Bob Brooks wins Lehigh Valley’s hotly contested PA-7 primary

Bob Brooks, the president of the Pennsylvania Fire Fighters Association and the handpicked choice of Gov. Josh Shapiro, won the hotly contested Democratic primary for Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District on Tuesday.

Brooks will now challenge GOP incumbent U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie in November to represent the Lehigh Valley, aiming to take back a GOP seat that national Democrats have targeted as among the most likely to flip blue. The 7th District is one of the commonwealth’s – and the nation’s – most competitive, rated a toss-up by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

As of late Tuesday evening, with 89% of the votes counted, Brooks was leading by 21 percentage points, with nearly 42% of the vote – despite a late flurry of unfavorable press after he shared an unflattering 2024 election story involving his political patron, Shapiro, during a recent campaign appearance.

“Bob Brooks is the fighter the Lehigh Valley needs — and we’re going to send him to Congress to deliver for our families and put a check on the corruption in DC,” Shapiro posted on X after the race was called. “Congratulations, @VoteBobBrooks — onto November.”

Brooks’ closest rival throughout the race was former two-time Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure Jr., who emphasized his record as the only elected politician in the race, and who had 20.6% of the vote as of late Tuesday.     

“Bob ran a tremendous campaign,” said McClure on Tuesday night, adding that he’d called to congratulate his erstwhile rival. “That demonstrated that he would be an excellent general election candidate and a good congressman, and I think our primary voters agreed with him tonight.”

Former federal prosecutor Ryan Crosswell was in a tight second place as late returns came in Tuesday night – with 20.6% of the vote, to McClure’s 20.5% – validating not only his anti-corruption message, but also his fundraising in the final months of the race, which bested all other candidates.

Carol Obando-Derstine, an engineer, nonprofit executive and onetime senior adviser to former U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, came in fourth with 17.2% of the vote. The Colombia-born advocate for Latino communities had entered the race at the urging of former U.S. Rep. Susan Wild, who narrowly lost the PA-7 seat to Mackenzie in 2024.

Brooks, a first-time candidate, recently retired after 20 years as a firefighter with the City of Bethlehem. During the race, he touted his policy experience in both Harrisburg and Washington, D.C., with the Fire Fighters Association – successfully championing measures to expand both state worker’s compensation and national retirement benefits to first responders.

“Some of the talk is that I don’t have legislative experience,” Brooks told City & State, “when actually I have, probably, the most.” In Congress, Brooks has vowed to apply that prowess to tackling issues such as affordability and fighting big money in politics.

As much as his agenda, Brooks’ campaign emphasized his identity as a champion of the working class – someone who disaffected blue-collar voters could relate to. 

Lamenting that the Democratic Party “has become the party of elites,” Brooks, who is also endorsed by the Working Families Party, told City & State that he was the candidate best-positioned to win back the Lehigh Valley for Democrats for his “unique ability … to talk to the voters that have left the party in droves, and bring them back.”