Democrat Bob Brooks flipped Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District on Tuesday, unseating first-term Republican U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie and sending a retired Bethlehem firefighter to Washington.

The Associated Press called the race Tuesday night, with Brooks taking 56% of the vote to Mackenzie’s 44%.

Mackenzie, 44, served in the state House from 2012 until he won the congressional seat in 2024, when he unseated three-term Democrat Susan Wild by roughly 4,000 votes out of about 403,000 cast.

Brooks, 53, is president of the Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association. He won a four-way Democratic primary in May. Mackenzie ran unopposed for the Republican nomination.

The 7th District covers all of Carbon, Lehigh and Northampton counties and part of Monroe County.

Brooks tallied 163,823 votes against Mackenzie’s 128,465, according to the Associated Press. Counting continued Wednesday, and the totals are unofficial until the four counties certify.

Carbon County did not go with the winner.

Mackenzie carried the county 14,661 to 9,749, according to unofficial returns posted by the Carbon County elections office at 10:13 p.m. Tuesday. He won the county’s Election Day vote 13,194 to 6,854. Brooks took the mail-in ballots 2,895 to 1,467. Write-ins drew 49.

Brooks, speaking to supporters Tuesday night, framed the win as a victory for organized labor.

“Well, we did it. We are sending a firefighter to Congress. When labor fights together, we win,” Brooks said.

He opened with his wife, Jen.

“When I retired from the city of Bethlehem Fire Department, my wife, Jen, told me I need to get a part-time job. If we stand here tonight, I don’t think this is what she had in mind,” Brooks said.

Brooks said the campaign’s central message came from voters he met across the four-county district. He singled out Carbon County and fuel prices.

“I’ve spoken with people across the Lehigh Valley throughout this campaign who are playing the game the best they can, working hard, punching the clock, doing everything right, and they’re still struggling to get ahead or just get by. They’re sick and tired of waking up every day and getting kicked in the teeth by a broken political system that has left them behind,” Brooks said.

He tied that to national policy.

“I spoke with people in Carbon County who are getting crushed just like I am by having to pay $6 a gallon for diesel because of a pointless war in Iran,” Brooks said. “I’ve talked with small business owners in Bethlehem who are struggling because of Trump’s reckless tariffs. I’ve talked with families who are going without health insurance because of rising costs and devastating cuts from this administration.”

Brooks laid out a four-part agenda: banning congressional stock trading, ending corporate PAC money, imposing term limits and releasing the full Epstein files.

“If we’re going to fix D.C., we’ve got to put the fire out first. That means ripping out the corruption from its roots,” Brooks said.

He said he would not be a caretaker in Washington.

“We aren’t going down there to try and piece things back together the way they were before. We’re going down there to shake up the status quo, fight for working people, stop the bullshit, and build something better from the ashes,” Brooks said.

Mackenzie conceded Tuesday night and thanked his staff and volunteers.

“We were out there knocking on more doors than you could possibly imagine, making the phone calls, making the person-to-person contacts, raising the resources that we need to get our message out,” Mackenzie said. “We did everything that you would normally expect that you need to do to be successful in a race like this.”

He pointed to Republican losses nationwide.

“All across this country, we are seeing results that are not going to make a lot of us happy in this room,” Mackenzie said. “And so we’ve been here before. We’ve been in this cycle. If you look at the history of American politics, you don’t have to go back very far.”

Mackenzie told supporters the loss was temporary.

“Do not give up. Nobody should give up the fight. This is just a setback along the way to continuing to make America and our community even better and brighter,” Mackenzie said.