The Case Against Ryan Mackenzie

“Career politician Ryan Mackenzie campaigned on a phony promise to lower costs and put the Lehigh Valley first. Instead, Mackenzie has unleashed skyrocketing prices and devastating health care cuts on Pennsylvanians – stiffing working people while serving as nothing more than a lapdog in D.C. for Donald Trump and the billionaire class. Bob Brooks’ story is different. As a 20-year Bethlehem firefighter and union president, Bob has been on the frontlines serving the community he loves. He’s worked more than one job at a time to get by and understands the challenges that hardworking families are facing because he’s lived them. This November, the Lehigh Valley will replace a career politician with a true working class champion,” said DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene. 

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While Mackenzie has collected a taxpayer-funded paycheck for much of his career, Bob Brooks was juggling multiple jobs to get by like so many Pennsylvanians. While Mackenzie fought against workers, Bob was running into burning buildings for the community he loves and advocating for better health care and better pay for his union members as the President of the Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association. Among Bob’s proudest victories while representing more than 8,000 firefighters across the Commonwealth was leading the decade-long fight to pass mental health coverage for firefighters struggling with PTSI. Bob isn’t a career politician – he’s a true blue collar American who shows up and fights for his community day in and day out.

Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District is consistently rated by non-partisan race raters as a true toss-up district, and Mackenzie has been described as “the most vulnerable Republican incumbent” in the entire country after only narrowly winning by roughly 1 percentage point in 2024.  Democrats’ path back to the House majority runs straight through the Lehigh Valley, and Bob Brooks has never been afraid to run directly into the fire to protect his community.

Lehigh Valley families heard Ryan Mackenzie promise on the campaign trail that he would tackle inflation and lower the cost of living. He’s since done the opposite. 

Under Mackenzie’s failed representation, Lehigh Valley families are paying more for health care, groceries, gas, and utility bills because of his votes in Washington. As a candidate, Mackenzie claimed that he was “very concerned that we’ve been engaging ourselves in too many forever wars over the past 20 years, spending trillions of dollars and getting entangled into these conflicts needlessly.” But now, Mackenzie is a staunch supporter of Donald Trump’s war in Iran that is driving gas prices in the Lehigh Valley up over $4 a gallon.

Mackenzie has voted eight times to support sweeping tariffs that are jacking up costs on everything from groceries to steel and aluminum – even as he acknowledges that he is hurting his own community. Mackenzie admitted during a televised event that the sweeping tariffs he himself voted to protect have been “very disruptive to a lot of businesses.”

Mackenzie also voted to make Lehigh Valley families pay more for their electricity bills. His vote to eliminate commonsense clean energy tax credits will spike the cost of electricity for Pennsylvania families, including those in the Valley who are already struggling with rising utility payments.

Lehigh Valley families are fed up with Mackenzie’s cost-spiking record. One Lehigh Valley small business owner and three-time Trump voter told CNN: “I’m very let down by that. Very, very let down because it’s – I feel like it’s only gotten worse.” Another three-time Trump voter said “she won’t ever vote for a Republican again” as costs skyrocket, and specifically slammed Mackenzie: “I’ve spent many times sitting next to Mackenzie. All they care about is themselves.” The receipts are clear: Mackenzie has failed to deliver on his core campaign promise to lower costs. Instead, he has managed to make things more expensive.

Unlike Mackenzie, Bob actually understands what it’s like to struggle to make ends meet. From his time growing up in public housing, to his experience working multiple jobs to pay the medical bills of a loved one, Bob has faced his fair share of adversity and worked hard to make it out, running through the fire. He will bring that experience with him to Congress to fight for policies that actually work for hardworking people and lower costs.

Attacking and undermining access to affordable health care has been core to Mackenzie’s political career. Mackenzie has spent more than a decade trying to dismantle the Affordable Care Act (ACA). While serving in Harrisburg, Mackenzie called the ACA “infringements upon our rights,” and said the health care program had turned “out to be more of a disaster than I think anybody ever imagined.” Mackenzie also reportedly “bragged about opposing setting up a state exchange” – admitting that he was actively working as a state legislator to prevent Pennsylvanians from being able to access affordable health care. Mackenzie is a longstanding opponent of the ACA, and now Lehigh Valley families are facing skyrocketing health care costs or even going without health insurance entirely because of his record.

Mackenzie continued his assault on health care access in D.C. when he cast a decisive vote for Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, gutting Medicaid all so that he could fund more tax cuts for billionaires. Mackenzie’s vote is expected to rip health insurance away from tens of thousands of people across the Lehigh Valley and jeopardize food assistance for more than 40,000 households in PA-07. In response to Mackenzie’s vote, Lehigh Valley residents held regular “Mondays with Mackenzie” protests where they called out their congressman for his cruel cuts. Protestors compared Mackenzie to the Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz, saying they “don’t think that he cares about what his constituents have to say,” and that “he’s screwing over his own voters.”

Mackenzie’s record of undermining health care access also includes his career-long opposition to reproductive freedom. As a candidate for Congress, Mackenzie highlighted his “100% pro-life voting record” and his anti-choice work. Mackenzie then tried to cover up his extremism by scrubbing his anti-abortion position from his website. In the state legislature, Mackenzie voted for an abortion ban that had no exceptions for rape or incest. He also voted for a bill that would amend the Pennsylvania Constitution to exclude any rights relating to abortion. The constitutional amendment had no exceptions for rape, incest, or the life of the woman, and the ACLU said it would “threaten the fundamental rights of every Pennsylvanian.”

