{"id":23006,"date":"2026-05-20T02:02:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T02:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/shapiro-backed-brooks-wins-competitive-pennsylvania-primary\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T02:02:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T02:02:17","slug":"shapiro-backed-brooks-wins-competitive-pennsylvania-primary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/shapiro-backed-brooks-wins-competitive-pennsylvania-primary\/","title":{"rendered":"Shapiro-backed Brooks wins competitive Pennsylvania primary"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro just passed his first major test of the midterms.<\/p>\n

Bob Brooks, a Shapiro-endorsed firefighter union leader, will take on GOP Rep. Ryan Mackenzie in a key November battleground after clinching the Democratic nomination for Pennsylvania\u2019s 7th District over a crowded field.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a significant win for Shapiro, who helped recruit Brooks into the race as part of his aggressive push to help Democrats retake the House by flipping four competitive seats in Pennsylvania. A romp across the map could serve as a launchpad for the governor\u2019s potential 2028 presidential campaign.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a boon to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which recently added Brooks to its \u201cRed to Blue\u201d program and boosted him with a pre-primary ad buy.<\/p>\n

Brooks, a first-time candidate, leaned heavily on the highly popular governor\u2019s imprimatur<\/a> to boost him over a four-way field that included former Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure, former federal prosecutor Ryan Crosswell, and engineer Carol Obando-Derstine, who served as an adviser to former Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.).<\/p>\n

Shapiro went all-in, endorsing Brooks and hosting a fundraiser for him in December, cutting an ad for him in the spring and stumping with him shortly before Election Day.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s support brought scrutiny on both men. News outlets unearthed Brooks\u2019 problematic old social media posts<\/a> and a messy family property dispute<\/a>. Brooks suggested that Shapiro tried to retaliate against a political foe in 2024 by encouraging his union to back her GOP opponent. (Brooks later said he misspoke.)<\/p>\n

And a mysterious outside group with apparent ties to the GOP<\/a>, Lead Left PAC, spent more than $1 million boosting McClure and attempting to sink Brooks and Crosswell in the final days of the race. Voters appeared to look past it all.<\/p>\n

Brooks had more than just Shapiro in his corner. The blue-collar everyman who worked as a bartender and moonlights as a snowplow driver is being held up by an array of Democrats as a model for how the party can win back working-class voters.<\/p>\n

He boasts one of the broadest endorsement lists of any House challenger on the map, a roster that spans from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and from the Congressional Progressive Caucus to the Blue Dogs. He\u2019s also brought together a cross-section of top Democratic operatives, including the progressive Fight Agency and The Bench, a new group that works to elect nontraditional Democrats.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro just passed his first major test of the midterms. Bob Brooks, a Shapiro-endorsed firefighter union leader, will take on GOP Rep. Ryan Mackenzie in a key November battleground after clinching the Democratic nomination for Pennsylvania\u2019s 7th District over a crowded field. It\u2019s a significant win for Shapiro, who helped recruit Brooks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23006\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}