Catching fire: Bob Brooks makes his case for beating Ryan Mackenzie in PA-7

This is part of a series of interviews with candidates in key congressional races. 

If Bob Brooks needs reminding about his priorities in Congress – should he be elected to represent Pennsylvania’s 7th District in the Lehigh Valley – he need look no further than his own family.

“People are waiting until 40 years old to buy a house and start a family; that’s not acceptable. My son and daughter-in-law are struggling to cover childcare … it’s a real problem,” Brooks, a Democrat and the president of the Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association, told City & State in an interview. 

“I’m scared for what it looks like for my mother – they’re talking about cutting Social Security in 2032 … She can’t afford those cuts. And then I look at my granddaughters – not only am I afraid for what this country looks like for them as young people, but as women.”

His Lehigh Valley neighbors, he added, are confronting the same challenges. A retired 20-year Bethlehem firefighter, Brooks has positioned himself as a down-to-Earth champion of the working class (he is also endorsed by the Working Families Party). 

“I’m fighting to make life better for people, and I have personal experience that gives me the drive,” he said.

Brooks lacks experience in elected office, but his effectiveness as an advocate and fluency in labor policy convinced U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio and Gov. Josh Shapiro to back his first-time run. Their instinct was validated by Brooks’ sizable victory in the May primary in a hotly contested race that included former two-time Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure, a seasoned local politician.

As he heads toward the finish line of his début race, Brooks is sounding the same themes he emphasized during primary season: He wants to oust first-term U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie – whom the Cook Political Report calls “one of the most vulnerable House Republicans in the country” – and take back the Lehigh Valley seat formerly held by Democrat Susan Wild.

And once elected, he wants to tackle the cost of living and fight against the outsized influence of big money in U.S. politics.

“The amount of money that is involved to get on TV … I was a novice coming into this, hadn’t run for anything. So name recognition became huge,” he said. “That’s the biggest thing that I’ve learned: the amount of money that’s involved and how we need to change that.”

According to October campaign finance filings, Brooks and Mackenzie have both spent more than $3 million each this cycle in pursuit of the 7th Congressional District seat. In the most recent quarter, Brooks’ operating expenditures amounted to $2,322,407, bringing his total expenditures this cycle to more than $3.6 million, while Mackenzie’s quarterly operating expenses were $1,539,505, with his campaign’s expenditures totaling $3.04 million at the end of the most recent reporting period. 

Brooks’ other priorities include being “part of working through the process” of enacting “some form of Medicare for All,” especially with so many Pennsylvanians having lost Medicaid coverage as a result of last year’s federal One Big Beautiful Bill. 

He also plans to fight for a higher minimum wage – Pennsylvania’s is still $7.25 an hour, which he calls “not a livable wage” – and to champion the federal PRO (Protecting the Right to Organize) Act, which would expand workers’ rights to unionize and collectively bargain.

Such issues are dear to Brooks’ heart: As a longtime labor leader, he is proud of fighting for a 2024 state measure that expanded worker’s compensation benefits to include first responders affected by post-traumatic stress injury. At the federal level, Brooks joined a national coalition to push for the 2025 Social Security Fairness Act, which restored full retirement benefits to firefighters and other categories of public servants who had previously been excluded.

A recent Franklin & Marshall College poll showed a close race between Mackenzie and Brooks. According to the September survey, 45% of voters in the 7th Congressional District said they would vote for Brooks, while 40% said they would vote for Mackenzie. Notably, 16% of PA-7 voters said they were undecided on the race. 

The Nazareth resident and lifelong Democrat is convinced his message is more persuasive than his opponent's, whose campaign has recently run ads spotlighting Brooks’ messy legal and family issues.

“This is from a man who can’t stand on his own votes. So what do they do? They try to character-assassinate their opponent,” Brooks said. “We’re watching my opponent right now scrub his website of things that he supported, like forever wars, which is driving the cost up of fuel … The votes that (congressional Republicans) made and the things that they stood behind are just not resonating with people.”

“For me, things have stayed the same,” Brooks reflected. “The best part about this whole thing, I’ll be honest, is just the fact that I get to meet so many new people, and I get to be me. I get to be Bob Brooks. I don’t have to pretend to be somebody that I’m not.”

Justin Sweitzer contributed additional reporting to this story.