While Mackenzie votes to make health care more expensive and harder to get, Bob Brooks has worked across the aisle in both Harrisburg and Washington to deliver better health care for firefighters and first responders. Bob was described as “instrumental to getting the act across the finish line” in his role as President of the PPFA. He’ll take that same fight with him to Washington to advocate for better and cheaper health care for all Lehigh Valley families.

Mackenzie was elected to work for the Lehigh Valley, but has pledged his loyalty solely to Donald Trump and his donors instead. In Congress, Mackenzie has voted with Trump nearly 100% of the time and was even mocked on late night TV for his subservience after he shamelessly gave a speech praising his boss for receiving the ‘FIFA peace prize.’ Tired of watching Mackenzie serve as a lapdog to Trump, a Latino voter from Allentown who previously voted for Mackenzie told the Wall Street Journal that in November he will “vote for any Democrat because I don’t see any balance now.”

Mackenzie’s undying loyalty to Trump has had a disastrous impact on the Lehigh Valley. Mackenzie “cost Pennsylvania millions” by falling in line with his MAGA bosses to vote for a budget that stripped previously-approved Community Project Funding for public safety initiatives. Mackenzie’s vote slashed funding “for police equipment, flood control, emergency communications upgrades and a major opioid interdiction and prosecution initiative in Monroe County.” Mackenzie even failed to notify local recipients that he and House Republicans were pulling back their funding. A Monroe County Commissioner “said he never received” a call from Mackenzie, and “described the loss as a serious setback to their effort to combat the spread of illicit opioid distribution.”

And while Mackenzie fights hard for Trump, he never fights for working people. Mackenzie amassed one of the most anti-worker voting records during his time in Harrisburg. His refusal to support bills that would expand retirement savings account access, ensure workers’ compensation and disability benefits for those with serious injuries, and prevent employee misclassification demonstrates a fundamental lack of concern for the financial security and well-being of Pennsylvania workers. He has continued to stand on the wrong side of Lehigh Valley workers in Washington. Mackenzie refuses to back the PRO Act, and he opposed bipartisan legislation to restore collective bargaining rights.

You don’t have to wonder where Bob Brooks stands when it comes to having the backs of working people in the Lehigh Valley and his brothers and sisters in labor. Bob held nearly every position in his union, and he has made it his mission to fight for better wages and better protections for organized labor. Bob isn’t a career politician. He’s running to take on a broken and corrupt Washington and give working people a voice in the halls of Congress.

Heartland Signal: Ryan Mackenzie flip-flops on ACA, which he once called ‘an infringement upon our rights’ [Heartland Signal, 12/22/25]

During a town hall event in 2013, Mackenzie referred to the ACA as an “infringement upon our rights.” At the time, Mackenzie was serving his first term in the Pennsylvania state House of Representatives, and he also bragged about opposing setting up a state exchange and expanding Medicaid.

LehighValleyNews.com: U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie sticks up for Trump, Musk on national stage in CNN Town Hall [LehighValleyNews.com , 4/11/25]

The Morning Call: “Lehigh Valley Congressman Ryan Mackenzie lauds passage of ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’” [The Morning Call, 7/4/25]

WFMZ: Protesters Demand Rep. Mackenzie Protect SNAP, Medicaid [WFMZ, 11/17/25]

WHYY: ‘We thought the money was coming’: Budget fight cost Pennsylvania millions in federal infrastructure funding [WHYY, 12/22/25]

The Keystone: This Pa. lawmaker refused discharge petition to restore federal workers’ union rights [The Keystone, 11/19/25]

Daily Mail: “Ryan Mackenzie lied about age on Tinder profile by EIGHT YEARS” [Daily Mail, 6/17/24]

The Philadelphia Inquirer: A firefighter running for Congress in the Lehigh Valley has backing from Bernie Sanders and Josh Shapiro [The Philadelphia Inquirer, 8/26/25]

POLITICO: The candidate who wants to have a beer with you [POLITICO, 1/31/26]

Bob Brooks — the bellwether Lehigh Valley Democratic congressional candidate and Pennsylvania firefighter running to flip Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District — had to reschedule this interview. That’s because the snow plow driver without a college degree trying to unseat freshman GOP Rep. Ryan Mackenzie needed more time to salt Bethlehem parking lots ahead of a big coming snow…

WFMZ: DCCC ‘Red to Blue’ program to provide fundraising, other support to Pa. 7th District candidate Bob Brooks [WFMZ, 5/6/26]

PoliticsPA: Brooks Explains His ‘Why’ From Snow Plow [PoliticsPA, 5/5/26]

WFMZ: ‘They can see themselves in me’: Pa. 7th District Candidate Bob Brooks says he’s not your typical candidate [WFMZ, 5/14/26]

PoliticsPA: Brooks Unveils His ‘Put Out The Fire’ Agenda [PoliticsPA, 4/30/26]

Lehigh Valley voters are tired of career politician Ryan Mackenzie rubberstamping Donald Trump’s chaos and cost-spiking agenda in Washington. They are ready to send a working class champion in Bob Brooks to Congress who will fight for them. 

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