Susan Wild, the Democrat running for re-election in Pennsylvania’s 7th district, praised her six-year tenure in the House of Representatives during an interview with The Lafayette.
Wild often pivoted to education and mental health in the 30-minute interview, an important facet of her career as a member of the Education and Labor Committee. She defended her bipartisan record despite claims otherwise from her opponent, Ryan Mackenzie, and spoke of proposed solutions to the ongoing Southern border crisis. While Wild did not respond specifically to how she would mitigate the rising costs of living in the Lehigh Valley, she touted lowering prescription drug prices and combatting shrinkflation during her tenure.
“I am a firm believer that we have to provide a higher education for every single person who seeks it, and that doesn’t always mean college,” said Wild when asked about how her campaign would appeal to undecided college voters.
On the topic of abortion, Wild said that deciding the acceptability of an abortion late into a pregnancy is “not for me or any other politician or any judge to say.”
Wild denounced Mackenzie’s pro-life view on abortion and that many of his supporters disapprove of IVF. She said Mackenzie “has consistently voted against women’s reproductive rights in the state house,” despite claims from Mackenzie’s campaign that he wouldn’t support a federal abortion ban. Mackenzie voted yes to Senate Bill 3 in 2017, which would ban abortions after 20 weeks of gestational age except in cases of irreversible health risk to the mother; it excludes exceptions for rape and incest. Mackenzie’s most recent stance on the issue includes exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.
On the topic of abortion bans, Mackenzie also told LehighValleyNews.com that it is “something that is much better left up to the states.”
Wild said she was “very successful in introducing bipartisan bills,” in her time in Congress. Mackenzie claimed that Wild voted with Biden “100% of the time,” in a September debate on WFMZ, a statement that needs context. The Five-Thirty-Eight report factors in Wild’s voting with Biden up until only December 2022. In June 2023, Wild voted in favor of the Save Our Gas Stoves Act, which would work to limit the Biden Administration’s proposed energy conservation standards for gas stoves. Wild also called for Biden to step down in July.
Wild was also asked how she looks to win votes in local rural areas, which traditionally vote for Republicans; she said that “we immediately opened an office in Carbon County” after the PA-7 district expanded.
“I’ve been up there a multitude of times,” she said. “We have gotten funding for their police departments. We’ve gotten funding for their infrastructure. That’s the way you really win elections.”
On the topic of rising housing costs in the Lehigh Valley — a study from the United Way Lehigh Valley, for example, found many residents struggle to live paycheck-to-paycheck — Wild said she “worked very, very hard to bring down the price of prescription drugs, and we’ve been successful on both insulin and inhalers.”
Wild also spoke of the current issues at the southern border.
It has “been a problem for decades,” Wild said. “This is not brand new under President Biden.”
She denounced the failure to pass a bipartisan border bill in the February U.S. Senate and said she would vote to approve it despite partisan disagreements.
Wild’s long-term view of the border is mixed. She did vote against the “Secure the Border Act,” claiming in an X-clip that it “offered no solutions.” She called the border wall “silly” in a 2018 WFMZ interview and that people should “put that money toward education and health care.” In a September debate on WFMZ against Mackenzie, she said a wall would be “appropriate in certain portions of the border.” Meanwhile, she published an op-ed on border action in The Morning Call for both parties to find solutions on the issue.
“That’s called compromise, and that’s how we get things done,” she said while praising the Dignity Act of 2023, a bipartisan bill she co-sponsored that offers pathways to citizenship for law-abiding immigrants.
Wild also said among her biggest accomplishments in her Congressional tenure is passing the “Dr. Lorna Breen Act,” a mental health bill that she introduced in 2022. She was also proud of the resources that she added to the Lehigh Valley, such as grant money and infrastructure funding.
She re-affirmed that the Lehigh Valley remains a critical area for people to pay attention to during the election build-up.
“I tell anybody running either for statewide office, like the governor or senator, or for national office, they absolutely need to come to Pennsylvania-7, and I think that it shows respect for the people of Pennsylvania-7 to come to show up and be here,” she said.
