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Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District election, 2026
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| Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District |
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| General election |
| Election details |
| Filing deadline: Pending |
| Primary: Pending General: November 3, 2026 |
| How to vote |
| Poll times:
7 a.m. to 8 p.m. |
| Race ratings |
DDHQ and The Hill: Pending Inside Elections: Toss-up Sabato's Crystal Ball: Toss-up |
| Ballotpedia analysis |
| U.S. Senate battlegrounds U.S. House battlegrounds Federal and state primary competitiveness Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2026 |
| See also |
1st • 2nd • 3rd • 4th • 5th • 6th • 7th • 8th • 9th • 10th • 11th • 12th • 13th • 14th • 15th • 16th • 17th Pennsylvania elections, 2026 U.S. Congress elections, 2026 U.S. Senate elections, 2026 U.S. House elections, 2026 |
All U.S. House districts, including the 7th Congressional District of Pennsylvania, are holding elections in 2026. The general election is November 3, 2026. To learn more about other elections on the ballot, click here.
Candidates and election results
Note: The following list includes official candidates only. Ballotpedia defines official candidates as people who:
- Register with a federal or state campaign finance agency before the candidate filing deadline
- Appear on candidate lists released by government election agencies
General election
The general election will occur on November 3, 2026.
General election for U.S. House Pennsylvania District 7
The following candidates are running in the general election for U.S. House Pennsylvania District 7 on November 3, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Ryan Mackenzie (R) | |
 | Bob Brooks (D)  | |
 | Ryan Crosswell (D) | |
 | Lamont McClure (D) | |
 | Carol Obando-Derstine (D) | |
 | Mark Pinsley (D) | |
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| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Candidate profiles
This section includes candidate profiles that may be created in one of two ways: either the candidate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey, or Ballotpedia staff may compile a profile based on campaign websites, advertisements, and public statements after identifying the candidate as noteworthy. For more on how we select candidates to include, click here.
Party: Democratic Party
Incumbent: No
Political Office: None
Submitted Biography: "Carol Obando-Derstine is a Democratic candidate for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 7th District. An engineer, bilingual community leader, and proud mother, she brings over 25 years of experience in the nonprofit, public, and private sectors. At PPL Electric Utilities, she led energy transition and grid modernization efforts. She also served as Regional Manager and Statewide Latino Affairs Advisor for U.S. Senator Bob Casey and previously led the SkillsUSA Council and the Children’s Coalition of the Lehigh Valley. Carol’s blend of technical expertise, public service, and lived experience drives her fight for working families."
Voting information
- See also: Voting in Pennsylvania
Ballotpedia will publish the dates and deadlines related to this election as they are made available.
Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey responses
Ballotpedia asks all federal, state, and local candidates to complete a survey and share what motivates them on political and personal levels. The section below shows responses from candidates in this race who completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
Survey responses from candidates in this race
Click on a candidate's name to visit their Ballotpedia page.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
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Bob Brooks (D)
The number one thing I hear from folks is how expensive life is. People can’t keep up with groceries, rent, healthcare, childcare, or utility bills. Wages aren’t keeping up, and too many are working harder than ever for too little.
Healthcare: Restore Medicaid cuts and provide Medicare for All.
Housing: Build more market-rate homes, ban private equity from driving up costs, and extend VA-style home loans to essential workers.
Childcare: Repeal Headstart cuts, expand subsidies and publicly funded preschool.
Utilities: Invest in renewables, nuclear, and natural gas, and stop utility price-gouging.
Retirement & Goods: Protect Social Security, strengthen unions, and enforce antitrust rules to stop price-gouging.
Washington is a dumpster fire
Washington’s broken, and working people are the ones getting burned. Billionaires and big corporations run the show while wages stay flat and costs keep climbing. I’ve lived a working-class life. there was a time a blue-collar job could support a family. it doesn’t anymore. We need to take money out of politics, end stock trading in Congress, enforce term limits, and make the wealthy pay their fair share. I know the struggle, and I’m running to fight for working families and get Washington working for us again.
One Big Beautiful Bill
To build an economy where working families like the one I grew up in can afford housing, groceries and utilities, and have a pathway to real prosperity. That includes supporting small businesses so they thrive and flourish, thereby providing family-sustaining jobs.
It also includes supporting career and technical training and incentivizing good-paying manufacturing jobs.
I'm going to fight for our bodies, for affordable energy, and for the American Dream.
I’m running to protect our right to choose what to do with our own bodies.
