McClure says his government experience makes him most qualified candidate
Editor’s note: This is one of four profiles on the candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for the 7th Congressional District on May 19. The others are Carol Obando-Derstine, a former PPL supervisor and aide to former U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr.; Ryan Crosswell, a former federal prosecutor; and Bob Brooks, a state firefighter union president. The winner will face incumbent Republican Ryan Mackenzie, who is unopposed in the primary.
For Lamont McClure, politics has been a major part of his life: watching his father and mother in public service, working on election campaigns and then running for elected office.
“I always had politics in my blood,” said McClure, a Democratic candidate for the 7th Congressional District.
His father, Lamont, was the Weatherly Borough manager and later executive director of the Carbon County Housing Authority for nearly 40 years until he died from pancreatic cancer in 2015. His mother, Pam, was the first woman to serve as president of the Weatherly Area School Board.
McClure, elected Northampton County executive in 2017, said in January 2025 that he would not seek a third term. Five weeks later, he announced he would run for Congress. He was the first Democrat to seek his party’s nomination for the chance to challenge Ryan Mackenzie, the first-term Republican who is seeking reelection and is unopposed in the GOP primary.
Last year, four other Democrats joined him: Carol Obando-Derstine, Ryan Crosswell, Mark Pinsley (who later dropped out) and Bob Brooks. The 7th District, comprising all of Carbon, Lehigh and Northampton counties and a small part of Monore, is considered critical to determine which party controls the House in 2027.
As the only Democratic candidate to hold elective office, McClure said that experience makes him the most qualified among his opponents to quickly make an impact in Congress.
“We are in a time of crisis,” he said last month during an interview with Armchair Lehigh Valley. “And what you need in a time of crisis is someone who has experienced managing crises and someone who has the courage to actually confront it. I’m not afraid of the big corporations that are actually running Washington now. I’m not afraid of [President] Trump. I’m not afraid of ICE. I’m not afraid of MAGA.”
The middle class, he said, is under “assault” and he will work to protect it.
“I’m the only candidate that’s ever faced a voter. I’m the only candidate that’s ever been on a ballot. And this district might decide control of the House of Representatives. And can you really take the risk of putting on somebody who’s never been on a ballot before?”
To see more photos of Lamont McClure campaigning, click here.
Since the campaign began, the McClure for PA committee raised $512,967 as of March 31, which includes McClure’s $200,000 loan from September 2025. That total is the lowest amount among the four candidates. The committee spent $371,264, leaving a balance of $141,703, ahead of only Obando-Derstine’s $95,646. McClure’s campaign has mailed a series of campaign flyers to voters over the last few weeks.
In the final days of the campaign, McClure received support from a suspected Republican-allied PAC, which committed to spend more than $500,000 to air an ad attacking Brooks and Crosswell while endorsing McClure, according to reporting last week from Punchbowl News. The Lead Left PAC also mailed material to Democratic voters with the same message. Such independent expenditures by PACs are prohibited by election regulations from coordinating its effort with a candidate’s campaign. McClure said he had never heard of the PAC until the news report about it.
“I want to be clear. I’m running my own campaign,” he said last week in an emailed response to Armchair questions. “Our political system is broken and we have to put an end to all of the dark money being spent on our campaigns. I hope all of the candidates will join me in calling for the immediate cessation of dark money SuperPAC spending on all of our campaigns.”
The New York Times reported Tuesday that Lead Left has increased its spending to $600,000 for TV ads in the 7th District, citing AdImpact, which tracks political advertising costs. The Times’ story (“Mysterious Meddling in Democratic Primaries Has G.O.P. Fingerprints”) said Lead Left is also spending in congressional races in Nebraska and Texas in apparent attempt to boost “Democrats viewed as weaker candidates” to make it easier for Republicans in November.
Background
Lamont George McClure Jr., 56, lives in Bethlehem Township with his wife, Sandra, who serves as a district judge who was first elected in 2021. They have a son.
While McClure’s parents set an example by being in public service, he said he is more like his mother, Pam, who is 82, than his father.
“She’s been a tremendous example to me throughout my life, quietly about putting other people first. … She would never tell you that she put other people first, but she did,” he said.
He graduated from Wilkes University in 1982, his father’s alma mater, and in 1985, from Duquesne Law School in Pittsburgh.
He returned home and in 1986 was hired as deputy campaign manager in Pittsburgh for Joe Kohn, a Philadelphia area Democrat who was running for attorney general. Kohn lost to Mike Fisher.
After the election, McClure held a series of legal jobs, including with Jim Thorpe lawyer Carole Wildoner-Walbert and the state Workers’ Compensation Bureau.
In 2000, he returned to politics, coming to the Lehigh Valley after being hired as campaign manager for John Morganelli, the Northampton County district attorney, who was running for attorney general. (Morganelli lost in the Democratic primary but remained DA until his election as county judge in 2019.)
