Democrat Carol Obando-Derstine, a one-time employee of the former US senator Bob Casey, will start the campaign on Thursday to get a republican Rep. Ryan Mackenzie From his place in the 7th Congress District of Lehigh Valley – a race that may have significant implications for the balance of the USA house in the 2026 election.
A former representative of the democratic USA Susan Wild, who took the place for three terms, before Mackenzie defeated her in November in one percentage point, he would support Obando-Derstine, answering the question of whether Wild would look for a rematch.
48-year-old Obando-Derstine, who avoided the Civil War in her hometown Columbia with her family, when she was 3 years aged, she has lived in the Lehigh Valley for 22 years.
She said that she was running for Congress, because “too many families are squeezed by a system that puts billionaires and special interests.” She added: “I know that our families are struggling because I lived them.”
Obando-Derstine will announce an official announcement in Bethlehem on Thursday morning. Together with Wild, Pastor Allentown Greg Edwards, who unsuccessfully ran to the same 7th Congress District in 2018, will join Obando-Derstine.
In a statement about the support of Wild, she said that she had the honor to see “unwavering dedication to our community up close. Her history – processing by school, raising a family here and a fight for too often left – is the history of our community … I believe in Carol.”
Obando-Derstine worked in components of aid for Casey, among others, representing Lehigh, Northampton and Carbon. She also served a member of the former Governor of the Advisory Committee Tom Wolf for Latin matters.
The mother of two children worked for Casey in 2011–2016, and then joined PPL Electrical Utilities, where she worked as an energy engineer up to three weeks ago, when she gave up applying for an office.
After leaving Colombia, the Obando-Derstine family settled in Passaic, Nj, where her father-which was a teacher of mathematics and exact sciences-he was at school to study electronics and became a technology employee in a hospital. Her mother was a machine operator at the factory.
“My parents devoted everything to the American Dream shot,” said Obando-Derstine in an interview on Wednesday. “They came here – legally – to give me a better life.”
Obando-Derstine attributed an example of her parents to force her to serve others. She worked at Head Start; He ran a pantry and an out -of -ance program; and helped to start a larger chapter of Philadelphia Latin in technologyThe National Organization Non -Profit, which works to ensure the possibility of employment and strengthening position.
“I survived the fights that my parents had,” she said. “And I devoted my life to helping others.”
She will have to recall everything she learned that she was fighting for the Congress in a “gigantically important breed,” he said Christopher Borick, Professor of political sciences and director Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion.
Both national political parties probably pour a fortune into the race, just like last year He added that when Wild ran to re -election and Mackenzie gave a place for Republicans.
“It is a swing district and will be one of the highest races of the profile in the election cycle in 2026, when Democrats are trying to use the middle periods to take the house,” said Borick. “It will be close. When Mackenzie won one point in November, his margin of victory was one of the smallest among republican candidates.”
However, before the universal elections, Obando-Derstine must face at least one opponent in the basic democratic in May 2026: Executive director of Northampton Ferrings Lamont McClurewhich he took office in 2018 after the Council of the County in 2006–2013.
Borick said that McClure would be a “powerful” rival because he is a veteran of several elections.
Despite this, Obando-Dzestine believes that he has extensive experience in dealing with the duties of Congress.
“If you are still listening to the fear that people have, that’s where you have a rush to apply for the office,” she said. “If you show that you are organized, serious and caring, people will support you.”
