Ahead of the May 19, 2026 primary, we sat down with candidates running for U.S. House in Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District for our Congressional Candidate Conversations series.
Congressional Candidate Conversations | Ryan Crosswell | PA-07 (2026)
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On this special series of the Lehigh Valley with Love Podcast, we sat down with candidates running for U.S. House in Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District ahead of the May 19, 2026 primary.
To keep this fair and useful, every candidate was asked the same core questions. Mark Pinsley is not included because he dropped out. We also reached out multiple times to Congressman Ryan McKenzie’s office and did not receive a response.
In this episode, we speak with Ryan Crosswell. Crosswell describes his background in public service, including serving in the Marine Corps after graduating from Duke Law School, and later working as a federal prosecutor. He also discusses why he decided to run for Congress now.
Campaign: https://ryancrosswell.com/
Day to day financial stress
Crosswell says people are feeling higher costs across the board, and he mentions grocery costs rising in Pennsylvania. He says the biggest day to day stress he hears most often is healthcare costs, and he argues that cuts to Medicare and ACA subsidies destabilize care providers and make the system worse for everyone, including people who already have insurance. He says he is talking to residents who are losing insurance or are uninsured.
Healthcare and ACA premium tax credits
Crosswell says he supports extending the ACA premium tax credits for as long as needed to keep premiums down. He adds that long term he wants a public healthcare option, described as a government regulated healthcare option, and argues that broader access would also drive down costs for people who keep private plans.
Immigration enforcement, legal pathways, and work authorization
Crosswell says he served as a federal prosecutor in San Diego and prosecuted immigration related offenses, including drug smuggling, illegal entry, and human smuggling. He says he supports a strong border, and also says he prosecuted law enforcement officers who broke the law, including a Border Patrol agent. He then focuses on internal enforcement by ICE, calling it disturbing and saying it violates Fourth Amendment rights through actions like entering homes without search warrants and detaining people without adequate cause. He argues Congress should rein ICE in, including by using funding leverage, and he supports requiring federal agents to remove masks and display identification. He also calls for accountability when due process is bypassed. He says his law firm is filing lawsuits on behalf of people he says were detained illegally by ICE.
Warehouses and data centers
Crosswell starts with data centers and says a major concern is energy use and the risk of higher energy prices. He says data centers should provide their own energy so local residents are not left paying more. He also raises concerns about environmental impact and water consumption, and says builders should be required to power facilities with renewable energy sources. He also says there should be requirements tied to water, including investment in desalination. He says he is uncomfortable with how quickly data centers are being rushed into the area without deeper cost benefit analysis and without clearer answers on environmental impact, energy impact, and job creation. He also connects warehouse growth to the loss of green space and says projects should be evaluated case by case based on what the community gets in return.
Homelessness
Crosswell highlights local nonprofit work and then focuses on federal steps. He says he supports passing the ROAD to Housing Act, which he describes as bipartisan and currently stuck in Congress, and says it would provide funding for more affordable housing and cut red tape so building can move faster. He also supports grants or low interest loans to developers who build affordable housing in areas with abandoned buildings and businesses, as long as it can be done safely, and he frames that as a way to add housing while protecting green space. He also calls for reducing large institutional home buying by Wall Street buyers, including cutting tax incentives that he says encourage that behavior and drive up housing costs.
Third place in the Lehigh Valley
Crosswell says his third place is Nowhere Coffee near where he lives. He says it is often where he meets with people in the community to talk about local issues, and he also describes it as a place that helps him reset and reconnect with routines he had before the campaign.
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Congressional Candidate Conversations | Lamont McClure | PA-07 (2026)
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On this special series of the Lehigh Valley with Love Podcast, we sat down with candidates running for U.S. House in Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District ahead of the May 19, 2026 primary.
To keep this fair and useful, every candidate was asked the same core questions. Mark Pinsley is not included because he dropped out. We also reached out multiple times to Congressman Ryan McKenzie’s office and did not receive a response.