McClure got a job in the Bethlehem law office of the Baltimore-based Peter Angelos law firm, which among other personal injury claims, handled asbestos-related injury cases.
He represented Bethlehem Steel workers – United Steelworkers Union members – who were exposed to asbestos, a cancer-causing material used as insulation in the machinery and elsewhere in the company’s operations. Victims developed lung cancer, mesothelioma (tumors on the membrane covering the lungs) and other forms of cancers.
McClure estimated he handled about 1,000 cases, with the office having about 2,000 total. The firm sued asbestos manufacturers such as Armstrong and Owens Corning and machine manufacturers such as General Electric and Westinghouse whose equipment contained asbestos. Cases against Bethlehem Steel were handled separately by workers’ compensation insurance claims before he started work there, McClure said.
“Virtually everyone got some kind of compensation, but money in exchange for someone’s health or their life, it’s not enough,” he said. ”What we tried to do, especially with the mesothelioma cases and the lung cancer cases, was make sure that there was enough money to take care of the widows.”
McClure said talking to Bethlehem Steel workers, some of whom used oxygen tanks to breathe while knowing they were going to die, shaped his outlook to fight for the underdog.
“It showed me what corporations are capable of in the pursuit of profit … . And that you needed to fight for these folks,” he said. “And that’s really where I [started] fighting for these guys.”
After 17 years with the firm, he left in 2017 after being elected county executive.
Becoming a candidate
While still working for Angelos, McClure in 2005 decided to run for an at-large seat on Northampton County Council. He finished ninth in the contest for five seats. But in 2006, he was appointed to fill a vacancy in the District 3 council seat for the final two years of the term.
In 2007, he ran for a four-year term from District 3 and won by about 100 votes. He remained on council through 2013. He ran for county executive that year, finishing third in a three-way Democratic primary.
In 2017, he campaigned again for county executive and won, defeating incumbent Republican John Brown with nearly 54% of the vote. He was reelected in 2021 with 56% of the vote, defeating Republican Steve Lynch, who reportedly attended the Stop the Steal rally in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021.
In his campaign for Congress, McClure is running his own campaign, having never replaced his campaign manager, Madison Palmer, after she left to join another campaign last summer.
Endorsements
McClure has collected more than two dozen endorsements from current and former county and municipal officials throughout the 7th District. Among them: county executives Josh Siegel (Lehigh) and Tara Zrinski (Northampton); former executives Phil Armstrong (Lehigh) and Glenn Reibman and Gerald Seyfried (both Northampton); county commissioners Ken Kraft, Jeff Warren and Kelly Keegan (Northampton) and Rocky Ahner (Carbon); Mayors Sal Panto (Easton) and Lance Colondo (Nazareth); Robert Donchez (former Bethlehem mayor).
In addition, he has the backing of T.J. Rooney, former state Democratic Party chair and a former state representative from the Lehigh Valley; former state Rep. and Speaker of the House Keith McCall (Carbon); Phil Davis, senior pastor of Greater Shiloh Church of Easton; Baron Vanderburg, a Palmer Township supervisor and chairman of the Northampton County Black Caucus.
More than 50 union locals and labor leaders representing Teamsters, roofers, plumbers, painters, electrical and sheet metal workers endorsed McClure.
One endorsement came off his list: Bob Brooks and the Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association after Brooks became a candidate.
McClure’s tenure with the county
While on county council, McClure was a leader in the successful fight to keep Gracedale, the county nursing home, rather than selling it to private interests.
“That’s one of my proudest moments, making sure that it stayed in county hands,” he said, noting that maintaining Gracedale has its challenges. They include a staffing shortage which requires hiring higher-priced healthcare workers from an agency. Also, the 500 residents of Gracedale, who don’t have any other options for long-term nursing care, are covered by Medicaid, which pays less than what people would pay if they could afford the actual cost.
During the COVID pandemic, McClure used the National Guard to keep the facility open when staffing was low. Also during COVID, he funneled $25 million in federal relief funds to small businesses to help them remain open. He said the county worked with Easton Hospital to conduct a drive-through COVID-19 testing program so county residents could be cleared to return to work or school.
McClure came under fire — some Republicans called for him to resign — after the county’s voting machines in the Nov. 7, 2023, election malfunctioned by switching “yes” and “no” votes on the paper record of voters’ choices in two state judicial retention questions. County officials suspended use of the machines while they investigated the problem; after determining the units recorded the votes properly, voting on the machines continued, but not without confusion at some polling places.
McClure did not resign, adding the election was valid and voting machines were not the problem. “I’m trying to make the point that it’s not the machines that made the mistake, it’s the people,” he said at the time.
Charles Dertinger, the county’s director of administration who oversaw the elections office, did resign.
During his eight years in office, McClure said his administration invested $25 million to preserve farmland (20,000 acres) as well as open space and environmentally sensitive areas (3,800 acres). The county created four new parks.
