Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley has joined the field of Democrats hoping to challenge Republican U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie for the Lehigh Valley’s congressional seat in the 2026 midterm elections. Pinsley For Congress was registered with the Federal Elections Commission on Wednesday, documents show. In a phone interview Friday, Pinsley said he planned to make a formal announcement Monday. The South Whitehall resident is broadly progressive and traces many of the country’s ills to a widening wealth gap. “For me, a lot of this is that there’s this small crowd of billionaires and politicians who think the country belongs to them,” he said Friday. “I think it belongs to the people.” Pinsley joins Northampton County Executive Lamont G. McClure, former PPL executive Carol Obando-Derstine and former federal prosecutor Ryan Crosswell in seeking the Democratic nomination for the right to challenge Mackenzie, who narrowly defeated incumbent Democrat Susan Wild last year. The 7th Congressional District, which includes all of Lehigh, Northampton and Carbon counties and a portion of Monroe County, is one of the nation’s most competitive districts, and is considered key to which party controls the House of Representatives. Pinsley has run unsuccessfully for state Senate twice and lost a bid for state auditor general last year. He made headlines in recent years not only through his political campaigns but for sometimes controversial reports he has generated as the county’s fiscal watchdog. His 2023 report, “The Cost of Misdiagnosis,” criticized doctors for what it alleges were rushed medical decisions that led to unsubstantiated reports of medical child abuse and to children being taken from homes by child welfare workers in both Lehigh and Northampton counties. Pinsley, who introduced the motion to dump the stock, attributed the decision to Tesla owner Elon Musk’s choice to become “a political figure rather than a customer-focused leader.” At the time, Musk was generating controversy as head of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, tasked with making major cuts to federal spending. Mackenzie, responding to news of Pinsley’s candidacy during a visit to a Bethlehem small business Thursday, called him “a far-left individual.” “I think he is definitely in a position to advocate for his left-wing policies like he’s done as a controller,” he said. “And we welcome competition in the race and more people, better to have a robust conversation about who should be our congressman and our representative here in the Lehigh Valley.” Pinsley was first elected as Lehigh County controller in 2019 and was reelected in 2023. He previously served as a South Whitehall Township commissioner. He said he has been successful in challenging unfair practices and policies in finance and health care and would bring the same drive to Washington. “What I think is that in general a lot of politicians are afraid to do anything,” he said. “They come in with the best intentions and then when they get there, they go along to get along.” Graysen Golter contributed to this report.