State Rep. Ryan Mackenzie enters race for Congress from 7th District
He is third Republican candidate to seek party nomination in 2024
Republican state Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, who has served in Harrisburg for 11 years, formally announced his candidacy for the U.S. House from the 7th Congressional District in 2024.
“Now - more than ever - we need proven leaders who will always fight for America's future,” he said in the statement announcing his candidacy. “I am running for Congress to improve the lives of the American people. I am the only candidate in the race with a proven and effective record who can hit the ground running in the fight to get America back on the right track."
Mackenzie, 40, who lives in Lower Macungie Township, also said in the statement that he will not seek reelection to the state House from the 187th District next year.
He becomes the third Republican to enter the race for Congress for the Lehigh Valley-based congressional district.
Kevin Dellicker, who last year narrowly lost a primary battle for the GOP nomination to Lisa Scheller, announced his candidacy earlier this month. Maria Montero, a lawyer, filed her candidacy paperwork with the Federal Election Commission this month, although she has yet to make a formal campaign announcement.
The Republican nominee will likely face Rep. Susan Wild, the Democratic incumbent, who was reelected last year to a third, two-year term. No Democrat has announced a challenge to her in the primary.
In his announcement, Mackenzie said he will promote his four principles for America: Grow the economy, defend America’s values, secure our communities and restore freedoms.
A state representative since winning a special election from the 134th District in April 2012, Mackenzie was reelected to his seventh two-year term last November from the 187th District.
Because of redistricting, Mackenzie was shifted into the 187th, resulting in a primary
contest against fellow Republican incumbent Gary Day, who had served the 187th for seven terms. Mackenzie won the May 2022 primary with 61% of the vote and was unopposed in the general election.
Mackenzie twice before was a candidate to represent the Lehigh Valley in Congress – in 2018 from the former 15th District and in 2022 from the 7th District. Each time he withdrew before the primary, focusing instead on being reelected to the state House.
Mackenzie declared his candidacy in 2017 for the 15th District after incumbent Republican Charlie Dent, a moderate and critic of President Trump, announced he would not seek reelection in 2018 to an eighth term. The District comprised about half of Northampton County, all of Lehigh County and parts of Berks, Lebanon and Dauphin counties.
But Mackenzie decided to withdraw from the congressional race after seeing how the congressional district had been changed by the state Supreme Court to what became the 7th District, which comprised all of Lehigh and Northampton counties and part of Monroe county.
That district, after being redrawn for the 2022 election, now comprises all of Lehigh, Northampton and Carbon counties and a small portion of Monroe County.
After withdrawing from the 2022 primary, he transferred $65,833, the remaining balance from his congressional campaign committee, to his state House election committee. That committee had $14,023 as of Dec. 31, 2022, according to the year-end campaign finance report filed with the state.
His campaign press release noted that Mackenzie is “known by conservatives and feared by the establishment as one of the most effective and proven reformers in government.”
The campaign said he led efforts that saved $400 million per year through reforms at the state Department of Labor & Industry and saved another nearly $60 million by refinancing debt. Americans for Prosperity named him a “Taxpayer Hero” and a policy champion, the campaign statement noted.
His campaign website outlines his positions on issues, including protection of jobs for American workers from illegal immigrants, support for energy independence, reduction and elimination of taxes, banning critical race theory and age-inappropriate sex/gender ideology in public schools, expanding school choice, stopping cuts to Social Security and Medicare, finishing construction of a wall at the southern border and defense of the 2nd Amendment.
He also would support voter ID measures, ban unsecured drop boxes and ballot harvesting, and prohibit private money from being used for election administration.
In December 2020, he was one of 64 state senators and representatives who signed a letter sent to the state’s congressional delegation, urging them to object to Pennsylvania’s Electoral College votes for President Joe Biden.
Asked about the letter last year when running for reelection to the state House, he explained his decision in an email: “Governor Wolf and his Department of State ignored the law in multiple instances and chose to make changes to election processes during the course of the election. These included allowing for the counting of mail ballots received after Election Day and ignoring the process of signature verification to ensure election integrity. Counties also violated the law, including some areas that blocked the lawful watching of the counting of votes by outside observers. These late changes that violated Pennsylvania’s election law created an unfair and uneven election.”
Courts upheld challenges in 2020 to policies adopted by state election officials that were not spelled out in the mail-in voting law.
In one case, the state Supreme Court allowed mail-in ballots to be counted if received within three days after the election as long as they were postmarked by Election Day, a decision upheld by a deadlocked U.S. Supreme Court. In another case, the state Supreme Court decided counties could not reject mail-in ballots if a voter’s signature does not resemble one on a voter registration form.
Mackenzie, whose mother is state Rep. Milou Mackenzie of Lower Saucon Township, graduated from Parkland High School in 2000 and from New York University in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in finance and international business. He received a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard University in 2010.
He worked on the U.S. Senate campaign of Pat Toomey in 2004 and for the U.S. Labor Department in 2007. He was director of Pennsylvania’s Republican Victory Program in 2010, and later was director of policy for the state Department of Labor and Industry.
President Trump appointed him to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Local Government Advisory Committee and as a commissioner on the nonpartisan President's Commission on White House Fellowships.