In this episode, we speak with Lamont McClure, who says he recently completed his second term as Northampton County Executive and announced his run for Congress last February. He describes his candidacy as a response to what he calls growing national chaos, and he ties his platform to affordability, healthcare, and public safety.
Campaign: https://mcclureforpa.com/
Day to day financial stress
McClure says the biggest day to day financial stress he hears about is housing affordability. He argues that tariffs are limiting the ability of home builders to build homes, which limits supply and contributes to rising costs and homelessness. He says national solutions should include incentivizing affordable housing builders so more housing gets built at every level of the market. He also argues that rolling back tariffs would help control affordability, saying tariffs have raised prices, raised taxes people pay, and are killing jobs.
Healthcare and ACA premium tax credits
McClure says he supports extending Affordable Care Act benefits, especially the premium tax credits, and says he supports making them permanent. He criticizes Congressman Ryan McKenzie’s actions around the tax credits, arguing McKenzie had opportunities to leverage his vote to secure an extension but did not. He frames his own approach as using his vote to make sure constituents are taken care of, and he links the ACA tax credits to the stability of small businesses and self employed people in the district.
Immigration enforcement, legal pathways, and work authorization
McClure says the country needs secure borders and says violent criminals who are in the country without documentation should be deported. He then focuses on what he describes as his record pushing back on ICE actions in Northampton County. He describes an incident where ICE arrested someone in a courthouse hallway, and says he researched the law and issued an executive order preventing ICE from making arrests in his courthouse. He says that policy remains in place under his successor. He also emphasizes that he has taken on MAGA aligned opponents electorally, and frames that as proof he can win in a politically mixed county.
Warehouses and data centers
Asked about warehouses and data centers and what makes a project worth it for the region, McClure points to his record combating warehouse proliferation in Northampton County. He cites land preservation work, including preserving 20,000 acres of farmland and 3,800 acres of open space, creating four new county parks, and preserving environmentally sensitive land that contains rare species. He also says he fought warehouse proliferation “to the tune of over twenty five million dollars” in Northampton County. He frames his approach as protecting a green future for the district.
Homelessness
McClure calls homelessness a multifactorial problem and says it is not the same for everybody, so solutions vary. He says Northampton and Lehigh counties put millions of dollars a year into addressing homelessness and says he has been in that fight for years, including a focus on veteran homelessness. He also describes using money won from opioid manufacturers for efforts to fight the opioid crisis, including drug and alcohol treatment, and he references a suicide prevention task force that focused on lowering suicide rates, especially among veterans. He says he would work to ensure federal law and policy help combat homelessness, addiction, and support veterans.
Third place in the Lehigh Valley
McClure says his third place is Minsi Lake, describing it as a serene place that helps him decompress. He also mentions other places he enjoys, including Leaser Lake Park near his home, the Lehigh Valley Zoo, and going to his native Carbon County in the fall.
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Congressional Candidate Conversations | Bob Brooks | PA-07 (2026)
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On this special series of the Lehigh Valley with Love Podcast, we sat down with candidates running for U.S. House in Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District ahead of the May 19, 2026 primary.
To keep this fair and useful, every candidate was asked the same core questions. Mark Pinsley is not included because he dropped out. We also reached out multiple times to Congressman Ryan McKenzie’s office and did not receive a response.
In this episode, we speak with Bob Brooks, a career firefighter with the City of Bethlehem and a union leader. Brooks talks about affordability in the Lehigh Valley, what federal policy can do to expand housing supply, and how he thinks about public safety, healthcare, and local development.
Campaign: https://brooksforcongress.com/
Day to day financial stress
Brooks says the biggest day to day financial stresses he hears about are healthcare and housing, and he focuses first on housing. He argues the region needs to build a lot more housing quickly and says that requires cutting red tape, including permitting and zoning reforms. He supports first time home buyer help and talks about expanding programs similar to the HELPERS Act style loan concept. He also argues for cracking down on bulk home buying by private equity and corporate purchasers that he says distort the housing market.
