Ryan Crosswell makes anti-corruption argument for PA-7 race

This is the third in a series of interviews with Democratic candidates for PA-7. 

Ryan Crosswell readily acknowledges that he isn’t naturally “the most talented athlete.” But he became a star runner in high school – and, he believes, got accepted to Vanderbilt University – due to the prowess he honed through sheer diligence.

“Running is a sport, I think more than any other, where there’s a correlation between how hard you work and how well you perform,” he explained in a recent interview. “It’s just a matter of who can outlast everyone else. And I’m a maniacally hard worker.”

Now, Crosswell, a former federal prosecutor, hopes that work ethic will propel him past his rivals to represent Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District in Congress. The Pottsville native is locked in a tight primary race to replace Ryan Mackenzie, a vulnerable first-term Republican. (Crosswell’s Democratic rivals are Carol Obando-Derstine, an engineer, nonprofit executive and onetime senior adviser to former U.S. Sen. Bob Casey; Bob Brooks, the president of the Pennsylvania Fire Fighters Association; and former Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure.)

Crosswell is running on an anti-corruption platform against what he calls “the most corrupt administration in the nation’s history.” He got a close-up look during his tenure at the Department of Justice, where, while investigating public officials’ abuses of power in the Public Integrity Section, he ended up resigning over President Donald Trump’s apparent quid pro quo pardon of New York City Mayor Eric Adams – whose own administration was mired in a vast corruption scandal.

More recently, when Attorney General Pam Bondi was fired – reportedly, noted Crossell, for not pursuing the presidents’ adversaries more doggedly – the former prosecutor saw more evidence of what he calls a pattern of corruption. “This is exactly what I warned about … what (the Adams case) really signaled was going to happen,” Crosswell told City & State, adding that his DOJ anti-corruption unit was effectively gutted after he left. “This is about as dangerous as something can get to a democracy.”

As a nonpartisan public servant, he added, “it was always facing the facts and law … We don’t ever politicize prosecutions. This, to me, is a struggle for our country’s soul that needs to be solved at the ballot box.”

Justice and public service have been the cornerstones of his career since the 9/11 attacks motivated Crosswell, then in college, to enroll in law school at Duke University – and, while there, to enroll in the U.S. Marine Corps Officer Candidate School – “the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” he recalled. In the Marines – where he still serves as a lieutenant colonel in the Reserves – Crosswell represented his fellow officers as a defense counsel, an experience that solidified his commitment to due process and the rule of law.

As a federal prosecutor in Baton Rouge, San Diego, and Washington, D.C., he handled cases like that of a Louisiana woman who systemically defrauded the Pell Grant program by enrolling unwitting students in ineligible courses. Later on, he indicted then-Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced of Puerto Rico for bribery by a billionaire who was later pardoned by President Trump – after the billionaire’s daughter contributed millions to Trump’s PAC.

That’s the kind of scenario that Crosswell vows to fight in Congress. His other priorities, according to his campaign website, include cutting the costs of healthcare, housing, energy and childcare in the Lehigh Valley.

At the federal level, his campaign website says Crosswell wants to protect reproductive rights, Social Security, and Medicare; support efforts to end gun violence and reduce the budget deficit through what he calls “a more patriotic,” fairer tax system; and reform immigration in a way that bolsters border security while ending aggressive ICE tactics.

That’s a platform shared by his Democratic rivals, but Crosswell also argues that his background has a unique cross-party appeal. “We’ve seen time and again that when veterans run as Democrats, they win,” he explained. “You add in the law enforcement experience … That is something that independents and Republicans alike respect.”

There is some evidence that his message is resonating: Crosswell’s campaign raised nearly a half-million dollars in the first quarter of 2026, the most of any primary candidate in any quarter so far in this race. 

“On Day 1, I have more expertise in anti-corruption laws – not only than anyone else in this race or any other candidate in the country, (but) I think more expertise than anyone in Congress,” he noted. “And that is going to be needed, because we need to rebuild what is torn down – and build up new walls to stop abuses of power.”