On Tuesday, residents had the opportunity to vote in the midterm election for Pennsylvania\u2019s 7th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Currently, this seat is held by Republican Incumbent Ryan Mackenzie, but will be contested by Democrat Bob Brooks. Brooks won<\/a> in the Democratic primary with about 42% of votes in May, while Mackenzie advanced from the Republican primary.\u00a0<\/p>\n District PA-7 covers all of Lehigh, Northampton and Carbon Counties including as part of Monroe County. According to the 2020 census<\/a>, PA-7 represents 788,445 residents.\u00a0<\/p>\n These voters will play an important role in the upcoming election as PA-7 is historically a swing district, meaning it\u2019s an area where voter preferences are nearly evenly split between the Democratic and Republican parties.<\/p>\n Since Lehigh Valley, the core of the district, encompasses a vast industrial and suburban landscape, the electorate of PA-7 has a history of sustaining close<\/a>, highly competitive elections.<\/p>\n Brian Fife, professor and chair of the political science department, said this election\u00a0 is expected to be a tough race and it\u2019s eminently winnable for either party.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a district like PA-7, a handful of votes, one way or another, matter a lot,\u201d Fife said. \u201cIf the whole country had that sense of urgency that I think people have in this district, because of the knowledge that things are close, more people would participate. I look and I hope for a higher voter turnout in PA-7 and all across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n Christopher Borick, professor of political science and director of the Lehigh University Opinion Observatory<\/a>, said PA-7 is, in many ways, a microcosm of the state.<\/p>\n He said the district\u00a0 has an urban core with Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton, as well as areas around the cities that are growing and have been for a while.<\/p>\n Other parts of Lehigh, Northampton and Carbon County especially are very rural, which adds to the varied array of voters that make up PA-7. This closely mirrors the composition of Pennsylvania, with booming cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh alongside large rural areas.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you look at the variety of communities in PA-7, and then you look at the balance of registered voters, and you look at the voting history, it has all the makings of a premier battleground district,\u201d Borick said.<\/p>\n This district was redrawn<\/a> in 2018 and again for the 2022 election cycle. In January 2018, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania ruled the state\u2019s congressional map was a product of unconstitutional gerrymandering<\/a>. Before the aforementioned changes, PA-7 encompassed suburban areas of Philadelphia, while the Lehigh Valley and Allentown area were part of District 15.\u00a0<\/p>\n The map went through another change when Pennsylvania lost a congressional seat following\u00a0 the 2020 census, resulting in\u00a0 adjustments\u00a0 to PA-7 that also affected parts of Monroe County.\u00a0<\/p>\n While PA-7 has seen a number of changes in the 2022 and 2024 election cycles, it cemented itself as a swing district. In 2024, Mackenzie beat Democrat Susan Wild by a margin of 1%, and in 2022, Wild beat Republican Lisa Scheller by a margin of 2%.\u00a0<\/p>\n Wild, former congresswoman for PA-7 and now a professor in the College of Health at Lehigh, said the district is unique from other Pennsylvania districts because it\u2019s the third-largest region in Pennsylvania, after the Philadelphia area and the Pittsburgh area, as well as the fastest-growing region in the state.<\/p>\n She said something that really impressed Wild while she was in Congress was that congress members really couldn\u2019t pigeonhole voters in PA-7.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI always kind of attributed it to the fact that our roots are in the working class here in PA-7\u2026It\u2019s mostly a district where people depend on their paycheck to get by,\u201d Wild said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have a lot of inherited wealth or billionaires, so people take things very seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n Such a highly contested election also implies significant consequences for the area depending on the result.\u00a0<\/p>\n For instance, Mackenzie\u2019s<\/a> campaign focuses on education improvement, workforce development and safe and secure communities.<\/p>\n