Healthcare and ACA premium tax credits
Brooks says he supports extending the ACA premium tax credits and argues they should not be removed without a replacement plan. He warns that cutting help people rely on will raise costs, and he links paying for coverage support to tax policy changes. He argues for a minimum tax on billionaires and large corporations, saying that would fund major priorities. He also says making programs permanent will require negotiation and compromise, and he frames himself as a negotiator from his labor leadership experience.
Immigration enforcement, legal pathways, and work authorization
Brooks frames the issue through public safety and argues enforcement efforts should focus on serious criminals, not everyday people. He says the purpose of ICE should be to target drug dealers and people committing violent crimes, and he argues the agency should be refocused. He also calls for streamlining the pathway to citizenship and supports adding more immigration judges to speed up the process, criticizing long wait times.
Warehouses and data centers
Brooks says he will side with workers, and evaluates projects based on whether they bring real jobs and benefits. He says he is concerned about data centers in particular because of infrastructure impacts, especially strain on the electric grid. He says federal involvement is limited compared to local government, but argues there is room for federal regulation related to electricity markets and for slowing or tightening approvals. He also argues data centers should be required to generate their own power rather than pulling heavily from the existing grid.
Homelessness
Brooks argues federal action should expand housing options and help people afford them. He supports expanding Housing Choice Vouchers, but says vouchers are capped and that cap is linked to the lack of available housing. He argues the solution requires building more housing and increasing affordable and entry level housing. He also emphasizes mental health funding, saying mental health needs are a major factor in homelessness and that resources have not matched the scale of need.
Third place in the Lehigh Valley
Brooks says his third place is a baseball field behind the Nazareth Intermediate School, where he coaches varsity baseball for Nazareth High School. He describes it as a place where he can put his phone away and focus on helping young people grow.
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Congressional Candidate Conversations | Carol Obando-Derstine | PA-07 (2026)
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On this special series of the Lehigh Valley with Love Podcast, we sat down with candidates running for U.S. House in Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District ahead of the May 19, 2026 primary.
To keep this fair and useful, every candidate was asked the same core questions. We also reached out multiple times to Congressman Ryan McKenzie’s office and did not receive a response.
In this episode, we speak with Carol Obando-Derstine, who shares why she is running and what she is hearing from residents across PA-07.
Campaign: https://www.carolforpa.com/
Day to day financial stress
Obando-Derstine says people are struggling to make ends meet and pay for the essentials of life, specifically naming housing, healthcare, groceries, utilities, and childcare. She cites the United Way ALICE report and says it shows 41 percent of district families are struggling to cover the essentials, which she describes as roughly 124,000 households.
Healthcare and ACA premium tax credits
Obando-Derstine supports extending the ACA premium tax credits. She frames healthcare as personal, sharing stories of people she knew who could not afford care and how costs can financially devastate families. She argues that access to care helps families and also strengthens the economy because prevention and early treatment keep people healthier and working. In this conversation, she focuses on why the subsidies matter and does not detail a specific funding mechanism.
Immigration enforcement, legal pathways, and work authorization
Obando-Derstine says immigration policy is personal to her as an immigrant who came to the United States at age three with parents who fled violence in Colombia. She says the system needs fixing in a way that is legal, effective, and humane. She criticizes what she describes as cruelty, racial profiling, and unaccountable enforcement, and says fear is widespread in immigrant communities, including among documented Latinos. She also says she supports secure borders, but argues the current approach creates chaos and does not make communities safer. She calls for more immigration judges and support staff, modernizing immigration courts, speeding up asylum processing, and opening up DACA applications so people are not kept in limbo.
Warehouses and data centers
Obando-Derstine notes that local governments make many of the key decisions, and she emphasizes a robust local stakeholder process so residents have meaningful input. Drawing on her background as an energy engineer, she describes work connecting projects to the electric grid, including warehouses. She argues against a top down approach that overrides state and local authority and says local voices should guide what gets built and how communities are impacted, especially when projects use significant resources and create limited jobs.
