Brooks’s populist, working-class appeal continues to build a broad coalition

ALLENTOWN, PA — On Tuesday, the Pennsylvania Working Families Party endorsed Bob Brooks for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 7th congressional district. Brooks, a union leader and former firefighter, is running in the Democratic primary to face Rep. Ryan MacKenzie in November.

“Bob is the perfect example of a person we should be sending to D.C. because it’s time to elect real working-class leadership to Congress,” said Nick Gavio, Mid-Atlantic Communications Director for the Working Families Party. “We deserve representatives who come from the working class and will stand up for the working class, and that’s what Bob has done for his entire life and career. In Congress, he’ll fight to raise the minimum wage, tax billionaires to fund programs that benefit workers, and get big money and corporate interests out of our politics. The Working Families Party is proud to endorse him.”

“My entire career has been devoted to fighting for my members – for better healthcare, fairer wages, and safety on the job. I want to do the same for every person in PA-07. In Washington, I’ll stand up to the corporate interests and billionaire class that have rigged our politics for too long,” said Bob Brooks. “The Working Families Party has been a valued partner to organized labor since day one – fighting for benefits like paid family leave and making sure working people have a seat at the table. If we’re going to flip seats like this one, we need to build an unapologetically pro-worker, pro-union coalition. This is how we do it.” 

The Pennsylvania Working Families Party has been organizing and winning in the Lehigh Valley for years now. Last year, the WFP endorsed Josh Siegel in his winning Lehigh County Executive campaign and Tara Zrinski in her winning Northampton County Executive campaign, while re-electing WFP champion Natalie Santos to the Allentown City Council. In 2024, the WFP led a massive statewide organizing effort for the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz ticket that included a substantial program in the Lehigh Valley, knocking on thousands of doors, sending texts, and making calls to support the ticket. In 2023, the WFP helped re-elect Ce-Ce Gerlach to the Allentown City Council in a race where she won the most votes of any candidate on the ballot.

Bob Brooks spent 20 years as a firefighter in the City of Bethlehem and now serves as President of the Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association, representing over 8,000 firefighters across the Commonwealth. Raised by a single mom and no stranger to hard work – from dishwasher to warehouse worker to snowplow driver – Bob has spent his life in service to his community, including more than two decades coaching youth and varsity baseball. He is running for Congress in PA-07 to fight for working families, lower costs, and expand access to health care for Lehigh Valley residents.

In congressional races nationwide, the Working Families Party has endorsed Robert Peters in IL-2; Mai Vang in CA-7; Brad Lander in NY-10; Nida Allam in NC-4; and Randy Villegas, who is running in the Republican-held CA-22. A few weeks ago, another WFP-endorsed candidate and former director of the New Jersey Working Families Party, Analilia Mejia, won the democratic primary for the special election to represent NJ-11 for the remainder of this term.

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