BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley has jumped into the crowded race for Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District.
Pinsley, of South Whitehall Township, has become the fourth Democrat looking to oust U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie.
Pinsley has been an aggressive campaigner since entering politics in 2017. The PA-7 contest will be his seventh race in a 10-year span.
He most recently ran for Pennsylvania auditor general in 2024 and has twice sought to represent Lehigh County in the state senate.
Pinsley is perhaps best known for an audit that found that medical professionals in the Lehigh Valley were reporting abnormally high levels of child medical abuse.
Since then, several families have sued Lehigh Valley Health Network and its John Van Brakle Child Advocacy Center, alleging they systematically over-diagnosed medical child abuse, leading to the separation of children from their families.
The lawsuit remains ongoing.
This year, Pinsley has been sounding the alarm on how cuts to Medicaid could affect county government and local residents.
Pinsley did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday, but the Federal Election Commission posted his statement of candidacy Thursday morning.
Toss-up district
He'll contend for one of the most sought-after political real estate in the country.
PA-7 is one of the few political toss-ups in the region, and its last three general elections have been decided by three points or less.
Both parties have sent VIPs to campaign in the district, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisana, and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York.
Last year, Republican challenger Mackenzie bested Democrat incumbent Susan Wild by overwhelmingly carrying Carbon County.
Since taking office, Mackenzie's been a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump, even while staking out policy differences between himself and the administration.
Mackenzie proved to be a vital vote in the passage of Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill, which cut taxes, bolstered border security and immigration enforcement, slashed Medicaid and reduced access to SNAP, also known as food stamps.
Pinsley joins a crowded field of candidates that includes Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure; Carol Obando-Derstine, a former aide to U.S. Sen. Bob Casey; and Ryan Crosswell, a former federal prosecutor.
While Pinsley has mounted large campaigns in the past, he'll need to raise his game to compete in next year's midterm. In 2024, candidates in the PA-7 race and their allies spent more than $38 million, the most in local history and the 10th most for a House race that cycle.
Next year's campaign is already on track to outpace that spending. Through the end of June, Mackenzie and the other three Democrats reported a combined total of expenses amounting to $666,818.
This is a breaking news report.
