Lehigh Valley Politics and Election News

Northampton County officials said extra voting machines were delivered to help alleviate the crush at the Banana Factory in South Bethlehem. It was an extreme example of a scene playing out on Election Day across the Lehigh Valley as voters waited hours in line to cast their ballots.

Pulling the big red lever in a mechanical voting machine started the voting booth process and closed the curtain behind you. It was as dramatic to my young mind as the vast curtain before a theater's stage.

The Lehigh County Board of Elections will hold a hearing Friday morning to determine the status of 519 mail-in ballot applications of former residents now living abroad. Under federal law, they are entitled to vote in federal elections under their last address, but state Sen. Jarrett Coleman said the county neglected to register them in a voter database.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, greeted voters at one Lehigh Valley polling place on Election Day. Johnson said his visit signified how critically important the Lehigh Valley's 7th Congressional District is to the balance of power in the U.S. House.

On the ground in Pennsylvania on Election Day: The state's political landscape has shifted dramatically since the last election. Student journalists are on the ground throughout the day as people vote.

Check out our rundown of candidates in the most contested races and what to expect to get up to speed for the election on Nov. 5, 2024.

Thousands of supporters rallied at Memorial Hall at Muhlenberg College as Vice President Kamala Harris visited the Lehigh Valley on the final day of the 2024 presidential campaign. Polls indicate her race for the White House against former President Donald Trump is too close to call.

Former New Orleans Mayor Mitchell Landrieu, a co-chair of the Harris-Walz campaign, says a comedian's comments at a Donald Trump rally in New York City was a turning point in the 2024 presidential campaign.

Thousands came to Memorial Hall at Muhlenberg College on Monday as Vice President Kamala Harris held a rally on the final day of the 2024 presidential campaign.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate for president, is holding a rally at Muhlenberg College in Allentown on the final day of the presidential campaign. Election Day is Tuesday.

Lehigh Country Controller Mark Pinsley criticized President Donald Trump and U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie for gutting the social safety net and Democratic leaders for failing to offer effective resistance.

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.

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.