Both parties target the Lehigh Valley for House control. While the GOP made inroads with Latinos, Dems argue Trump's immigration stance hurts them. Can Republicans hold this 1% margin swing seat?

Transcript

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Nestled in eastern Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley is Allentown - a former manufacturing powerhouse, now a majority-Latino city whose voters make up a critical voting bloc. Republicans won there by just a point two years ago. Both parties say it is key to winning the House of Representatives this November. NPR congressional correspondent Barbara Sprunt has this report.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Spanish).

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking Spanish).

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Spanish).

BARBARA SPRUNT, BYLINE: I meet Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk at Ana's, a Dominican staple here.

MATT TUERK: (Speaking Spanish).

SPRUNT: Tuerk says people may think they know Allentown from Billy Joel's 1982 anthem about the decline of the industrial working class.

TUERK: It told a story of a time, right? But when that song hit the charts, massive change was underway. You look at the 1970 U.S. census - the city has, like, 109,000 people. And it's 98.2% white.

SPRUNT: Fast-forward to today - it's a majority-Latino city.

TUERK: So I think for some people, they'd look and they'd say, well, what's diverse about Allentown? It's, like, majority-Latino. Latinos are not monolithic in any way. Here in Allentown, it's majority-Puerto Rican and Dominican, Colombian and Ecuadorian. And then, like, Mexico is, like, the fifth-largest of our ethnic groups.

SPRUNT: Allentown is part of the 7th Congressional District, one of the few remaining true swing districts in the country. Latinos nationally swung toward Donald Trump in 2024. And even in a blue city like Allentown, Tuerk says you could see a shift.

TUERK: Every single one of the precincts went blue, but 52 of those 55 shifted red. And the biggest shift was in one of our most heavily Latino precincts.

SPRUNT: Tuerk is a Democrat. And he's supporting Bob Brooks, a retired firefighter and union leader, for Congress.

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SPRUNT: Brooks announced his Latino outreach coalition, an effort called Bombero Bob, at an Allentown firehouse.

BOB BROOKS: When the bells ring and I'm not jumping on the truck, that's different.

SPRUNT: He said when he knocks on doors, he hears concerns over the Trump administration's immigration enforcement.

BROOKS: This tiny little lady - she came out, and she started talking to me. And she starts crying. I'm like, oh my Lord. She's afraid to go to the grocery store. Her husband passed away. She's afraid to go to her husband's grave 'cause she's afraid some masked man is going to come scoop her up.

SPRUNT: I catch up with his opponent, incumbent GOP Congressman Ryan Mackenzie, at a Mexican heritage celebration near City Hall. He says Pennsylvania hasn't had the degree of aggressive ICE action other states have. I ask whether the fear still resonates for people here.

RYAN MACKENZIE: There is no doubt that we want to make sure we're reforming ICE appropriately when things are not done correctly at the national level. Our experience in the local community - thankfully, we have not had those problems.

SPRUNT: But Beti Rosales says it's a real factor for families.

BETI ROSALES: It's upsetting. One of our customers - her husband just got picked up. It's sad. Like, he has a whole family. It leaves her basically abandoned with her children.

SPRUNT: Rosales helps her parents run La Placita, a city jewel serving up authentic Mexican food for the past 29 years.

ROSALES: We have the chorizo, which is homemade, and then we have the spicy pork meat. And then there's tamales, but these are homemade tamales. My mom makes them, so they're made from scratch.

SPRUNT: She said nearly every ingredient they use is more expensive.

ROSALES: We use limes a lot. That box itself costs more. Avocados cost more. Lettuce costs more.

SPRUNT: It's pushed them to raise their prices.

ROSALES: You can see it bother some customers. But some customers understand because it kind of has to make up for the difference of trying to, like, make a profit.

SPRUNT: Cost of living is the dominating issue for voters in the district.

BARBARA GONZALEZ-RIZZOTTI: It's every day. You know, I just went shopping. And I walk out with two bags, and it's $85. And you're like, how?

SPRUNT: That's Barbara Gonzalez-Rizzotti, a Puerto Rican mother of two. She runs a daycare from her home.

GONZALEZ-RIZZOTTI: Regardless of your political party or your ethnicity, we're all feeling the same things. It's gotten to the point where there's almost or we're gearing towards two class of people - the filthy rich or the dirt poor. We're squeezing out the middle class, which is where I fall.

SPRUNT: She says she can see the toll the economy is taking on families.

GONZALEZ-RIZZOTTI: People are afraid to have more children, right? You know, I had a mom who has two and then accidentally got pregnant again. And it's supposed to be such a happy time, and she's sobbing, you know? We don't know if we can afford this.

SPRUNT: She's a Republican. And she says she'll likely vote red this cycle but is open to the right Democrat coming along.

GONZALEZ-RIZZOTTI: I'm a little let down. I feel like we're not focusing on what we were initially told was going to be the focus. I feel less America First. Like, I'm not hearing that as much.

SPRUNT: It's a feeling Ana Acosta relates to. She's worked as a truck driver for six years and says the rising cost of diesel has been brutal.

ANA ACOSTA: (Through interpreter) Whatever little profit we're making right now from the loads is going into diesel. We're noticing that we're hardly making anything.

SPRUNT: She supported Trump in '24 but describes herself as politically in the middle.

ACOSTA: (Through interpreter) We said that with Biden, we were doing badly, and maybe we were going to improve with Trump. But now? No. I think we are so much worse off than we were with Biden in terms of the cost of living, the cost of fuel. Everything is coming in at double and triple what it was before.

SPRUNT: She says both parties keep making the same promises and nothing changes. She hasn't decided yet who she'll vote for. Whoever it is, she says, will have to not only make more promises but keep them.

Barbara Sprunt, NPR News, Lehigh Valley.

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