\u2019s policies. \u201cWe have to point out Trump’s faults, but the reason we’re pointing out Trump’s faults is because we’re pointing out Mackenzie’s faults,\u201d Brooks said in an interview after the canvassing event.<\/p>\n

Mackenzie, he said, \u201ccan’t stand on his own record. That’s clear. So they just go after the other person.\u201d
\n <\/p>\n

\"Allentown,<\/p>\n

Louis Jacobson for U.S. News<\/p>\n

Matt Tuerk, the mayor of Allentown, Pennsylvania, at his city\u2019s farmer\u2019s market on Oct. 3.<\/p>\n

Matt Tuerk, the second-term Democratic mayor of Allentown, said the kinds of bread-and-butter issues the older adults pushed Mackenzie on during the town hall event are the ones that will occupy his constituents\u2019 minds when they vote.<\/p>\n

He said that people feel like Republicans, as the party in power in Washington, \u201care not really hearing them\u201d and aren\u2019t concerned enough about \u201cwhat it costs to fill up a tank of gas, what it costs to bring a couple of bags of groceries home, what it costs to have your kid in childcare.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that\u2019s the case for Latinos, who account for about 55% of his city\u2019s residents and who, according to polling<\/a>, are turning against Trump this year amid concerns about both affordability and the administration\u2019s immigration policies. Tuerk is Latino.<\/p>\n

Even six months ago it was already too late for Mackenzie to start distancing himself from Trump, Tuerk said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBob Brooks has a \u2018D\u2019 after his name, and Ryan Mackenzie has an \u2018R,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2014 The dominant theme of this year\u2019s midterm elections has been how voters feel about Donald…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6375,902,3613,125953,6744,28,30,29,50,5085],"class_list":["post-307128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-democratic-party","tag-elections","tag-house-of-representatives","tag-louis-jacobson","tag-national-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-politics","tag-republican-party"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307128","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=307128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}