Lehigh Valley Politics and Election News

At a virtual town hall Thursday, U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, R-Lehigh Valley, said he did not support cuts to Medicare or Social Security, called for peace in Ukraine, and gently pushed back on how the Trump administration handled cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Organizers with the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, Democratic National Congressional Committee and several other groups invited U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie to a town hall event Thursday over proposed Medicaid cuts. Instead, the first-term Republican will hold his own telephone town hall.

Philip Ginder, 74, who served on the Whitehall Township Board of Commissioners for 24 years, was appointed on Wednesday to fill the vacancy created when Commissioner Robert Piligian resigned in February.

Candidates for Northampton County Council, Allentown City Council, Allentown mayor and Parkland School Board are being challenged in court for allegedly failing to meet legal requirements to appear on the May ballot.

A Lehigh County judge ruled in favor of LoriAnn Fehnel, a Republican candidate for Whitehall Township Commissioner, who challenged that candidate Betsey H. Charles's nominating petition is invalid and should be set aside.

City officials voted in favor of raising the next council president’s salary from $7,600 to $11,400 a year and council members’ annual pay from $7,100 to $10,650. However, City Council decided against salary increases for the next mayor and controller.

This week on Political Pulse, host Tom Shortell speaks with Celeste Dee, owner of Lehigh Valley-based Advantage Political Strategies. The two talk about judicial campaigns.

The vacancy on the Whitehall Township Board of Commissioners will be filled at a meeting on Wednesday night. The board interviewed three candidates on Monday night.

Whitehall Township treasurer/tax collector Tina Koren is asking the Lehigh County Court to reject Commissioner Thomas Slonaker's nominating petition for her job.

Whitehall Township commissioner Republican candidate LoriAnn Fehnel filed a challenge March 14 against fellow Republican candidate Betsey H. Charles, 3212 Chestnut St., based on deficiencies on the latter’s petition.

Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) is looking forward to Democrat Joe Biden taking over the Oval Office but says the Senate will have its work cut out this week when it will resume the impeachment proceedings for former President Donald Trump.

Democratic political leaders across the Lehigh Valley are expressing feelings of optimism after watching Joe Biden's inauguration.

Pennsylvania deployed 2,300 National Guard troops to Washington D.C. following violence in early January.

Exactly one week after U.S. Rep. Susan Wild was hunkered in an undisclosed location in the U.S. Capitol complex after insurgents attacked, she cast her vote on Jan. 13 to impeach President Trump for his role in those violent events.

Gov. Tom Wolf has condemned Wednesday’s riots at the U.S. Capitol as “an attempted coup,” adding that the actions of Republicans led to the violence.

Pennsylvania’s two U.S. Senators may come from different sides of the aisle, but the Jan. 6 events in Washington united the lawmakers in their defense of the state and the American democratic process.

Lehigh Valley Republicans were among those protesting in Washington on Wednesday, among them, Northampton GOP Chair, Lee Snover.

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Dick Thornburgh has died at 88. He is remembered for his handling of the 1979 Three Mile Island crisis.

Dominion Voting Systems were targeted in the president's claims of an inaccurate election, but Spotlight PA's reporting found no problems with these machines.

Leonard Lightner is the city’s Community and Economic Development Director. He’s considering joining the race for Mayor that already includes two city councilmembers.

President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to make permanent a program that protects some undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as children.

President-Elect Joe Biden is preparing to pick key members of his Cabinet. As WLVR’s Tyler Pratt reports, one group is lobbying Biden’s team to make Pennsylvania’s top health official the next surgeon general.