Gonzalez<\/a> said that his campaign platform includes making health care affordable, buying a home attainable and getting a well-paying job possible.<\/p>\n\u201cTwenty thousand children in the Lehigh Valley live in poverty, health care care premiums are exploding and American families are counting pennies at the grocery store,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cThe great American experiment is in danger of failure, but it doesn\u2019t have to be. We were one a nation of the impossible and we can be again.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an email, Gonzalez said he decided to jump into the crowded Democratic race because he has not \u201cseen the vision or the grit needed to address the serious challenges confronting the Lehigh Valley\u201d from any of the other candidates.<\/p>\n
Gonzalez is managing partner at a Bethlehem-based software company. It is his first run for public office. At 27, he is the youngest candidate in the race.<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania\u2019s 7th Congressional District, which represents all of Lehigh, Carbon and Northampton counties and part of Monroe County, is considered one of the most competitive in the country, and a key seat in determining which party controls the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n
Brooks, a former Bethlehem firefighter, has secured the most prominent endorsements, including from Gov. Josh Shapiro, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, several local elected officials including Mayor Matt Tuerk and state Rep. Mike Schlossberg, as well as the backing of labor unions like the International Association of Firefighters and Service Employees International Union.<\/p>\n
Obando-Derstine is backed by former U.S. Rep. Susan Wild. McClure, who did not seek reelection as executive, has the backing of other prominent elected officials including former Lehigh County Executive Phil Armstrong.<\/p>\n
Crosswell has received endorsements from national veterans groups and Pinsley has secured endorsements from progressive political groups including Progressive Democrats of America.<\/p>\n
Mackenzie is running unopposed for the GOP nomination for Congress, and has secured the endorsement of President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
The primary election will take place May 19 and general election Nov. 3.<\/p>\n
Reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at Liweber@mcall.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aiden Gonzalez, a Bethlehem resident and vice president of the Lehigh Valley Young Democrats, has joined the crowded,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,5523,836,433,182,139,434,28,50,432],"class_list":{"0":"post-79400","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-headlines","10":"tag-allentown-news","11":"tag-carbon-county","12":"tag-election","13":"tag-lehigh-county","14":"tag-local-news","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-northampton-county","17":"tag-pennsylvania","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79400","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=79400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}