BETHLEHEM, Pa. — If a rollercoaster political season wasn't enough to draw voters into the 2024 election cycle, an incoming wave of political ads should make it all but inescapable in the weeks ahead.
The National Republican Congressional Committee recently announced it will invest $1.4 million for air time in the Philadelphia market as part of $45.7 national ad campaign. The group is looking to preserve the slim conservative majority in the House for the 119th Congress.
"The NRCC committed from Day One to not just hold our majority, but go on offense to grow our majority – today we are putting our money where our mouth is,” said NRCC Chairman Richard Hudson.
Most if not all of those ads out of Philadelphia should be focused on the Lehigh Valley's congressional race. While Democrats are trying to flip Pennsylvania's 1st Congressional District based in Bucks County, the most contested race in the region is Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District in the Lehigh Valley. Republicans have signaled for a year-and-a-half their desire to oust Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Susan Wild.
The splurge in political spending is more of the same for the Lehigh Valley. In 2022, the Lehigh Valley hosted one of the most expensive House races in the country.
Conservatives have already launched digital ads in recent weeks attacking Wild and other Democratic incumbents over their connections to President Joe Biden, alleging they hid his declining mental acuity from their constituents.
The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre market just north of the Lehigh Valley also made the cut for the national campaign. The NRCC announced a $1.6 million ad buy in the region, which is home to Pennsylvania's 8th Congressional District. Both districts are nationally recognized as a toss-up district controlled by a Democratic incumbent — in PA-8's case, U.S. Rep. Matthew Cartwright.
Very happy to be included among this year's "Young Guns." The race for this seat is becoming more competitive and more important by the day. YOU can make the difference: https://t.co/VhwRgKQc2b https://t.co/SNL7qWUmuQ
— Ryan Mackenzie (@Ryan_Mackenzie) July 29, 2024
The ad buys coincide with the NRCC naming state state Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, Wild's Republican challenger, one of its Young Guns of the 2024 election cycle.
The Young Gun program, named after former Republican congressional leaders Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy and Paul Ryan, assists Republican challengers running against a Democratic incumbent or in seats where the Republican incumbent is not seeking re-election.
Nearly all of the 26 candidates the NRCC identified Monday are running in swing seats that could determine control of the next Congress.
That certainly fits the description for Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District. Voter registration data shows the two major parties have near equal support across the district. The last two campaigns have been nailbiters; Wild won re-election in 2022 over Republican challenger Lisa Scheller by less than 2 percentage points.
Mackenzie is the latest Lehigh Valley Republican congressional candidate to earn the Young Gun designation. Scheller was part of the program in 2020 and 2022, as was Olympic champion Marty Nothstein in 2018.
The outside spending could help narrow the fundraising gap between the candidates. Campaign finance reports released this month show Wild raised $3.5 million more than Mackenzie through the end of June. While those figures didn't include outside support, such as the $498,000 Mackenzie has received from the conservative super PAC Americans for Prosperity, Wild appears to hold a significant financial edge.
Other Pennsylvania challengers getting the Young Gun designation are Rob Bresnahan, who is challenging Cartwright in PA-8, and Rob Mercuri, who is challenging U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio in Pennsylvania's 17th Congressional District in the Pittburgh suburbs.
The splurge in political spending is more of the same for the Lehigh Valley. In 2022, the Lehigh Valley hosted one of the most expensive House races in the country as Wild, Scheller, Republican hopeful Kevin Dellicker and their political allies dropped $34.5 million on the local congressional race, according to OpenSecrets.org.
