ALLENTOWN, Pa. — GOP House candidate Ryan Mackenzie hopes those who’ve served can help him flip one of Pennsylvania’s most competitive swing districts — and is practically begging them for a strategy.
“If you have any ideas … to engage with other veterans, speak before veterans’ groups, that’s what we’re looking for at this time,” Mackenzie told a small group of vets at an Allentown diner last week.
Mackenzie’s plea continued a wider effort from Pennsylvania Republicans — such as Senate hopeful Dave McCormick — to target veterans in their communities to turn out the critical voting bloc this year.
McCormick, a West Point graduate who served in the First Gulf War, spoke to his fellow veterans the previous weekend at the Pennsylvania American Legion convention. He has repeatedly noted only half of all veterans regularly vote, while 22 vets take their own lives each day.
While Mackenzie is not a veteran himself, his combat-decorated supporters say his experience helping them navigate state services makes him the best option to take on Democratic Rep. Susan Wild in Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District.
“We shouldn’t have to worry about 24/7 politics,” said Joe Steber, an Air Force veteran and the chairman of Veterans for Ryan Mackenzie. “We’re gonna elect the leaders that are gonna go represent and take care of the issues that affect our daily lives.”
Mackenzie says Wild’s record on veterans’ issues is best encapsulated by her vote against the military appropriations bill last month.
By voting against that bill, Wild joined all but four of her Democratic colleagues in preventing the federal government from sidetracking the Veterans Administration to pay for illegal immigrants’ health care.
“We are seeing that illegal immigration is crowding out benefits for not just veterans but a lot of other people,” Mackenzie told The Post. “Susan Wild is failing our veterans and our military personnel who are coming back to our community.”
As The Post has reported, Wild has a history of making derogatory comments about her constituents — including a veteran she met at a Memorial Day parade this year.
When the discussion turned to the 2024 election, veterans attending Mackenzie’s roundtable criticized what they called a “coup” replacing President Biden with Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democrats’ nominee orchestrated by party elites but acknowledged its potential to shake up the race.
“Kamala does not have a very good chance, but it’s gonna change some of the dynamics of this race. … She’s bad, but she’s not that bad,” said Navy veteran Bryan Eichfeld, comparing Harris with Biden. “Now, it’s gonna shift to issues more than personality.”
“We live in a soundbite world,” said Army veteran Shawn Welch of Hellertown. “You’ve got nanoseconds to get people’s attention, and that’s gonna be the trick.”
Still, Mackenzie says the switcheroo atop the ticket will not change his message.
“She is tied to every single Joe Biden policy that we were basing our campaign on,” Mackenzie said of Harris.