Local and national Democrats will hold a People’s Town Hall on Thursday in the Lehigh Valley, calling on Pennsylvania’s Republican elected officials to protect federal assistance programs and oppose President Donald Trump’s agenda.
The event is part of the national Democratic Party’s push targeting Republicans in competitive districts. Republican U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, who represents Pennsylvania’s 7th District including the Lehigh Valley, narrowly defeated Democratic incumbent Susan Wild in 2024 in what was one of the closest congressional races in the country.
Similar People’s Town Hall events will take place across the country, including in Pennsylvania’s 8th District, represented by Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan.
Democratic organizers are calling for Republican elected officials to face their constituents’ concerns about the future of assistance programs like Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. House Republicans have proposed a spending plan that includes cutting $880 billion in spending from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which a nonpartisan federal agency has said is impossible without cuts to Medicaid or Medicare.
“If [House Republicans] won’t talk to their own voters, then Democrats will. That’s why we’ll be hosting People’s Town Halls in all 50 states across the country, starting now with vulnerable GOP-held target districts. Working families deserve to have their voices heard, even if Republicans want to ignore them,” Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said in a written statement.
In a statement, Mackenzie spokesperson Arnaud Armstrong said that Mackenzie has regularly met with constituents, answered questions at public events and corresponded with 15,000 individuals in the district, and he criticized the Democratic party’s position on immigration and transgender athletes.
“The Democratic Party is openly using the same cookie cutter messaging campaign against every Republican elected official across the country because they want to distract from their party’s positions of defending violent criminal illegal immigrants and refusing to support women in sports,” Armstrong said in a written statement.
Mackenzie has previously voiced support for programs like Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, and specifically vowed not to vote for cuts to the latter two programs while campaigning.
Local Democrats have organized weekly protests outside of Ryan Mackenzie’s district office, where protesters expressed concerns about program cuts and Trump’s walking back support of Ukraine in its war against Russian invasion, and called on Mackenzie to respond.
The Lehigh Valley event will take place 6 p.m. Thursday at the Cathedral Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
