Four Democrats competing to unseat Republican Rep. Ryan Mackenzie in Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District clashed Thursday in a live debate in Jim Thorpe, drawing sharp contrasts on data centers, health care costs, Trump administration policies and who among them can win a seat that both parties consider critical to control of the House.

The candidates — former federal prosecutor Ryan Crosswell of Allentown, firefighters union president Bob Brooks of Moore Township, former Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure of Bethlehem Township and energy engineer Carol Obando-Derstine of Center Valley — faced off before a live audience and television viewers across the district. The debate was moderated by Kim Bell, general manager of Blue Ridge Communications TV-13, and hosted by the Carbon County Democratic Executive Board. Attendance was ticketed, with general admission priced at $20 for one of 125 available gymnasium seats. A $75 VIP package offered reserved front-row seating, priority parking and access to an after-debate reception.

Mackenzie won the seat by just over one percentage point in 2024 after Carbon County was added to the district through redistricting. National Journal, a nonpartisan research firm, rates the 7th District a toss-up and one of the most vulnerable seats in Congress. The winner of the Democratic primary May 19 will face Mackenzie in November.

Costs, tariffs and health care

All four candidates pointed to household affordability as the district’s most urgent problem. Crosswell framed the stakes in moral terms, calling out what he described as an administration focused on self-enrichment.

“Corruption is a kitchen table issue, because when you have an administration that’s simply concerned with enriching itself, it’s not fighting for the people of this country,” Crosswell said. He called for restoring Medicaid funding, establishing a public option and rolling back tariffs he said have raised Pennsylvania grocery prices 8%.

Brooks, who also owns Brooks Lawn Care, put the issue of rising costs in personal terms.

“When I pull up at a gas pump and it costs $170 to fill my truck instead of $90, that’s not OK,” Brooks said. Obando-Derstine called for restoring ACA subsidies, SNAP benefits and solar tax credits, and said the federal minimum wage, unchanged since 2009, must be raised.

McClure cited his record in Northampton County, where he said a 2022 tax cut has since saved property taxpayers more than $25 million, and said he has testified against PPL utility rate increases.

“These are two things that I have done in my career that demonstrate that when I go to Washington, I will fight like hell for you,” McClure said.

Data centers and the environment

No issue generated more sustained debate than proposed data centers threatening to reshape Carbon County’s water supply, electricity grid and landscape. Bell noted during her questioning that three data center proposals are currently under consideration in the county, with a fourth potentially on the way, and that an engineer for the proposed Penn Forest data center had requested the authority to extract more than 1 million gallons of water per day.

Obando-Derstine, who spent roughly a decade working for PPL Electric Utilities, staked the sharpest claim to expertise.

“I want to make sure that I am leveraging that expertise, because, frankly, we have a lot of beauty here in Carbon County, and we want to make sure it stays that way, and we don’t want these billionaire companies shifting costs to all of us,” she said.

McClure pushed back.

“I never worked for a large corporation that makes and sells electricity like PPL,” he said. “I spent my career fighting large corporations on behalf of working people.”

Crosswell said any data center must supply its own renewable energy, use closed-loop water systems and be built on already-degraded land.

“I am an AI optimist, but it does need to be regulated,” he said.

Brooks warned against the area’s experience with warehouse sprawl.

“We cannot watch the same thing happen with data centers,” Brooks said, adding that if projects clear environmental review, they should be built with union labor.

Who can win in November?

Each candidate argued their background made them the strongest general election match for Mackenzie. Crosswell, a Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, said he resigned from the Justice Department and testified before Congress after the Trump administration directed him to drop charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

“Before I testified, Sen. Adam Schiff walked into the room and told me that one of the other witnesses had received a letter from the DOJ delivered to her house by U.S. Marshals. That was what I learned five minutes before I came out and testified. But I did anyway, because just like when I joined the Marine Corps in the middle of two wars, I wanted to do what was right for my country,” Crosswell said.

McClure said his eight years as Northampton County executive gave him a tested record against Trump’s allies, including removing ICE agents from the county courthouse, that none of his opponents could match. He argued Carbon County would again be decisive in November.

“Ryan Mackenzie is in Congress by virtue of Carbon County. He won’t beat me here 70-30, and he’ll be a one-term congressman,” McClure said.

Brooks, a 20-year Bethlehem firefighter and state firefighters union president, said working-class voters would see themselves in him.

“I didn’t quit my job to run for Congress. I’m still president of the Pennsylvania firefighters, and I still own my own lawn care business,” Brooks said.

Obando-Derstine came to the U.S. from Colombia at age 3 and worked for U.S. Sen. Bob Casey beginning in 2011.

“I am a fluent Spanish-speaking immigrant from Colombia who lived through the immigration process, who will fight tooth and nail against Trump’s militarized ICE but understands that we need to reform this system. And who better than someone who lived it?” Obando-Derstine said.

Intraparty attacks

The sharpest exchange of the night came when McClure turned on Brooks over past social media posts. McClure said Brooks had written on Facebook that former President Barack Obama “sucks” and cited a post Brooks made the day after a gunman killed Latino shoppers at a Texas Walmart using an AR-15 and high-capacity magazines.

“The next day, Bob went on social media and said, it’s not the guns, it’s that we don’t have school prayer and there’s no discipline at home,” McClure said. “Well, no, it is the AR-15 and high-capacity magazines, and they do need to be banned.”

Brooks did not directly address the posts during Thursday’s debate.

Voting rights, closing arguments

All four candidates opposed the Save American Voter Eligibility Act, which would have required a passport or birth certificate — not a driver’s license — to register to vote. The bill passed the House but stalled in the Senate. Crosswell, who said he served in the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section before Trump eliminated the unit, called for making Election Day a national holiday and expanding early voting.

“What does it say about a political party that is constantly trying to make it harder for Americans to vote?” Crosswell said.

Obando-Derstine framed the issue in constitutional terms.

“It should be easier to vote and exercise your right, because it’s not a privilege, it’s a right,” she said.

In closing arguments, Brooks pointed to his work helping pass a bill that gave first responders mental health coverage under workers’ compensation, a measure he said Mackenzie voted against “every time,” and invoked his grandchildren.

“I have a 1-year-old and a 3-year-old granddaughter at home, and they are not going to say ever that grandpa sat idle,” Brooks said.

McClure urged voters to demand authenticity.

“Your word is your oath,” he said. “People are looking for what they often refer to as authenticity. And I can tell you that through my two terms as county executive, I made three promises, and I kept those three promises through eight years — not to raise taxes, and I actually cut them; to preserve farmland and open space; and to build the largest publicly owned nursing home under one roof, where people who are desperate and have nowhere else to go now have a home because of that.”

Obando-Derstine made a direct case to voters on experience alone.

“I have done the work,” she said. “I have shown up — 22 years of experience, raising my kids here and building my career and my name here. I have stood up for our district, and I want to keep doing that in Congress as your next congresswoman.”

Crosswell asked voters to view his departure from the Justice Department as a credential.

“This is an opportunity for you to send one of the public servants that he got rid of back to Congress,” he said. “This is our country. This is not Donald Trump’s country, and we are going to fight for our kids, our grandkids and our communities.”