For 2022, McClure’s budget reduced the real estate tax by 8.5%. Since then, taxpayers saved $25 million, he said. His other seven annual budgets did not raise taxes.
Battling ICE
On Feb. 12, 2025, Rep. Mackenzie addressed the House to criticize McClure for refusing to permit U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to apprehend an inmate – a suspected Venezuelan gang member – inside the county jail.
The inmate, Luis Gualdron-Gualdron, was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol agents near Brownsville, Texas, on Dec. 13, 2023, for entering the U.S. illegally, according to ICE.
At some point he ended up in Bethlehem, and in May 2024 city police arrested him on charges of indecent assault involving a minor under age 16. He later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of harassment and was sentenced to three to six months in prison. He was released Jan. 31, 2025.
The county alerted ICE when Gauldron would be released from jail, and agents were waiting outside for him. In its press release, ICE noted Gauldron was apprehended “without incident.”
In his remarks, Mackenzie, a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security said, “It is appalling that Northampton County refuses to fully cooperate with federal law enforcement when it comes to the apprehension of a violent criminal who is here in the country illegally.” He said ICE agents apprehending someone on the street puts them and the community in “harm’s way.”
McClure followed the directive he established in his March 2020 executive order, which he wrote after an ICE agent “snuck in through a side door armed” with a gun and arrested a man in the county courthouse after a judge released him from custody. The executive order says the county requires a warrant signed by a federal judge or magistrate to allow federal agents to arrest someone inside a county building. Without such a warrant, the county alerts federal authorities before an inmate is released from jail.
During the interview, McClure explained his reasoning: “As a fundamental matter, the United States Constitution requires due process. And that requires a warrant if you’re going to arrest somebody.”
He added, “I think violent criminals who are here unlawfully should be deported. I do think we need interior enforcement [but] not what these people are doing now with their masks and their machine guns running around terrorizing people.”
Issues
McClure was asked to state his positions on several key issues via email. Here are his responses.
Iran War: “If we are at war, it is an unconstitutional one. … Regardless of what Trump calls the military campaign to which he has committed our brave service members in the Persian Gulf, there are several inconvenient truths about it. First, if you are going to risk the life and limb of America’s finest and imperil not just our economy, but the economy of the entire planet, you must clearly define your objectives. Second, after clearly defining those objectives, you must make your case to the people of the United States and their representatives and senators in Congress, explaining why those clearly defined objectives can only be achieved through military force. Third, you must rally our allies and the international community around those clearly defined objectives. Fourth, you must have specific, well-thought-out plans … . Finally, you must have an end goal and the means to bring the conflict to a successful conclusion. Trump has failed all of the parts of this test.”
Affordability: “The housing problem is a national crisis demanding national solutions. As county executive, I’ve worked on numerous affordable housing projects and programs. As a county council member during the last Great Recession, following the 2008 crash, I created the Mortgage Foreclosure Diversion Program so that people wouldn’t lose their homes … . I ran a First-Time Home Buyer Assistance Program. I ensured people weren’t evicted from their homes during the worst of COVID with a rental assistance program. More recently I’ve worked with the Greater Community Development Corp. to bring more affordable housing to Easton. … We need serious federal assistance to meet the housing crisis head on here in PA-07, and I intend to bring the resources home to do just that.”
Taxes: “We need a true tax cut for the middle class. Do I think billionaires and corporations need to pay more? I sure do, but I’m going to D.C. to fight to put more money in your pocket – the pockets of the middle class and working families. ... In Congress, I will fight like hell to cut the income taxes for the middle class and working families, and we will have the billionaires and corporations pay for them. … Middle class tax cuts will actually be good for the economy.”
Energy costs: “I testified against PPL’s most recent rate hike request. I stood up for small businesses, local governments and residential consumers. During my testimony I explained to the Public Utility Commission how just last summer our electricity costs at Northampton County increased by 16%. I told the commission about small business owners struggling with their utility bills, including one small businesswoman who said if she couldn’t do something about her rates she might have to shutter her business.”
Warehouse/AI development: “When I came to office as county executive, warehouse proliferation was rampant. I think our response to it is instructive in answering your questions here. In the commonwealth, most planning and zoning decisions occur at the local level. This is particularly important for zoning. Zoning really determines where a particular use is permitted. … I have often said that if a warehouse were appropriately sited, it would be right off the exit of a major highway, not on some farm in the middle of the county.” His administration worked with the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission to give municipalities the tools and knowledge “to ensure industrial development was properly sited.”
Guns: “Weapons of war and high-capacity magazines have no place on the streets of America. I support background checks and closing loopholes taken advantage of at gun shows and private sales.” He supports “red flag” laws that, by a court order, would temporarily remove guns from people showing signs they could harm themselves or others. “We desperately need to improve our mental health system in this country. So many gun deaths could be prevented if we just committed ourselves to the principle that our mental health should be considered for diagnosis and treatment on par with the respect of physical health.”