Democrat Brooks ousts incumbent Mackenzie in Lehigh Valley’s 7th Congressional District

(This story will be updated through the night.)

Democrats flipped a Republican-held U.S. House seat Tuesday in Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District as firefighters union president Bob Brooks defeated first-term incumbent Rep. Ryan Mackenzie.

The Associated Press called the race for Brooks with 57% of the vote against Mackenzie’s 43% at 10:27 p.m., when about 80% of ballots had been counted.

The race pitted Brooks, a former firefighter and president of the state firefighters union, against Mackenzie, a first-term congressman and former state lawmaker. Mackenzie defeated three-term incumbent Democratic Rep. Susan Wild by a 1-point margin in 2024. Brooks’ win is part of a Democratic wave that flipped the commonwealth’s congressional delegation from 10-7 in favor of the GOP to a 11-6 Democratic majority.

In a statement Tuesday night, Brooks drew a contrast between his congressional victory and his humble upbringing, when his house burned down, taking most of his and his mother’s belongings.

“Now, a kid with no college degree who washed dishes, delivered pizzas, drives a snow plow, and spent twenty years on a fire truck is going to Congress. Only in the Lehigh Valley and the Poconos, and only in America,” Brooks said.

Brooks’ campaign focused mainly on the cost of living and he hammered his opponent for votes on legislation backed by President Donald Trump that contributed to the affordability crisis.

“All across this district, I’ve met people who work hard, punch the clock, and do everything right, and they’re still struggling just to get by,” he said. “They’re sick of getting kicked in the teeth by a broken political system.”

The 7th District lies in eastern Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, encompassing Carbon, Lehigh and Northampton counties and the commonwealth’s third-largest metro area, with Allentown at its heart. Its dense urban core and expansive rural areas help make the district among the most swingy in the nation, according to political observers.

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Suzan DelBene said Brooks demonstrated in the campaign that he knows what a hard day’s work and serving his community looks like. “That’s why he’s going to Congress,” she said.

“After 20 years putting out fires in the city of Bethlehem, 30 years coaching youth baseball, and a lifetime of hard work, the voters of the Lehigh Valley put their trust in Bob because they know he will fight for them,” DelBene said. “Bob is going to help put out the fire in Washington D.C. and build something better from the ashes.”

Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin congratulated Brooks and the Pennsylvania Democratic Party and local organizers for the victory.

“As a local firefighter and an advocate for first responders, Bob always fought to protect working families and keep his community safe. He will take this fight to Congress while lowering costs, expanding access to healthcare, standing up for workers, and making life more affordable,” Martin said.

Brooks emerged as the winner of a four-way race for the nomination in the Democratic primary in May. A Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion poll released shortly before Election Day gave Brooks a 49% to 43% advantage over the incumbent.

Democrats, who hoped to pick up four seats nationwide to win control of the House, targeted Mackenzie as one of four vulnerable Republican U.S. representatives in Pennsylvania. 

Mackenzie and Brooks collected about $13.4 million in combined campaign contributions, making it one of the most costly in Pennsylvania, according to the campaign finance tracking group OpenSecrets. Outside spending accounted for another $23.5 million, including $4 million in support of Brooks and about $9 million opposing each of the candidates.

Mackenzie, an ally of President Donald Trump, touted his support for the administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the tax cuts it encompassed, including an increase in the child tax credit and credits for tips and overtime. 

He took credit for breaking with Republicans when he voted for an extension of the Affordable Care Act tax credits that helped reduce the cost of health and for voting in support of federal housing affordability measures. Mackenzie was also a co-sponsor of the Ratepayer Protection Act, a bipartisan measure that passed the House this fall with the aim of ensuring consumers don’t get stuck with energy costs associated with data centers. 

Brooks talked up his everyman credentials and experience as a firefighter, with campaign ads showing him driving a plow truck for his landscaping business and extinguishing a flaming dumpster standing in for the Washington, D.C., establishment. 

He said his experience as a union leader promoting legislation in Harrisburg and Washington to help firefighters and first responders give him the credentials to serve in the House. He vowed to work to end the war in Iran and hold corporations accountable for high prices and fight corruption. 

Among his victories, Brooks counts the addition of workers’ compensation benefits for first responders suffering from post-traumatic stress injuries. He’s also worked with state lawmakers to pass a bill that would ban a group of chemicals known as PFAS from firefighters’ turnout gear  and firefighting foam. Gov. Josh Shapiro signed the bill into law last month.

In Washington, Brooks claims credit for the Social Security Fairness Act, which repealed provisions of federal law that limited or eliminated Social Security benefits for firefighters, police and other public employees across the country.

Brooks attacked Mackenzie as “a career politician who has voted with Trump nearly 100% of the time in Washington” and told voters it’s time to “send one of us” to Washington to “shake things up.” 

In its final weeks, the race between Brooks and Mackenzie turned increasingly ugly, with the campaigns trading cease and desist letters over commercials each claimed was defamatory.

Throughout the race, Mackenzie and outside groups opposing Brooks hammered him in commercials, questioning his suitability for Congress because of a Northampton County lawsuit over a $130,000 debt to his former mother-in-law. Brooks and his ex-mother-in-law Carol Wiley settled the case in September. 

Last month Brooks’ campaign demanded that Mackenzie cease airing an ad that accused Brooks of “violating state law” by canceling the workers’ compensation insurance for employees of his landscaping business. Brooks’ lawyer said the claim is demonstrably false because the business had no employees when the policy expired.

Brooks withdrew from the only debate scheduled with Mackenzie, citing months of “outright lies … that go completely outside of the bounds of acceptable campaign rhetoric.” Mackenzie refused to take down the ad.

Days later, lawyers for Mackenzie’s campaign demanded that Brooks’ take down an ad claiming Mackenzie had fought legislation to provide workers’ compensation for first responders suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. The bill was signed into law in 2024 after several failed attempts.

The ad featured state Rep. Jennifer O’Mara (D-Delaware), who sponsored the legislation after experiencing the loss of her father, a Philadelphia firefighter, to suicide while struggling with the condition. “Ryan Mackenzie fought us the whole time,” she said in the ad. Brooks’ campaign refused to stop airing the commercial.