After appearing at President Donald Trump’s midterm convention in Dallas last week, Rep. Ryan Mackenzie’s (R-Lehigh) constituents aren’t optimistic about his attempts to moderate his positions going into November.
Internet archives show that Mackenzie’s campaign scrubbed numerous conservative positions from his “Record” page and replaced them with bipartisan language going into the election season.
Meet the candidates: Ryan Mackenzie and Bob Brooks face off in PA-07
“He’s trying to appeal more to the centrist voters,” Michael Baker, a retired state employee and member of Service Employees International Union Local 668, told The Keystone last week.
On Thursday, dozens of Mackenzie’s constituents, including Baker, lined Cedar Crest Boulevard. They were demonstrating against the Republican lawmaker’s appearance at Trump’s convention.
“He hasn’t changed his stripes, in my opinion. He’s just trying to appeal to the most voters he can and hope they don’t look at his history,” Baker added.
After the May primary, Mackenzie’s campaign removed language about his endorsement from the PA Pro-Life Federation, an anti-abortion organization, and his support for the Second Amendment, which guarantees the right to own guns.
His campaign also removed language referencing his votes for voter ID and the SAVE Act, an extreme voter suppression bill pushed by Trump. Also scrubbed was his vote in favor of the “Protect Women’s Sports Act,” a bill that sought to bar transgender girls and women from competing in sports in schools, and his record of support for punishing sanctuary cities.
Those issues on his website were replaced with a section dubbed “working across the aisle,” which touted his work with Democrats to support military families and veterans, help families traveling by air, and reduce healthcare costs—despite voting to cut Medicaid by $1 trillion.
Mackenzie is considered one of the most vulnerable members of Congress and is facing off against Bob Brooks (D), a former firefighter and union leader, in November’s election.
Brooks has garnered endorsements from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Mackenzie backed over a dozen right-to-work bills while serving in the Pa. House
“He knows that all of his policies nobody wants, and that’s the thing about the Republicans. Instead of changing their policies, they just try to hide them, and they just try to cheat to win,” Kathy Harrington, leader of Lehigh Valley For All, a progressive grassroots organization, said in an interview.
“All of those things he still believes in, and he’s not gonna trick us into thinking that suddenly he’s got progressive values,” she added.
Mackenzie’s campaign declined to comment.
