Lehigh Valley Politics and Election News

Join Megan Frank at 9:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. every Friday for Insights with LehighValleyNews.com on WLVR. This week, she's joined by Allentown reporter Jason Addy and Northampton County reporter Ryan Gaylor.

This week on Political Pulse, Chris Borick and Tom Shortell talk about local off-year elections and how their impacts are often more personal than the results of presidential elections, despite having lower voter turnout.

Lehigh and Northampton county officials participated in a risk-limiting audit that confirmed the results in the state treasurer race. That audit came in addition to a statewide statistical audit.

The Lehigh Valley's LGBTQ community is looking for ways to move forward in the wake of election campaigns that used sharp rhetoric, leaders say.

Local LGBTQ activists have fears following rhetoric by President-elect Donald Trump and many conservatives during the election season and at Trump's Allentown rally.

Nadeem Qaddum, the husband of Easton City Councilwoman Taiba Sultana, will run for one of five at-large seats on Northampton County Council in the 2025 election.

Democrats in Pennsylvania lost its 19 presidential electoral votes, a U.S. Senate seat, three other statewide races, and two congressional seats.

What can we expect from a second Donald Trump presidency? This week on Political Pulse, Tom Shortell and Chris Borick talk about Trump's plans for his second term.

U.S. Rep. Susan Wild, D-Lehigh Valley, will close her third term in Congress on Jan. 3 after being defeated in the election by Republican Ryan Mackenzie. From the inside, Wild has been a witness to major swings in American politics in her six years in Washington.

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey conceded to Republican challenger David McCormick on Thursday night. The Pennsylvania Department of State ended the automatic recount in the unusually close race since the result was no longer contested.

Mark Pinsley is the fourth Democrat to challenge Republican incumbent Ryan Mackenzie in the Lehigh Valley's battleground district in the 2026 midterm.

Ed Zucal lost the Democratic primary by more than 60 percentage points but earned almost 500 write-in votes from Allentown Republicans to carry the contest into November.

This week on Political Pulse, host Tom Shortell and political scientist Chris Borick discuss how President Trump is attempting to redefine citizenship, including challenges to century-old legal findings.

The slashing of federal funding coupled with the state's budget impasse has set back Second Harvest Food Bank and the families in need it serves across the counties of Lehigh, Northampton, Monroe, Wayne, Pike and Carbon, organizers say.

The Lehigh Valley’s James Lawson Freedom School is a six-week summer program that uses a multicultural literacy curriculum and an intergenerational teaching model.

U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, R-Lehigh Valley, said Congress should intervene if the Trump administration fails to release details of the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. The sex offender and financier's death in custody in 2019 has sparked years of speculation and conspiracy theories.

U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, the Lehigh Valley's first-term Republican lawmaker, will hold his second telephone town hall Wednesday evening. It comes after Congress passed the controversial One Big Beautiful Bill and amid turmoil over the Jeffrey Epstein fallout.

Last month's campaign finance report shows Roger MacLean had just $2,666 on hand, compared with the $200,403 that Josh Siegel had in the bank.

Thursday marked five years since U.S. Rep. John Lewis' death from stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He was 80 years old.

The rescission bill affects public media and foreign aid and now heads back to the U.S. House, which previously passed a different version of the funding cuts. President Donald Trump must sign the legislation before midnight Friday to eliminate the previously approved funding.

U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie is sitting on $1.19 million in his campaign coffers. Meanwhile, Democratic hopefuls Ryan Crosswell, Lamont McClure and Carol Obando-Derstine raised a combined $616,675 toward their own campaigns in the past three months.

Pennsylvania state lawmakers have failed to pass a spending plan for the year ahead — more than two weeks past the deadline. This week's Political Pulse looks at what the holdups are.