Crosswell continues to lead Democrats in cash while Mackenzie’s funding soars
Ryan Crosswell continued his cash advantage over his three Democratic rivals as the race in the 7th Congressional District enters its final month before the May 19 primary election, newly released campaign finance reports show.
Meanwhile, Republican Ryan Mackenzie, who is seeking reelection to a second term in Congress and is unopposed in the GOP primary, maintains a huge edge over each of the Democrats. Mackenzie ended the first quarter of 2026 with $2,455,819 in the bank.
Crosswell had $715,329, followed by Bob Brooks with $543,983, Lamont McClure with $285,078, and Carol Obando-Derstine with $127,936.
The campaign finance reports, filed Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission, reflect contributions and expenses received from Jan. 1 to March 31.
Mackenzie defeated three-term incumbent Democrat Susan Wild by one percentage point in 2024, when Donald Trump captured Pennsylvania in being elected president.
Political observers, as they did in 2024, consider this year’s 7th District contest to be key to which party controls the House next year. Republicans hold a 217-213 edge over Democrats, with one independent member and four seats vacant.
Last month, the Democratic field shrunk from seven to four candidates, when Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley decided to run instead for state senator from the 16th District, and Aiden Gonzalez and Lewis Shupe did not collect the required 1,000 petition signatures to get on the ballot.
The 7th District comprises all of Carbon, Lehigh and Northampton counties and a small section of Monroe.
Ryan Mackenzie
The Mackenize for Congress Committee took in $906,926 and spent $282,094 in the first three months of 2026. Since Jan. 1, 2025, the campaign has raised $3.6 million and spent $1.2 million.
Nearly 40% of the contributions – $349,892 – came from joint fundraising committees that fund Republican candidates.
Among the committees were Emmer Majority Builders (Majority Whip Tom Emmer), $64,149; Grow the Majority (House Speaker Mike Johnson), $185,166; Defend Our Majority, comprised of four dozen campaign committees including Mackenzie for Congress, $57,723; and Mackenzie for America, his affiliated committee, $37,092.
Additionally about two dozen congressional campaign committees gave $38,500. The campaign committee for Tom Giovannni, a Republican who lost his election for Northampton County executive in November, gave $1,000. Republican Party committees from the 7th District gave a total of $11,500: Lehigh County, $4,500; Monroe, $1,000; Northampton, $6,000.
PACs contributed $260,000, including American Israel Public Affairs Committee PAC, $3,500 (another $22,000 came from people who donated to Mackenzie via the PAC); Republican Jewish Coalition PAC, $5,000; National Association of Letter Carriers of U.S.A. PAC, $10,000; CVS Health PAC, $6,000; Team America - Bringing America Together PAC, $10,000; Rejoice PAC, $5,000; and Buckeye Liberty PAC, $10,000.
The committee reported $286,137 from individuals, including state Rep. Milou Mackenzie of the 131st District and mother of the candidate, $7,000; Elizabeth and Fred Clark (the retired founder of Clark Associates food service company) of Lancaster, $5,000 each, and Richard Koze, owner of the Lehigh Valley company Kay Builders, $2,184.
The campaign spent $267,625 in the first quarter of the year, with much of the money going to fundraising and consultant fees.
Ryan Crosswell
Crosswell for Congress raised $482,700 – about $40,000 more than he took in during the last quarter of 2025.
The bulk of his donations – $477,600 – came from individuals. He received $5,100 from committees.
Crosswell’s campaign listed $376,728 in net expenditures. That left him with $715,329 in cash – slightly more than $100,000 than he had in the bank at the start of the year.
Since launching his campaign, Crosswell has raised $1,574,627 and spent $898,076.
Among those giving $3,500 each were David Cooper, chief operating officer of Lexus Lehigh Valley; Stephen Powell of Bethlehem; Vickie Powell of Bethlehem; Maria Rodale of Bethlehem; Stephen Frobouck, president of Frobouck Group in Pittsburgh; I. Bradley Hoffman, president of Hoffman Auto Group in Connecticut; retired New York attorney Martin Mattes; Brenda Baker of Los Altos, Calif.; and attorney Russell Budd of Dallas.
Peter Cooper, president and CEO of Lexus Lehigh Valley, gave $7,000.
The American Association for Justice PAC gave $5,000 while the campaign committee for Lehigh County Commissioner Dan Hartzell gave $100.
Several dozen attorneys from the Lehigh Valley and across the country contributed to Crosswell, a former federal prosecutor, as well, including $2,500 from Daniel Cohen of Bethlehem and $500 each from Joseph Fitzpatrick of Center Valley and Oldrich Foucek of Allentown.
