NEW: Firefighter and Union Leader Bob Brooks Is Running for Congress to Fight for Working Families

Washington, D.C. – New reporting from The Keystone Newsroom highlights why firefighter and union leader Bob Brooks, the Democratic candidate challenging GOP Rep. Ryan Mackenzie in PA-07, decided to run for Congress: After a career helping people through some of their toughest moments, Brooks believes he’s ready to bring that same commitment to fighting for Pennsylvania families in Congress.

“Bob’s a guy who will fight for working families the same way he fought for this community his whole life,” said a firefighter who previously served alongside Brooks.

Read more below:

The Keystone Newsroom: Bob Brooks didn’t start the DC dumpster fire. He wants to put it out
Bob Brooks believes that his time serving as a firefighter and union leader has prepared him to serve in the US House.
By Sean Kitchen
September 29, 2026

• 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.

• 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.” 

• 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.”

###