There is one Democratic candidate who terrifies Ryan Mackenzie
It’s the other Ryan.
I got a chance to meet Congressional candidate Ryan Crosswell one evening a couple weeks ago at a reception in Williams Township.
I wasn’t in the mood to meet someone new, but a friend of mine led me over and introduced us. (I find these kind of political receptions awkward.)
Photo credit: Ryancrosswell.com
Of all the candidates who may face Republican Ryan Mackenzie in vying for former Rep. Susan Wild’s old 7th District seat this November, I’m convinced that Crosswell is the one Mackenzie fears most.
Mackenzie has in his one term in Congress already gained a reputation as one of the most corrupt politicians in America.
As one anti-corruption advocacy group puts it, “[Mackenzie] is heavily backed by the fossil fuel industry, defense contractors, the gun lobby, and a private prison company that contracts with ICE.” But what stings is that Mackenzie regularly gives the appearance of someone all too willing to legislate for corporate interests.
By contrast, Crosswell is Mr. Clean, ethically, and for the people — and a by-the-book legal eagle who has demonstrated his deep commitment to the Constitution through military service and his public service as a federal prosecutor.
As a prosecutor in the Public Integrity Section of the Justice Department, Crosswell famously refused, under pressure from Trump’s minions, to drop the corruption case against former New York City Mayor Eric Adams, and instead resigned.
Adams had become an important political ally of President Donald Trump, and Trump evidently wanted a puppet mayor to carry out his harsh immigration remit in New York. Dropping the case against Adams for his sickening alleged violations of the public trust would be a way to further that agenda.
Crosswell demonstrably cherishes the old-fashioned notion that when public officials violate the public trust, they should face stern, politically unbiased prosecution. Remember that crazy idea?
Since Trumpism is almost defined by its corruption, no other candidate is better situated, or nearly as skilled in federal law, to bring Trumpian bad actors to account, and Mackenzie, trust me, will know that.
Mackenzie has never missed an opportunity to bend at Trump’s knee. He’s up to his neck in orange slime.
Ryan Mackenzie social media display (screenshot from Instagram)
When I met Crosswell, I heard him answer a variety of tough questions from citizens. He handled the inquiries calmly and seriously. He possesses the wiry, slightly ducking bearing of a wrestler and long-distance runner. (He wrestled middleweight for the Pottsville in high school and ran cross country for Vanderbilt.) He has a little habit of sometimes looking up and askance, into space, as if consulting some imaginary book of truths. There’s a steely glint in his eye.
Politically, Crosswell struck me that evening as a traditional liberal Democrat with a battle-hardened air. I wouldn’t call him a glad-hander. He seems slightly ill-at-ease with the flattery and puffery of politics, and yet meticulously polite. He reminds me a bit of a more thoughtful Pete Buttigieg, without the need to run around endorsing everyone.
His actual agenda is righteous and varied and fairly straightforward. Among other things, he wants ICE masks removed, reproductive rights restored, and more support for college and vo-tech education in the Lehigh Valley. He did switch to Democrat from Republican — it’s true. So did Hillary Clinton.
His record in protecting public integrity speaks volumes. The dude is the bane of the depraved. He’s not in it for special interests or secret friends. I truly believe that. There’s no sinister backers waiting in the wings, and he won’t play the stooge to higher-ups. That’s truth.
I remember Crosswell and his colleagues’ resignations in the news, but they were sadly among many examples of incredibly brilliant professionals in public service who, when forced to choose between a deal with the devil, so to speak, or serving the Constitution, picked the latter.
It’s turned out since then that Trump’s abuse of the Justice Department as a tool of personal and political retribution was just getting started.
To see Crosswell pilloried by opponents in the campaign for the 7th Pennsylvania Congressional District as “tool for corporate greed” or a “union buster”—he once worked as a corporate lawyer, along with half the young lawyers on the planet—speaks to opponents’ fears of facing someone who has actually taken Trump’s corruption to the mat and not flinched.
How soon we forget the glowing profiles and liberal adulation of Crosswell last year in the wake of his resignation.
Yes, Crosswell may have done corporate law early in his career, but he made a reputation for hunting down corrupt public officials and seeing them prosecuted. We could use some of that. We could use a lot of that. There is something rotten in the state of the Denmark, after all.
A side note: Meeting Crosswell is one thing, but when I met his supporters, I felt even more excited. It was a very diverse crowd. To be frank, they seemed almost identical to the people I know who actively backed Rep. Susan Wild.
They are the same people I’ve seen at No Kings, the same people who show up at arts events and farmers markets in the Lehigh Valley, the same people I bump into on the Rail trail. They are educators and small-business people and health-care and tech-industry folks. They are machinists and tool-makers and mechanics and electricians. They are second-generation Americans hoping to brings their parents’ dreams of a better to life. They’re exactly who Congress are meant to represent. Those are Crosswell people, too.