State Rep. Ryan Mackenzie has a lot in common with his two opponents in the Republican primary for the Lehigh Valley’s congressional district.
They all criticize what they see as excessive government spending, advocate for cracking down on immigration and building a border wall, support Second Amendment gun ownership rights and generally oppose abortion.
But one thing sets Mackenzie apart is that he has won an election before. In fact, Mackenzie is a six-term state representative in Lehigh County who is running for the chance to challenge Democratic U.S. Rep. Susan Wild in November. He will face businessman Kevin Dellicker and attorney Maria Montero in the April 23 primary.
He lists among his legislative accomplishments opposing tax increases and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a regional agreement that aims to decrease carbon emissions in Pennsylvania, and authoring a law that required the use of e-verify in the construction industry, to identify and disqualify undocumented immigrants from jobs in the construction industry.
His common refrain on the campaign trail is “we are losing our country,” and frequently follows that with his thoughts on inflation and an influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, both of which are polling as top issues for voters in 2024.
“What I’ve seen from the Joe Biden administration is scaring me, and we need to get our country back on track,” Mackenzie said.
‘Priorities for America’
On his campaign website, Mackenzie lists what he calls “four priorities for America”: growing the economy, defending values, securing communities and restoring freedom. Subpoints of those priorities include “fight back against the culture of celebrating abortion,” “finish building the wall” and “ban critical race theory,” a sociological theory not commonly taught at the K-12 level that is often used by Republicans as a catch-all term for any teachings about racism.
Unlike last year, when nominee Lisa Scheller was a clear favorite during the primary election, out-fundraising her opponent every cycle, no obvious front-runner has emerged in the unusually crowded primary race. But Mackenzie has seen support from mainstream Republican political action committees including GOPAC and Americans for Prosperity as well as committees for several fellow state House Republicans including Zach Mako, Rosemary Brown, Kerry Benninghoff and Ann Flood.
Election 2024: Get to know the Republicans running for Congress in the Lehigh Valley
He has deep roots in the Valley, as a ninth-generation resident of the state and graduate of Parkland High School in South Whitehall Township. He said he grew up in a “political family” — his mother, Milou Mackenzie, is also a state representative in the region — and Republican talking points were the subject of many a dinner table conversation.
Upon graduating high school, he attended New York University for his undergraduate degree in finance because he initially considered pursuing a business career.
Torn between a career in business or politics, he returned to Harvard Business School for his Master’s in Business Administration and graduated in 2010, but said he “kept getting drawn back to public service.” An internship with former U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey’s first campaign in 2004 inspired him to launch his own run for office.
“I realized that you can have a very significant impact on a large number of people through public policy,” Mackenzie said.
He first was elected to the Pennsylvania state house in 2012 and has been reelected every year since in his district, the 187th, which includes Heidelberg, Lower Macungie, Lynn, Washington and Weisenberg townships, part of Upper Macungie Township, and Alburtis and Macungie. He launched his first run for Congress in 2018 to represent the 15th District of Pennsylvania, but pulled out before the election after redistricting changed the congressional maps.
He has also perhaps been the most outspoken candidate regarding his support for former President Donald Trump, the presumed Republican nominee for president. In a February tweet, he boasted that he was the only candidate in the race to publicly endorse Trump, and made the same claim on a live TV debate.
Asked if he had concerns about Trump as a polarizing figure — including his several ongoing legal issues over his attempt to overturn the 2020 election based on false claims that he was the rightful victor — Mackenzie brushed them off. He likened Trump’s challenges to the 2020 election to a coach throwing a “challenge flag” during a football game.
“Donald Trump had the right to make that challenge and offer those claims,” Mackenzie said. “When it was not proven in the court of law then, that’s kind of the end of those claims, but you do have a right.”
Republicans underperformed in the 2022 election, nationwide and in Pennsylvania specifically, with Democratic incumbents all reelected and competitive, open governor and Senate seats both going to Democrats. Experts pointed to the widely unpopular overturning of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ended the national right to an abortion, and extreme far-right candidates like gubernatorial hopeful Doug Mastriano, who espoused election conspiracies and anti-democratic views.
Mackenzie said this year would be different — he believes people will be unsatisfied enough with mainstream Democratic leadership that a lot of swing voters may turn to Republican candidates.
“The Democratic policies that are coming out of Washington, D.C., are simply failing people,” Mackenzie said. “In a past number of elections we’ve seen that people want change, they keep looking for change. They keep looking for a different direction. And so they’ve ping-ponged back and forth between the two parties over the past couple of years, but now I think people are seeing how disastrous these Democratic policies work, and so I think people are looking for a new direction.”
Indeed, the 2024 race will be about competing, opposing economic messaging, with Republicans keeping stubbornly high inflation and increasing migration across the U.S.-Mexico border top of mind for voters, and Democratic candidates touting the economy’s post-pandemic recovery and resurgence, criticizing Donald Trump and far-right conspiracies that have become mainstream, and aiming to defend the availability of abortion.
“There have been plenty of studies that the key driver of inflation is the overspending in Washington,” Mackenzie said. “That has really driven the debt in our country to an all time high $34 trillion. That is a really significant long-term problem for our country that we need to get a handle on.”
He specifically referred to “forever wars,” a term for U.S. involvement overseas in conflicts in Middle Eastern countries, as a driver of excess spending.
One more thing Mackenzie will soon have in common with his two opponents: Being a parent.
Mackenzie and his wife Chloe will welcome their first child, a son, this month. Mackenzie said this will not take him off the campaign trail, but it’s given him a renewed incentive to push for his beliefs.
“I’m running for Congress because we are losing our country,” he said. “I love our community, I love our country, but now, my wife and I are expecting our first child, and we are scared about the direction we are headed.”
