Rep. Susan Wild, an Allentown-area Democrat, lost her bid for a fourth term to Republican state lawmaker Ryan Mackenzie.
Congresswoman Susan Wild, a three-term Democrat first elected in the 2018 Democratic wave election, lost her bid for a fourth term to Republican state Representative Ryan Mackenzie by a narrow margin.
With more than 95% of the vote counted, Mackenzie earned 50.7% to Wild’s 49.3%, a margin of 5,540 votes. Wild secured 4-point victory over Mackenzie in Lehigh County, the 7th District’s most populous, and eked out a 275-vote lead in Northampton County, the 7th District’s other main population base. Northampton County is one of two Pennsylvania counties, along with Erie County in the northwest, to flip from Trump in 2016 to Biden in 2020 before reverting to Trump in 2024.
However, rural Carbon and Monroe Counties went for Mackenzie by more than 30 points each. After fighting Wild to a near-draw in Lehigh and Northampton, Mackenzie’s 11,000-vote lead in Carbon county was more than enough to secure his victory.
In an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer, a Mackenzie aide attributed their victory to a “new coalition” of support including working-class Latino residents of Allentown. Mackenzie made inflation and immigration core to his campaign’s message to voters.
Wild conceded defeat on X, writing “There is no sugarcoating it: this is a bitterly disappointing outcome.” She committed to helping Mackenzie prepare to represent their community in Congress when he is sworn-in in January.
