Lessons from Lehigh: An interview with County Executive-elect Josh Siegel (D)

You mentioned the 7th Congressional District and how purple and competitive the Lehigh Valley can be. Given everything that you've experienced, what do you think candidates running in the region, and even Democrats more broadly, can learn from the campaign you ran?

What we’ve seen is a desire for authenticity and genuineness. There is this sense that purple means you have to be cautious. Purple means that you have to run this walking-on-eggshells campaign. Look, we didn't shy away from many issues people might deem controversial or provocative. It’s 50-50 in the 7th, but we didn’t shy away from talking about masked ICE raids and the excesses and the disturbing and extraordinarily dangerous violations of the Constitution and due process. We centered our campaign on democracy and immigration.

I think there were a lot of post-2024 prognoses that said, “Democracy just didn’t play, don’t talk about democracy. We centered our campaign too much on elections and democracy and didn't resonate with voters.” I think that’s not true. I think people do care about democracy writ large. They care about democracy as an institution, as a concept. People look at our political system as it exists now, captured by special interests, big money being corrosive. They look at the political system as unresponsive and ineffective. I think when you’re saying, “Hey, you have to protect and preserve democracy,” they’re saying, “This version of democracy? This democracy that I don’t see as responding to my day-to-day problems? This democracy full of leaders who don’t speak to my challenges and who’re desperately seeking the most poll-tested message so they’re inoffensive and uninspiring?” We are seeing that people are very clearly concerned about democracy. They don’t like the authoritarian actions of this administration. What they’re also saying is that they want a better democracy. They want to protect democracy, but they also want to save it from the things that have corroded it, destroyed it, and made it ineffective and unresponsive, like big money, like special interests, unlimited campaign contributions, the unchecked power of oligarchs and corporate greed.

I think my campaign, I think (Northampton County Executive-elect) Tara Zrinski’s campaign, we both won by historic margins, uncharacteristically large margins in this purple region. We did it by being very clear about the challenges we face and unapologetic about the solutions we put forth, and not shying away from the fact that big challenges require big solutions and big responses. I think people are looking for that.




https://www.cityandstatepa.com/politics/2025/12/lessons-lehigh-interview-county-executive-elect-josh-siegel/410142/?oref=cspa-category-lander-top-story