“It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.”

Lehigh Valley voters got that “Doo wah, doo wah, doo wah, doo wah doo wah, doo wah, doo wah, doo wah” and they flex that rhythm every election.

According to Robert H. Orenstein of Armchair Lehigh Valley, the area is the ultimate swing region, switching between Republican and Democratic representatives in the U.S. House.

Over the last 44 years, voters have put into office a Republican, a Democrat, a Republican, another Republican and currently a Democrat into their congressional seat.

Can Democrat Susan Wild, who filled the remainder of Charlie Dent’s term and was elected twice to Washington, hold off another challenge from GOP opponent Lisa Scheller?

It is one of the most closely-watched Congressional races in the country in a District that the GOP feels can be flipped. Wild defeated Scheller, 52-48%, back in 2020.

Orenstein writes, “You have to go back to Fred Rooney, the Bethlehem Democratic congressman before Ritter, to see how the politics changed and the area became a swing district.”

Rooney assumed the seat after winning a special election in 1963 and served until 1978 when he was ousted by political novice Don Ritter (R), a research director at Lehigh University.

Democrat Paul McHale defeated Ritter in 1992 and served three terms before the ascension of Pat Toomey. The retiring U.S. Senator represented the Lehigh Valley for three terms before joining the Senate and being replaced by Dent. He resigned in May 2018 and opened the door for Wild.