I will push for a resilient energy sector leading to job opportunities while ensuring that everyday residents can afford their energy bills.
I will never stop fighting against shameful policies that tear away at the American Dream, make us less free, and make life harder for every single American.
I'm going to stand up to extremist Republicans.
I will not stand by as Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Ryan Mackenzie rip away healthcare from millions of Americans and take food off families’ tables to give trillions in tax cuts to their billionaire donors.
I’m blessed to be living my American Dream, and I have always tried to pay it forward every day to help families living on the economic edge not just get by, but to thrive.
Bob Brooks (D)
Bob Brooks (D)
You can ask candidates in this race to fill out the survey by clicking their names below:
Campaign finance
| Name | Party | Receipts* | Disbursements** | Cash on hand | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ryan Mackenzie | Republican Party | $1,925,943 | $594,739 | $1,434,444 | As of September 30, 2025 |
| Bob Brooks | Democratic Party | $308,259 | $64,644 | $243,616 | As of September 30, 2025 |
| Ryan Crosswell | Democratic Party | $701,108 | $267,317 | $433,791 | As of September 30, 2025 |
| Lamont McClure | Democratic Party | $458,846 | $170,478 | $288,368 | As of September 30, 2025 |
| Carol Obando-Derstine | Democratic Party | $331,294 | $203,781 | $127,513 | As of September 30, 2025 |
| Mark Pinsley | Democratic Party | $73,106 | $18,707 | $54,400 | As of September 30, 2025 |
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Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2026. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee." |
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General election race ratings
- See also: Race rating definitions and methods
Ballotpedia provides race ratings from four outlets: The Cook Political Report, Inside Elections, Sabato's Crystal Ball, and DDHQ/The Hill. Each race rating indicates if one party is perceived to have an advantage in the race and, if so, the degree of advantage:
- Safe and Solid ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge and the race is not competitive.
- Likely ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge, but an upset is possible.
- Lean ratings indicate that one party has a small edge, but the race is competitive.[1]
- Toss-up ratings indicate that neither party has an advantage.
Race ratings are informed by a number of factors, including polling, candidate quality, and election result history in the race's district or state.[2][3][4]
| Race ratings: Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District election, 2026 | |||||||||
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| Race tracker | Race ratings | ||||||||
| 12/2/2025 | 11/25/2025 | 11/18/2025 | 11/11/2025 | ||||||
| The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter | Toss-up | Toss-up | Toss-up | Toss-up | |||||
| Decision Desk HQ and The Hill | Pending | Pending | Pending | Pending | |||||
| Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales | Toss-up | Toss-up | Toss-up | Toss-up | |||||
| Larry J. Sabato's Crystal Ball | Toss-up | Toss-up | Toss-up | Toss-up | |||||
| Note: Ballotpedia reviews external race ratings every week throughout the election season and posts weekly updates even if the media outlets have not revised their ratings during that week. | |||||||||
Ballot access
The table below details filing requirements for U.S. House candidates in Pennsylvania in the 2026 election cycle. For additional information on candidate ballot access requirements in Pennsylvania, click here.
| Filing requirements for U.S. House candidates, 2026 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| State | Office | Party | Signatures required | Filing fee | Filing deadline | Source |
| Pennsylvania | U.S. House | Ballot-qualified party | 1,000 | $150.00 | TBD | Source |
| Pennsylvania | U.S. House | Unaffiliated | 2% of votes cast in the district in the last election | $150.00 | TBD | Source |
District history
The section below details election results for this office in elections dating back to 2020.
2024
2022
2020
District analysis
This section will contain facts and figures related to this district's elections when those are available.
See also
| Pennsylvania | 2026 primaries | 2026 U.S. Congress elections |
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Voting in Pennsylvania Pennsylvania elections: 2026 • 2025 • 2024 • 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 |
Republican primary battlegrounds U.S. Senate Democratic primaries U.S. Senate Republican primaries U.S. House Democratic primaries U.S. House Republican primaries |
U.S. Senate elections U.S. House elections Special elections Ballot access |
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Inside Elections also uses Tilt ratings to indicate an even smaller advantage and greater competitiveness.
- ↑ Amee LaTour, "Email correspondence with Nathan Gonzalez," April 19, 2018
- ↑ Amee LaTour, "Email correspondence with Kyle Kondik," April 19, 2018
- ↑ Amee LaTour, "Email correspondence with Charlie Cook," April 22, 2018
