2 weeks ahead of the Democratic primary, DCCC throws its support to Bob Brooks in crowded PA-7 field

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — The official entity tasked with getting Democrats elected to the U.S. House has thrown its weight behind firefighter union boss Bob Brooks in the primary for the Lehigh Valley's battleground congressional seat.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's backing is the latest feather in the Brooks campaign's cap as it tries to flip Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District in November.

But the support is rubbing some local Democrats the wrong way.

By entering Brooks into a national program two weeks ahead of the primary, party officials are inappropriately putting their thumb on the scale when voters are casting mail-in ballots in a competitive, four-way primary, they said.

"We are supposed to be the democratic machinery that allows our candidates to be chosen by the people," Lehigh County Democratic Committee Chair Lori McFarland said.

"Only then does the party get behind the primary winner."

In addition to Brooks, candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for the seat are former federal prosecutor Ryan Crosswell, former Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure and energy engineer Carol Obando-Derstine.

Red to Blue

In a news release Monday, the DCCC announced it added Brooks to Red to Blue, a national program designed to promote "top-tier candidates with organizational and fundraising support" in districts with Republican incumbents.

Red to Blue also connects campaigns with strategic guidance, staff resources and candidate training, according to the DCCC.

“As a 20-year Bethlehem firefighter and union president, Bob Brooks has been on the frontlines serving the community he loves," U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Washington, DCCC chair, said in a news release Monday.

"He understands the challenges that hardworking Lehigh Valley families are facing because he’s lived them himself, and he has the callouses on his hands to prove it.

"He’s the strongest candidate to flip this must-win seat in November and deliver real results for his community."

The Brooks campaign already has drawn significant support from state and national figures in the Democratic Party.

When Brooks launched his campaign last summer, he already had endorsements from U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis and U.S. Rep. Chris Diluzio, D-Pennsylvania.

The list of household names endorsing him now includes Gov. Josh Shapiro, former presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, among others.

Brooks has made his blue-collar credentials the emphasis of his campaign. He has said Washington needs more working-class Americans willing to stand up against billionaires and corporate interests.

Brooks, who has no college degree, has talked about his reliance as food stamps as a child, narrowly avoiding bankruptcy because of medical debt and his time working as a bartender, plow driver and firefighter to pay the bills.

While the working class has been an important demographic for Democrats in the past, Donald Trump has successfully courted many of them into his MAGA movement over the past decade.

Brooks has argued he is the candidate best able to connect with those voters and bring them back into the Democratic fold.

"I'm honored that the DCCC recognizes my tenacity and record of service to the community I love, and that they see the incredible coalition we are building to flip this must-win seat," Brooks said in a news release.

"Our shared mission is to defeat Republican Congressman Ryan Mackenzie and stop Donald Trump’s agenda, and my personal pledge is to fight every single day to make life better for the working families of the Lehigh Valley.”

Blurring the line

But McFarland decried the DCCC's early involvement.

While the Red to Blue program isn't technically an endorsement, many voters are unlikely to make that distinction when the official organization tasked with helping Democrats win U.S. House seats singles one candidate out from the pack, she said.

She said she could not recall the last time national party leaders endorsed a Lehigh Valley candidate in a contested primary.

The Lehigh County Democratic Committee intentionally did not endorse Brooks, Crosswell, McClure or Obando-Derstine, McFarland said.

The purpose of a primary is to let Democratic voters decide for themselves who should be the standard-bearer heading into the general election, she said.

The county committee's job is to provide all candidates with opportunities to connect with volunteers, donors and voters, she said.

"Let the people chose first in the primary, then the national party and the others can get behind the Democrat that's been elected," she said.

Northampton County Democratic Committee Chair Matt Munsey stopped short of criticizing the DCCC, but spelled out that his committee rarely if ever endorses candidates in a contested primary.

Even if a candidate has broad support at the county committee level — a two-thirds majority is needed for an endorsement — many local party leaders loathe to have the party organ weigh in before an election.

"A lot of voters don't like it when they feel the party is pushing someone down their throats," Munsey said.

Jenna Kaufmann, Brook's campaign manager, countered that Brooks' support isn't limited to beltway professionals.

He's gotten the endorsements of Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk, state Sen. Nick Miller, D-Lehigh/Northampton, and state Reps. Mike Schlossberg and Peter Schweyer, both D-Lehigh County, as well as local organizations such as Make the Road, Lehigh Valley 4 All and Lehigh Valley Young Dems, she noted.

"Local folks know Bob for his 20 years of service as a firefighter and union leader, and they know that Bob will continue to fight for working people the way he’s fought for his union members for decades," she said.

Opponents knock the 'establishment'

Unsurprisingly, Brooks' Democratic opponents were quick to question the DCCC's assessment that Brooks was the race's strongest candidate.

Each rival campaign rattled off a list of public flubs Brooks has endured in recent weeks, including having to apologize for social media posts, facing a lawsuit about a $162,000 debt he owes his former mother-in-law and having to retract a statement about why his union endorsed Republican Stacy Garrity in the state treasurer's race in 2024.

"If Washington, D.C. insiders want to know why they're hated, look no further than this race: They've thrown their support behind the one candidate who has missed the most events, avoided the most questions, has a pending fraud lawsuit and threw the governor under the bus when asked about his own endorsement of an election denier," Crosswell said in a prepared statement.

The last example created unwanted headlines Sunday for both Brooks and Shapiro, who is seeking re-election this year and is widely considered a presidential candidate in 2028.

Axios reported that Brooks told a roomful of Lehigh University students that his union, the Pennsylvania Professional Firefighters Association, endorsed Garrity at Shapiro's request.

At the time of the union's endorsement, Democratic state treasurer candidate Erin McClelland was feuding with Shapiro, who then was being considered for the vice-presidential candidate in the 2024 campaign.

Shapiro, in turn, declined to endorse McClelland in her race.

Brooks later walked back his statement, saying he misspoke. Both his campaign and Shapiro's campaign denied that Shapiro made such a request. McClelland never formally applied for the union's endorsement, Axios reported.

Coincidentally, Shapiro now is running against Garrity in his gubernatorial race and is painting her as an election denier after she participated in a 2021 rally where organizers called on the 2020 election results to be decertified.

"The establishment is pushing Bob Brooks — a candidate who has repeatedly endorsed election deniers, downplayed the deadliest attack on the Latino community in modern U.S. history and shown he's willing to lie to voters," Obando-Derstine said.

"Our district deserves better than another John Fetterman."

McClure was the only one of Brooks' opponents who didn't directly criticize the DCCC.

Instead, McClure expressed confidence he would emerge from the primary victorious and would work with national party officials to flip the seat.

"I think Bob's campaign is floundering," McClure said. "He's a human gaffe machine."

McClure called Brooks a textbook example of why first-time candidates shouldn't enter congressional races.

Political observers identify Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District among about 20 toss-up districts in the country, and that number may shrink as more and more states redraw their district maps in favor of partisan gerrymanders.

U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, R-Lehigh Valley, won the district by 1 percentage point in 2024.

Both political parties and their allies have invested tens of millions of dollars into the PA-7 race in recent years. The U.S. House has been controlled by narrow majorities since 2020, and winning the Lehigh Valley's seat could have national implications on determining control of the legislative agenda.

The district represents Carbon, Lehigh and Northampton counties plus a sliver of Monroe County.