Ryan Mackenzie stopped by a Bethlehem barbershop last week for a trim — and to highlight how the One Big Beautiful Bill is helping small business owners like shop owner Ronald Corales.
A week later, Mackenzie was joined by fellow U.S. Rep. Lisa McClain of Michigan, the House Republican Caucus chair, at a Carbon County manufacturing plant, the latest stop in a tour of local businesses aimed at showcasing the signature legislation of the Trump administration — and swaying voters who may be skeptical of its impacts.
“With my 30 years of experience in business, it’s important to see politics and Washington and business come together,” McClain said. “And so many times in D.C., we think we’ve put together really good policy like the One Big Beautiful Bill. We think there are some great policy wins in it, but there’s something to be said when you come out to people’s district, like Rep. Mackenzie’s district, and you can actually see those policies come to life with the facility that we have behind us.”
The visits during Congress’ summer break comes as Democrats continue to hammer at Republicans, including Mackenzie, who supported the spending bill that they say will bring tax cuts to the middle class, but which opponents say will lead to deep cuts in Medicaid and other benefits for low-income Americans.
There’s a lot at stake as the 2026 congressional midterm elections rapidly approach, with both sides making the legislation a centerpiece of their campaigns.
“It shows that representatives are committed to dialoguing and interfacing with community members, but it can also signal that something may be awry,” said Dean Caivano, an assistant political science professor at Lehigh University and one of several political experts who found public perception of the bill to be overall negative. “And often we see representatives communicating and interfacing with their constituencies when a piece of legislation or an event or something that is happening — perhaps party-wise or within the administration — isn’t settling properly in the theater of public opinion..”
Mackenzie, who helped approve the legislation in a 218-214 final vote that saw just two Republicans join Democrats against it, has made several recent stops in the 7th Congressional District he represents to highlight how it will help Americans. That includes visits July 29 at the B’nai B’rith Apartments, a senior housing complex in Allentown; July 31 at Gentlemen’s Barbershop in Bethlehem; Thursday at the Ampal manufacturing facility in Palmerton Township; and on Friday, a lunch and learn hosted by Americans for Prosperity-Pennsylvania at a Macungie restaurant.
“We’re honored, we’re happy, we’re excited to have him here,” Gentlemen’s Barbershop owner Ronald Corales said. “… He represents us, his community, he wants to meet the community because he’s open for any questions and concerns.”
Mackenzie at those visits pushed back against opponents, saying they were employing “scare tactics.”
“I think what we saw when you’re dealing with One Big Beautiful Bill and that legislation, it’s a very expansive document,” Mackenzie said during his stop to Corales’ shop. “It includes a lot of changes that are going to help the American people. But what we also saw was there was a lot of fake reporting about what was potentially going to be in the bill and scare tactics. And then ultimately, now that the legislation has passed and signed into law, I think it’s incumbent upon us as the legislators to go out there and talk about what we voted for and why we voted for it, the benefits that are going … to people right here in our local communities.”
Eric Degenfelder, president of Ampal, the largest producer of aluminum powder in North America and a supplier to the United States Department of Defense, said during Mackenzie’s visit that the bill would allow the company to invest more in workers and equipment.
“I think it’s great that Washington shows interest in a factory in rural Pennsylvania,” said Kenneth Stout, the company’s finance director.
Joe Vichot, chairman of the Lehigh County Republican Committee, said in a written statement that he was “extremely excited” for Mackenzie and McClain’s visits and praised the bill for protecting eligible Medicaid patients, strengthening the program’s long-term viability and providing tax relief.
“These are excellent opportunities to confront the misinformation and out right lies of the Democrats at the federal and local level especially saying the bill cuts Medicaid and [Social Security],” he said.
Democrats fighting back
Democrats, meanwhile, have honed in on the bill limiting access to Medicaid and SNAP benefits by by implementing work requirements for those receiving benefits and forcing states to spend more of their own money on the programs.
Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office has said the bill will cause 17,519 residents in Mackenzie’s district to lose Medicaid coverage and 6,096 to lose SNAP benefits.
The bill also includes $30 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for arrests and deportations, and $46.5 billion to Customs and Border Control to build a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. The Congressional Budget Office estimates it will add $3.3 trillion to the federal debt over the next decade.
The Democrats vying to be Mackenzie’s opponent in the 2026 election have seized upon his vote and also criticized him for not holding in-person town halls in the district. Mackenzie has held two telephone town halls since taking office in January.
The four candidates currently running in the Democratic primary — Northampton County Executive Lamont G. McClure, former PPL executive Carol Obando-Derstine, former federal prosecutor Ryan Crosswell and Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley — said the bill puts constituents at risk. Some used works like “disastrous” and “betrayal.”
“Ryan Mackenzie voted to kick thousands of his Lehigh Valley constituents off their health care, jack up electricity costs, and add trillions to our national deficit — all so that he could give more tax cuts to billionaires,” Eli Cousin, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in a statement. ” … No national surrogate parachuting into the Lehigh Valley will be able to help Mackenzie put lipstick on this pig — he owns his disastrous, deeply unpopular vote that will have devastating consequences for working families, and it will be a major reason why voters reject him next November.”
When asked to respond to these criticisms, a spokesperson for Mackenzie, in a written statement, reiterated the bill’s tax benefits — it boots the child care tax credit, eliminates taxes on tipped income and overtime, and increases tax deductions for seniors — and referenced a 2023 Axios-Ipsos poll that said a majority of Americans support work requirements for Medicaid and SNAP and were against cutting Medicare or Social Security to reduce the deficit.
“Congressman Mackenzie will continue to engage with members of our community to not only answer questions but also provide assistance when people in the Greater Lehigh Valley face issues with the federal government,” the spokesperson said.
What happens next? Political experts weigh in
About 49% of Americans oppose the bill, 29% favor and 21% feel unsure about it, the Pew Research Center said in June.
Brian Fife, a professor and chair of the political science department at Lehigh University, said the midterms will be tough for Republicans if they can’t address public perception.
“If you think back to, say, 1992, when Bill Clinton was able to win after having a Republican president for 12 years in a row, he really ran against trickle-down economics and tax cuts for the rich,” Fife said. “And he was very successful at doing that, and I think one of the biggest reasons why there’s not a whole of support — by that, I mean broadbased support for the One Big Beautiful Bill — is because people don’t like the idea of the government giving tax cuts specifically to those at the top while cutting Medicaid for those at the bottom. And I think there are fiscal conservatives who do not like the idea of adding to the size of the national debt.”
Chris Borick, a political science professor at Muhlenberg College, pointed out how the Affordable Care Act eventually gained popularity years after an initial negative perception, but felt unsure to what extent Republicans could do the same to reverse popular opinion for their new bill.
“Can they move the needle a bit on the legislation in advance of the 2026 midterms?” he said. “Yeah, probably. I think that’s attainable. Can they really flip the public on it to a place where it’s a net benefit? I would say that’s a less likely outcome. So you set your goals, you say, ‘OK, could we soften the blow from the public reaction rather than necessarily turn it into an asset?’”
In a written statement, assistant political science professor Sam Rhodes of Moravian University said Mackenzie, who defeated Democrat Susan Wild by about 1%, or 4,000 votes, walks a “tightrope” in his support for the bill.
“Any shocks to the status quo may not sit well with moderate voters come next year when the Lehigh Valley goes back to the voting booth,” Rhodes said, adding that as a freshman representative, Mackenzie might not have the power to go against House leadership the way fellow Republican Brian Fitzpatrick, who represents Bucks County, did when he voted against the bill.
“In short, it’s not surprising that he voted for the bill,” Rhodes said. “However, it’s still too early to determine whether the bill will be a liability or an asset in 2026.”
