Bob Brooks gives remarks at Bethlehem watch party amid 2026 Midterm Elections

Now to the race for the 7th Congressional District in Pennsylvania, which covers the Lehigh Valley area. One-term incumbent Republican Ryan McKenzie facing Democratic challenger and labor leader Bob Brooks. With 65 percent of the estimated votes counted, you can see Brooks in the lead here with 59 percent. Now, just a few moments ago, Brooks declared victory despite this race not being called. We want to listen in to what's going on there at his watch party right Right now, this is in Bethlehem, so let's listen in. I'll tell you what, a lot of you have been in rooms, and I've told you how humbling it was. This is another level. Bravo. Before I get rolling, there's a lot of people who came from a long, long way away. I can tell you, across the Commonwealth, Connecticut, four of my best friends of all time are here from Massachusetts. I'm sure you figured out where Edzo's from. All right, I think Edzo started with... GP Kelly, President Wormkessel, thank you. The general president of the IFF came all the way up from a training conference in Florida to Bethlehem on a Tuesday night. He didn't have to, but that's what this union does. Woo! We show up for each other. With that being said, GP, through this process, you are going to lose a great union leader. Yes, we are. Jeremy Wormkessel is coming with me. Ha, ha, ha. You're losing two. Boo! But we'll take you in Congress if that's a trade. We'll take you, we'll take you. Thank you, brother. Well, we did it. We are sending a firefighter to Congress. When labor fights together, we win. When? One day I'll get as good as him and be able to just rattle us off, I swear. In the meantime, you're going to let me read. 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. I have to thank my family, because I could not have done this without them. My wife, Jen, she's my flag bearer, my rock. My mom, Debbie, I can't turn around and look at her, because she's probably crying, which means I will. Thank you, Will. She's doing good. I got her now, though. I don't know what I'm talking about. My sons, Keith and his wife, Alyssa, she's not here tonight. She's got the girls. Austin, Maddie. Mason is not here tonight, he's in the Air Force, he's away, but Hunter, thank you, Joey. I don't know where Joe got to. There he is. Thank you. All right. You can see Bob Brooks there, labor leader, Democrat, in the 7th Congressional District here running for this seat, claiming victory in Bethlehem tonight. But again, this race has not been called. I want to turn now to Dylan Scott in Allentown with the McKenzie team. Dylan, have you been hearing any reaction from McKenzie, his team, regarding Bob Brooks declaring victory here? Yeah, Shepard, good evening. We're in Allentown with Ryan McKenzie and his watch party, his team right now. He has not yet shown up, the incumbent congressman from District 7. Give you a quick live look here. A lot of anxious supporters here. Some of his team is here. Ryan McKenzie is not here to this point. He is expected to be here really at any minute. Let's take you back, Shepard, to 2024. Remember, he ousted Susan Wild by about 4,000 votes in that 2024 election. So him and his team, no stranger to tight races. They knew this race with Bob Brooks would really come down to the wire. As you mentioned, you know, a little more than half of that vote already coming in. But again, not really ready to concede defeat just yet. McKenzie really campaigning with Mike Johnson, endorsed by Trump, really had been out on the trail trying to convince voters that he needs two more years to really finish this agenda, whether we were talking about the southern border and immigration policy, funding ICE, things of that sort, the big beautiful bill, tax cuts to people in the Lehigh Valley, which he said he's been a big proponent of, and breaking down what he calls a radical woke agenda that has everything to do from trans athletes and sports, potentially, to gay rights, things of that sort. He's been a big proponent. Everything Trump so far has really been aligned with McKenzie. And ultimately, the congressman says that there's a lot more work to be done, which is why he thought he ran a pretty strong campaign, that District 7 voters would give him the two more years he really needs to complete this long message that he has. But again, ultimately, the number's not polling in his favor right now with more than half already in. So right now, we're waiting for Ryan McKenzie. Again, we've spoken to his campaign manager, his team. He is expected here within hopefully the next couple of minutes. We don't know at that time if he will concede this race potentially. But again, on the campaign trail, hearing the things he said. He felt confident in the race he ran, Sheba, that again, this red wave would continue much like we saw in 2024, that he, you know, was very adamant that Bob Brooks was not the type of candidate he thought could garner this type of support. So remains to be seen in the next hour or so, obviously, whether or not he comes here and concedes, whether or not he allows those votes to continue. But no stranger in District 7 to tight races, Sheba. And we have another one here tonight in Allentown. Yeah, it was a tight race in 2024, and here we are back in 2026 in another tight race. So let us know when McKenzie comes into the room, or if anyone from the McKenzie camp can comment on what's going on at the Bob Brooks camp, where he is declaring himself the winner. So let us know. All right, Dylan Scott, thank you. Let's bring in our political analyst, Bruce Gordon, now live in the newsroom. So Bruce, this congressional race between Fitzpatrick and Harvey, we know it still hasn't been called. What are your thoughts? We've seen this in races before where candidates declare victory and we're still waiting for a race to be called. We have, yeah. Let me just tell you, and I've been throughout the evening checking a variety of sources, including the New York Times, which does a pretty in-depth analysis of all of these congressional races, and what they're saying right now is that Brooks, Bob Brooks, is likely to win. Brooks leads in the reported vote and appears to be on track to maintain that lead, but again, nothing's been called. It's a sizable lead right now, about a 14, 15 percentage point lead, about 230,000 vote margin for Bob Brooks over Ryan McKenzie. But again, hasn't been called, but the trend here appears to be certainly in Bob Brooks' favor for that victory in the seventh. And that's a pickup for Democrats. Oh, would be a pickup. Okay. So this is one of four big toss-up races we have been closely watching here in Pennsylvania. The other one is for the 1st Congressional District. We saw Chris O'Connell at the Harvey camp over there. What are you learning about the Bob Harvey? Brian Fitzpatrick race, any leaning, any word on where this race is going tonight? Well, again, we're talking about a 13, 14 percentage point lead for Bob Harvey as we now speak. Roughly half the votes are in, not quite half the votes are in. Again, this first congressional district is pretty much all of Bucks County and, as you said, a tiny sliver of Montgomery County. Despite the sizable percentage point lead, you look at that and you say, wow, Harvey is well on his way. Again, the New York Times analysis says our best estimate is the race. This is a toss-up. The lead is for Harvey, but the remaining votes could certainly tip this either way. And again, that's because in any congressional district, there are red pockets, there are blue pockets, and it all matters what votes are still outstanding, what hasn't been counted. If one of my strongholds, for example, has been undercounted so far, I may in fact come from behind to win the race. And there's still the possibility of that for Brian Fitzpatrick. Yeah. This is a... Purple County, Bucks County. The purplest. Yeah, of course. Do you think we may not know until tomorrow? What do you think here? It's certainly possible. Again, 46% of the vote in at this point, more than two hours after the polls closed. That is certainly behind some counties around the country. Look, every county is different. Everyone handles their business slightly differently. We've seen states. Florida, for example, the vast majority of the votes already been counted. That's a big state, lots of folks, two time zones, in fact, and yet their count is well along. And then you have a state like Maine, for example, with very few votes counted so far. So it's all over the map, but, yeah, it could easily be tomorrow morning before we have a real sense in that first district who wins. And, again, if it's Fitzpatrick the incumbent, Harvey would represent a pickup for Democrats if he were to hold on and win this race.