BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Lehigh Valley voters will decide one of the nation's most contested congressional races this November when they cast their ballot in Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District.
Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Susan Wild and Republican challenger Ryan Mackenzie are facing off in one of the nation's biggest toss-up races. With the U.S. House narrowly divided, it is one of about two dozen races around the country that could determine control of the chamber, political observers say.
Wild, who's served six years in Congress, and Mackenzie, a 12-year veteran of the state House, are known political commodities in the region. But if voters were unfamiliar with them, the candidates and their supporters have blanketed airwaves, mailboxes and the internet to highlight their achievements and bash their opponent.
While campaign finance reports won't be due until the middle of this month, both parties have committed to spending tens of millions of dollars on the PA-7 race.
Meet the candidates
Wild, 67, is a former partner at the law firm Gross McGinley. She first rose to prominence as Allentown's solicitor after the FBI raided city hall in 2015. Federal agents commended her for cooperating with their investigation, which eventually led to the convictions of Mayor Ed Pawlowski, Controller Mary Ann Koval and other city officials. Wild was not a subject of the investigation.
She resigned as solicitor to launch her first congressional campaign, defeating former Olympian Marty Nothstein in 2018. Wild won reelection in 2020 and 2022, narrowly defeating former Lehigh County Commissioner Lisa Scheller each time. She resides in South Whitehall Township.
Wild said she has delivered for the district by helping constituents navigate the federal bureaucracy for critical services and bringing millions of dollars of funding back to the district. Records show Wild has secured $26.7 million in earmarks for the district this term, including $1 million for repairs at Gracedale, Northampton County's nursing home, and $750,000 toward Coplay Creek flood remediation.
"I feel like I've really taken on the challenge of representing a very purple district. But most of all, I and my office have really gotten results for the people of this area," Wild said in an interview last week.
Mackenzie, 42, has spent most of his professional life in Harrisburg. Before being elected a state representative for parts of Lehigh County in 2012, he worked as the director of policy for the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.
The Lower Macungie Township resident has won reelection six times, including besting state Rep. Gary Day, R-Lehigh, when decennial redistricting pitted the two incumbents against one another in 2022. Mackenzie had publicly considered congressional runs before but never appeared on the ballot until this year when he defeated Kevin Dellicker and Maria Montero in the Republican primary.
Moderation
The district has historically favored moderates, supporting candidates willing to buck their party. Former U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent, a Republican, became a vocal opponent of President Donald Trump. In the 1990s, former U.S. Rep. Paul McHale, a Democrat, voted to impeach President Bill Clinton.
Unsurprisingly, both candidates have stressed their bipartisan credentials while attacking their opponent as an extremist. Mackenzie has pointed at Wild's voting record while arguing she's a far-left operative who's out of touch with the district. While Wild has presented herself as a moderate, sites such as FiveThirtyEight.com found she voted in line with the Biden administration 100% of the time this term.
His own approach to governing is to seek out where there's common ground and try to make inroads there. Lawmakers should focus on building toward consensus, even if it means leaving behind issues they would prefer to be part of the deal, according to Mackenzie.
"I'm about the art of the possible," he said. "Ultimately, you have to be willing to take up a smaller piece of legislation maybe if that's what people agree on."
Wild defended her voting record, saying it's an incomplete measure of lawmakers in a modern Congress. Given the fierce partisan divisions and top-down leadership that determines what bills come up for a vote, moderates should also be defined by their willingness to seek compromise and reach across the aisle.
After six years, Wild said, she believes her constituents recognize her as a someone willing to work on behalf of everyone across the political spectrum in her district.
Wild in turn pointed to Makenzie's efforts to set aside $100 million of state tax dollars for a school voucher program. That's money that could otherwise be used to help the vast majority of families in his own district and Lehigh Valley who send their kids to public schools, she said.
"When somebody tells you who they are, believe 'em," Wild said. "He doesn't have foam coming out of his mouth and fire coming out of his ears the way some of my colleagues here do, but it doesn't really matter."
Reproductive rights
Abortion may be the most common issue where the candidates have accused the other of being an extremist.
Wild denounced the U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade. That ruling removed federal protections and put the matter of abortion restrictions entirely in the hands of state lawmakers. Since then, 18 states have restricted abortion access or banned it entirely.
Wild says that decisions over abortions belong entirely in the hands of women and their doctors. She has co-sponsored legislation that would protect women who potentially violate state law by seeking abortions out of their home states and voted for a law that would eliminate any restrictions on abortion access.
Mackenzie has labeled Wild an extremist for her abortion stance, saying his own views are more in line with the moderate district. Mackenzie supports the Dobbs decision, saying the matter belongs in state courts. He does not support a federal ban, he said.
Mackenzie previously boasted of scoring a 100% grade from the PA Pro-Life Federation, though he's since removed it from his campaign website. In 2015, he voted for a bill that would have restricted abortion access in Pennsylvania after 20 weeks — about a month earlier than current law allows.
