Lehigh Valley Politics and Election News

The U.S. Senate could vote on the proposed One Big Beautiful Bill Act this week. If passed, millions of Americans would lose access to Medicaid and SNAP benefits in order to fund border security and tax cuts to wealthy Americans.

The emergence of the gig economy has altered the American workforce and created questions about what benefits and protections independent contractors should have under federal law. U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, R-Lehigh Valley, discussed that during the roundtable.

Bill Bachenberg is a major supporter of President Trump and co-owner of Lehigh Valley Sporting Clays in North Whitehall Township. A former board member, he recently became president of the National Rifle Association.

Federal immigration officials on Friday issued their first statement since arresting 17 people at the Five10 Flats on June 11. Mayor J. Williams Reynolds this week described the arrests as "an American tragedy."

U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, R-Lehigh Valley, got an earful from a constituent Saturday after he accused protesters of feeding a charged political environment that's led to assassinations.

Emrick Boulevard in Bethlehem Township hosted the first of four rallies organized in the Lehigh Valley to coincide with a military parade in Washington, D.C., on Trump's 79th birthday. At least one physical confrontation occurred.

U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie voted in line with the Republican majority to strip more than $1 billion of federal funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting over the next two years.

Ryan Crosswell, a recent arrival in the Lehigh Valley, is the third Democrat to get in line to challenge Republican U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie in Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District. The seat should be one of the most contested U.S. House races in the 2026 midterms.

For some candidates looking to hold office in Northampton County whose primary races ended with a tie, electoral fate rests with ping pong balls.

More than 120 people showed up for the weekly "Mondays with Mackenzie" demonstration outside one of the congressman's offices on Monday. It was the first of the protests since he cast an essential vote for President Donald Trump's signature policy bill.

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.