I’ve spent most of this election cycle telling you who I’m not going to vote for in our Congressional race. There’s a reason for that- I think one of the candidates is genuinely a bad human being, unworthy of anyone’s vote, and potentially another Fetterman. There is a second candidate who is somewhere between being a true Republican and being someone who maybe lacks a true set of core values, based on their life decisions. Under no circumstances will I ever vote for Bob Brooks to be anything, he is that awful in general. If Ryan Crosswell is nominated, I’ll vote for him, but I do think remaining a Republican after January 6th and working for a union busting law firm is negative. I will vote for him if nominated though, as he’s better than Mackenzie.

That left two candidates, and while I was decided very early, I will say they’re both fine. I would be enthusiastic about voting for Carol Obando-Derstine if she were nominated for Congress. She has a wonderful life story, an impressive educational background, and previously served in Senator Casey’s office. She’s a solid Democrat and we’d all be proud if she represented us. She is new to running for office and I think this race has been difficult for her. Even so, I expect her to get a healthy number of votes next week and be a factor in the race. A solid majority of our primary electorate are women, and they will consider a qualified woman candidate.

I’m going to vote for Lamont McClure though. I was there pretty early and I haven’t really changed my mind on it. There are two reasons, and only two reasons for my vote, and I’m going to lay them out as clearly as possible here.

1. Lamont is where I am on policy and did what he said he’d do as Executive. When he ran for Executive in 2017, he said he would do three things- not raise taxes, keep Gracedale County owned, and preserve Open Space. He did those three things. There are critics of his terms as Executive, as there should be, and most of them are mad that he didn’t do other things that they wanted him to do. He did the things he ran on though. He’s a political moderate that fits right in the mainstream Democratic Party positions on core issues like guns, reproductive rights, civil rights, labor rights, and the environment. This is where I believe the country needs to be right now. I really don’t want to make the government a Petri dish for far left ideas and to remake the world in a more (white) progressive populist vision. That will not improve our world.
2. Lamont won two comfortable general elections in the most swing county in the district. In theory, Ryan Crosswell is a strong general election candidate. I mean, he literally was a Republican until like a year ago, so how can they call him a leftist? They will call him a carpetbagger though, they will point to the dishonesty in his story for why he’s running, and they’ll make his political change of heart into an argument that he lacks a political core or convictions. Brooks claims he’s a strong general election candidate, but the man is a literal deadbeat and buffoon. Republicans will convince enough voters to not vote for him and hang onto the district. Nobody likes someone who takes from their own family. Furthermore I don’t see him stopping the deterioration of the Democratic share of the vote in Allentown, let alone turning out our suburban, college educated and mostly female base. Carol has never ran before, and while I think she’d appeal more to our base than an ignoramus like Brooks, she’s an unknown there. McClure was elected twice as Northampton County Executive and I believe three times in what was a very competitive county council seat. We pretty much know what Republicans are going to say about him, and the most swing voting county already has passed judgment on that. His critics will point out his poor fundraising in this primary, and look, I don’t love that. Ryan Mackenzie was a poor fundraiser two years ago in his primary too. Once you’re the nominee of either party in this district, you raise a lot of money. Outside spending groups come in to defend you. Leadership PACS from the Hill start funneling money your way. Any of these four will have money in the general election. That shouldn’t even be anyone’s concern.

For these two reasons, I’m voting for McClure. As I said, I’m fine with Carol if she’s the nominee, and I’ll vote for Crosswell, I think he’d be an improvement. Bob Brooks would just be a continuation of the decay of our politics, another step down for the quality of our representation and our politics. I will not defend the indefensible, nor do I think most will by the time the Fall comes around. So I’m voting for McClure. I think if he’s our nominee, we’ll be winning this seat.