While the organization still endorsed Mackenzie this cycle, the organization graded Mackenzie as "leans pro-life." Last year, he was one of 16 House Republicans who voted for an "abortion shield" law, which would protect health care providers who provide abortion care to women traveling from states that ban the practice.
Mackenzie identified his bill creating the Maternal Mortality Review Committee as one of his proudest achievements in Harrisburg. The committee collects data on the health risks pregnant women in Pennsylvania face. He is one of two Republicans on the Black Maternal Health Caucus, he said, noting the Black community faces greater pregnancy health challenges than the general public.
Both Mackenzie and Wild said they would support federal legislation protecting access to in vitro fertilization and other fertility treatments. A bill Wild proposed drew national spotlight earlier this year after an Alabama court ruling briefly made IVF treatment illegal in the state.
The economy
Mackenzie blamed the Biden administration and Democratic lawmakers like Wild for the high costs of goods and services Americans are grappling with. Democrats passed massive spending packages like the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act. Those bills flushed the market with trillions of dollars in spending that sent inflation skyrocketing, he said.
"That is directly something that Susan Wild needs to be held accountable for and people need to recognize," Mackenzie said.
Congress cannot directly control interest rates, but Mackenzie said the next Congress can ease the burden families and individuals are bearing right now. He noted that many tax cuts passed under former President Donald Trump are set to expire next year. He pointed to his record in the General Assembly as proof of his conservative bona fides. This session backed a senior property tax rebate and introduced bills to cut sales taxes on everything from pet food to cribs to cell phones.
"That's what I would be focused on, trying to find ways to put more money back into people's pockets so they can deal with these high prices," Mackenzie said.
Wild defended her voting record, saying most of today's high costs are the result of inflation caused by the pandemic's logistic challenges. While those problems have been resolved, inflation has come down and the Federal Reserve is lowering interest rates, wages haven't caught up to the high cost of goods, she said.
Biden and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., have aggressively argued that corporate price gouging has also contributed to higher costs, a phenomenon they've dubbed "greedflation." Wild said she agreed, noting Wall Street continues to thrive despite the pinch everyday Americans are feeling.
She said she has successfully watched out for her constituents' wallets. Since taking office, she made lowering prescription drug prices one of her top priorities. Constituents should see the fruits of that effort next year thanks to provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act, she said. Wild said voting for the act was one of her proudest moments in Congress.
"We've made real progress there. We actually have, finally, after decades, penetrated the pharmaceutical industry and managed to get price negotiation through Medicare," Wild said.
Both Mackenzie and Wild support restarting the federal child tax credit. Wild blamed House Republicans for allowing it to lapse while Mackenzie pointed to his support for a state version that he supported and passed as part of this year's budget.
Foreign affairs
Mackenzie has described himself as an "America First" conservative and has been critical of Biden's handling of conflicts abroad. Wild deserves equal blame, he argues, because of her broad support of the president and her position on the House's Foreign Affairs Committee.
Mackenzie has blamed Wild and Biden for the Russian invasion of Ukraine and has opposed sending aid to Ukraine. Sending weapons and financing to the Ukrainians only prolongs the war and will result in the deaths of more civilians, he said.
On the escalating violence between Israel and its neighbors, Mackenzie took Wild to task for sending out different prepared letters to constituents. One letter presented strong support for Israel to defend itself against Hamas and terrorist attacks. The second letter also condemned the attack but stressed Wild's calls for a cease-fire and recognition of the human suffering in Gaza.
The United States must remain a clear and unquestionable ally to Israel, he said. At the same time, the nation must do more to bring about a diplomatic solution, if only to ensure the safe return of hostages, some of whom are American citizens, he said.
"That kind of lack of focus, that lack of moral clarity has obviously, after almost a year, not yielded peaceful resolution," Mackenzie said.
Wild said that the two views are not contradictory. Wild, who is Jewish, said she was deeply disturbed by Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack that resulted in thousands of deaths — most of them civilians — and hundreds of hostages. Congress, she said, must always support Israel and ensure that it's capable of defending itself.
However, Wild fostered serious doubts about how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has conducted the war. She questioned whether Netanyahu has prioritized the release of the hostages who remain in Gaza. Biden and other world leaders have urged Israel to seek a cease-fire to negotiate the release of hostages, though Netanyahu has refused.
At the same time, she said Netanyahu hasn't done enough to minimize civilian deaths in Gaza. Hamas is deliberately using innocent Gazans, including children, as human shields, she said. While that unquestionably complicates Israel's efforts to go after terrorists, Netanyahu's approach is damaging Israel's reputation abroad and fueling antisemitism abroad, Wild said.
"I will always consider myself to be pro-Israel and always believe in Israel's right to defend itself and that the United States should be its ally in doing so," Wild said. "I just have a significant problem with the current [Netanyahu] administration."