Homelessness
Obando-Derstine says she has direct experience with this issue through service on the Homeless Veterans Task Force for Lehigh County, volunteer work with North Penn Legal Services, and her work advocating for prevention programs to keep families off the streets. She calls for federal action that prevents unjust evictions and proposes establishing a federal Office of Tenant Rights so people understand their rights and landlords are accountable. She also points to the role of legal aid and says cuts to legal aid programs affect the ability to prevent evictions. She supports expanding and strengthening incentives for affordable housing, including the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, and suggests reform to reduce bureaucracy and improve consistency in how states administer that federal credit. She also names local organizations doing the work, including New Bethany and the United Way.
Third place in the Lehigh Valley
Obando-Derstine says her third place is her church community, specifically the Spanish service at the Cathedral Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, which she attends with her parents. She describes it as a gathering place with a strong community focus and notes that it also hosts local meetings such as housing related committees.
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Congressional Candidate Conversations | Lewis Shupe | PA-07 (2026)
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On this special series of the Lehigh Valley with Love Podcast, we sat down with candidates running for U.S. House in Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District ahead of the May 19, 2026 primary.
To keep this fair and useful, every candidate was asked the same core questions. Mark Pinsley is not included because he dropped out. We also reached out multiple times to Congressman Ryan McKenzie’s office and did not receive a response.
In this episode, we speak with Lewis Shupe of Allentown.
Campaign: https://realchange.us/
Why he is running and his first term goal
Shupe says a key goal is to harness the power of registered voters to help compose and promote legislative initiatives led by citizens.
Day to day financial stress
Shupe points to food insecurity and says demand at food banks is rising, including among working people. He argues wages and cost of living are pushing more households toward needing help with basics.
Healthcare and ACA premium tax credits
Asked about extending the ACA premium tax credits and making them permanent, Shupe focuses on restoring Medicare cuts he says were made in a major federal bill, and he says he would go further by supporting Medicare for All.
Immigration enforcement, legal pathways, and work authorization
Shupe argues that people already in the country should have a legal pathway to citizenship and says families should not be separated. He also claims recent border politics are being misrepresented and frames the issue as needing less drama and more workable solutions.
Warehouses and data centers
Shupe responds to the region becoming “the land of warehouses” and data centers by describing tradeoffs. He says there are pluses and minuses to data centers and references a proposed facility in the western part of the region. His emphasis is on weighing local impacts rather than treating these projects as automatically good.
Homelessness
Asked what the federal government can do about local homelessness, Shupe connects the issue to limited income and the gap between assistance and real costs. He references his own experience going on Social Security due to health issues and says that being on a limited income is not enough.
Third place in the Lehigh Valley
When asked where he likes to spend time outside of work and home, Shupe points to Make Lehigh Valley! a “workshop for people who love to tinker.” Their members include engineers, woodworkers, programmers, artists, amateur radio enthusiasts, radio-controlled airplane flyers, and more. Check out their website https://makelehighvalley.com/
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The Housing Podcast Part 2: New Bethany and Habitat for Humanity Lehigh Valley
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Housing is one of the hottest topics in the Lehigh Valley right now. On this episode of Off the Record with Lehigh Valley with Love Podcast, George Wacker and Northampton County Commissioner Jeff Warren sit down with two leaders on the frontlines:
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Gina Loiacono, Director of Community Engagement and Grants at Habitat for Humanity of the Lehigh Valley
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Marc Rittle, Executive Director at New Bethany
We talk about:
• Habitat’s 142 homes in the Valley and what it takes for families to qualify
• The reality of transitional housing and how New Bethany is adapting programs to meet demand
• The difference between affordable housing and attainable housing
• The stigma around low-income housing and how nonprofits are working to change it
• Habitat’s ReStores in Hellertown and Whitehall and how donations fuel more homebuilding
“No child should ever wonder where to lay their head at night.” — Gina Loiacono
“At the end of the day, there is more power in the private sector than the public sector when it comes to housing.” — Marc Rittle
Links
- Habitat for Humanit: https://habitatlv.org/
- New Bethany: https://newbethany.org/
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