Bob Brooks didn’t start the dumpster fire in Washington, DC, but he believes he’s the perfect candidate to put it out.
Brooks, retired 20-year firefighter and president of the Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association, believes that his career helping people at their lowest has prepared him to be a member of the US House.
“ When I show up to work every day, it was a possibility of helping somebody on their worst day. I’ve been through that myself when my house burned down,” Brooks told The Keystone.
When his childhood home burned down, he had to rely on neighbors. “I had to have people help me and the community help me,” he added.
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Looking back to his days as a firefighter, Brooks has put his skills to the test by suiting up and extinguishing flames in multiple campaign commercials throughout the primary and general elections.
Brooks is challenging Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-Lehigh), who is considered one of the most vulnerable House Republicans this election, with political forecasters calling the race a “toss-up.”
“When you’re fighting a fire, you gotta trust the guy next to you with your life. And for me, that was Bob Brooks,” a former colleague said in a new campaign ad that will air on Tuesday.
“ Bob’s a guy who will fight for working families the same way he fought for this community his whole life.”
With his goatee, motorcycles, and pickup trucks on display, Brooks looks like he could have voted for President Donald Trump in any of the last three elections, but he has campaigned on restoring cuts to the Affordable Care Act, enacting universal healthcare, taxing billionaires and making it easier for workers to unionize.
According to Brooks, his feud with Mackenzie stems from when he was advocating as a union leader for expanding workers’ compensation coverage for post-traumatic stress injuries (PTSI) for firefighters and first responders in the Pennsylvania Capitol.
Mackenzie was a state lawmaker at the time, and Brooks accused him of stopping the legislation from advancing.
“ It was very important because quite honestly, what was happening is our members were killing themselves. They were committing suicide,” Brooks said.
“ We were looking to get them help and get it covered under workers’ comp, but it wasn’t being acknowledged. So the fight in Harrisburg lasted us almost nine years, and one of my biggest opponents in that fight was the same guy I’m fighting right now, and that’s Ryan Mackenzie.”
Arnaud Armstrong, spokesperson for Mackenzie’s campaign, called Brooks’ accusation a lie and stated that different versions of the bill in previous legislative sessions were sent to committees that Mackenzie did not control.
According to state Rep. Jenn O’Mara (D-Delaware), who was the primary sponsor of the PTSI bill when it passed in 2024, previous versions of the legislation were kept out of the Labor and Industry Committee, where Macknezie had previously served as vice chair, due to opposition from the insurance industry.
“ At the time, the biggest opposition was the insurance industry, and the bill should have gone through Labor and Industry because it was amending workers’ comp. But the chair of Labor and Industry, Jim Cox, was adamant that he wouldn’t run it,” O’Mara said in an interview.
She added, “While Ryan Mackenzie was not the chair of that committee, he was one of the vice chairs, and the whole committee was adamant that they wouldn’t support it.”
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Instead, the bill sat untouched in the Pennsylvania House Veterans and Emergency Preparedness Committee. It moved only after Democrats took the chamber in 2023, but it took a long time to clear the Senate.
Finally, in October 2024, Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) signed the legislation expanding PTSI benefits for first responders. Mackenzie voted for the bill, but Brooks never forgave the Republican for being, in his estimation, a roadblock who stalled the legislation for years.
Brooks added, “Some [members] come from military backgrounds so they already have some combat baggage that hurts them, and not every firefighter or police officer goes through this, but a bunch do. We were watching our members kill themselves. All we were looking for was workers’ comp coverage, and that’s what we ended up getting.”
During the campaign, Mackenzie has painted Brooks as a corrupt lobbyist, but according to Brooks, he was required to register as a lobbyist to represent his members in the state Legislature.
“ My lobbying efforts come to represent my members–the members that pay dues and that pay my salary. I get paid to do that. That’s my job,” Brooks said.
“I go represent and get them better healthcare, better wages, and better working conditions. Getting that for working-class people, if he says that’s wrong, I hope he keeps bringing it.”