Major expenditures included $161,982 to SB Digital of Washington, D.C., for fundraising consulting; $44,100 to Impact Research of Alabama; $15,000 to Northside Research of Brooklyn; and $15,000 to Arrowhead Strategies of Washington, D.C. Other expenses included payroll and accounting and technical services.
Bob Brooks
Bob Brooks for Congress raised $423,221 in net contributions – besting his 2025 quarterly fundraising of $308,259 in the third quarter and $301,698 in the fourth quarter.
His donations included $344,078 from individuals and $79,750 from political committees. He listed $231,769 in expenses. He reported $15,000 in debts and obligations owed by the committee.
That left him with $543,983 in cash going into the last two months of the primary season. He had started the year with $340,767. Since announcing his run in August, he raised $1,035,035 and spent $487,430.
Individuals who donated $7,000 each included James Murdoch, a son of billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch; James’ wife Kathryn Murdoch, CEO of Lupa Systems; and fashion designer Giovanna Randall.
Individuals who gave $3,500 each included Christian Martin, CEO of Martin Guitar; retired educator Darrell Crook of Nazareth and his wife Linda, who are Brooks’ in-laws.
Committee donations included $10,500 from the League of Conservation Voters Action Fund.
The Juno Fund, which seeks to fund “dynamic candidates who do things differently,” gave $10,000. Past candidates supported by Juno included Democrats Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger, who were elected governors in New Jersey and Virginia, respectively, in 2025.
The Brooks campaign also received $7,000 from Democracy Summer Leadership PAC; and $5,000 each from the American Mobilization PAC, Making a Difference PAC, Vote Save America and the Working Families Party PAC.
The campaign committee of Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland gave $4,000.
Brooks, a retired Bethlehem firefighter and president of the Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association, received at least 11 donations from firefighters from the Lehigh Valley and beyond.
Major expenditures listed by the Brooks campaign included $14,000 to Arc Initiatives, a Washington, D.C., research company, and $15,000 to Precinct LLC, a New York based consulting firm.
The campaign paid $69,577 to Ascend Digital, a Washington, D.C., digital strategy firm. Ascend Digital, in turn, donated $12,464 to the campaign. Other expenses included payroll, mailers, office rent and catering.
Lamont McClure
Lamont McClure, the former Northampton County executive, raised $20,166 to start 2026. McClure for PA spent $22,678 in the first quarter. To date, McClure for PA has raised $500,782 and spent $215,704.
McClure’s first-quarter contributions totaled $17,666 from individuals. Of the $2,500 received from committees in the quarter, $2,000 came from the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers PAC and $500 from Friends of Dan Engle, where Engle is on Roseto council.
McClure’s major contributors include $3,500 from Thomas Poserina of Schwenksville in Montgomery County; $1,000 from Tim Brennan, an attorney from Doylestown; and $1,000 from Claudia Shulman of Cherryville. Former Bethlehem Mayor Robert Donchez gave $250.
McClure’s $200,000 loan to the campaign from last September remains unpaid.
His campaign spent $7,550 with Blue Wave Political Partners, a D.C.-based consulting firm that provides financial services, and $3,102 on the Pennsylvania Democratic Party’s Votebuilder program. Other expenses included software, photography, and credit card fees.
Carol Obando-Derstine
Carol for PA raised $111,283 in the first quarter of 2026 and spent $106,855. She has $127,936 on hand, having raised $543,203 and spent $415,266 over the life of her campaign.
For first-quarter contributions, Obando-Derstine, the former PPL executive recruited to run by former Democratic Congresswoman Susan Wild, raised $57,708 from individuals and $4,550 from political action committees.
Major contributors for the quarter hailed from Easton, including $7,500 from Constance Fletcher Hindle, a manager at HindlePower Inc.; and $3,500 each from Tara Gilligan, a Lafayette College instructor, Karen Cooper, a leadership coach, and Jeremy Hylton, a Google software engineer.
PACs that supported Obando-Derstine this quarter included 314 Action Impact Slate, which gave $4,389 plus $4,020 listed separately as unitemized contributions from individuals. Other committee funds included $2,500 from Moms Fed Up, $2,000 from Square One Politics, $536 from JStreetPAC, and $500 from EMILYs List, which supports Democratic pro-choice women candidates.
Obando-Derstine also contributed $4,000 of her own money plus a $20,000 loan to her campaign in the quarter. That’s in addition to two loans she made in 2025 totaling $12,500, which have not been repaid.
Her campaign’s major expenditures for the first three months of the year included $20,900 total to BluePrint Interactive for digital consulting, website services and advertising; $7,500 to Acuity Politics LLC for campaign compliance services; and $4,000 combined for advertising in Allentown’s La Razon newspaper and Latina FM. Other expenses included payroll, printing, and subscriptions.
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