Ryan Crosswell, a Marine Corps veteran and former Department of Justice official whose , will run for Congress in the СŷƵ as a Democrat, his campaign announced Monday morning.
Crosswell, who originally hails from Pottsville, wrote in a statement that he is running for Congress to protect programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and stand up to political corruption.
“I can’t stand on the sidelines while corruption in D.C. is hurting hardworking people in the place I love to call home, so I’m doing what I’ve done my entire career — standing up for what’s right and stepping up to serve,” Crosswell wrote.
Crosswell is the third Democrat to enter the race for the 7th Congressional District seat, which is held by Republican first-term U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie. The district, which includes all of Lehigh, Northampton and Carbon counties and a portion of Monroe County, is one of the nation’s most competitive, and is considered key to which party controls the House of Representatives.
Crosswell resigned as a career Department of Justice prosecutor, a position he had held since May 2020, in February. In a public letter of resignation, Crosswell wrote that he was directed to dismiss the indictment against New York City Mayor Eric Adams without prejudice, and that DOJ leaders decided to dismiss the case “without assessing the strength of the evidence of the legal theories on which the case is based.”
According to Crosswell’s letter, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove said that whoever agreed to dismiss the case would be promoted, and there would be “professional consequences” if the motion to dismiss was not filed.
“I cannot work for someone who invokes leadership after forcing dedicated public servants to choose between termination and a dismissal so plainly at odds with core prosecutorial principles,” Crosswell wrote.
According to Crosswell’s campaign website, he joined the Marine Corps after Sept. 11, 2001, and has been a federal prosecutor in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; San Diego; and Washington.
According to public records, Crosswell was a Republican before he switched his party affiliation around six months ago.
Fellow Democrats running in the district criticized Crosswell’s former Republican ties and roots outside of the district — Pottsville is in Schuylkill County, in the state’s 9th Congressional District. According to his campaign, Crosswell now lives in Allentown.
“Ryan Crosswell is a lifelong Republican who has never lived in the СŷƵ. Even worse, Crosswell spent [time] working for the Trump Department of Justice as they attacked civil rights, voting rights and women’s rights — and only resigned to run for Congress,” Democratic candidate Lamont G. McClure said in a written statement.
“Voters don’t want a D.C.-backed Republican parachuting into this district. They want someone who understands their struggles and has deep roots in this community,” Carol Obando-Derstine’s campaign manager, Robert Phillips, said in a statement.
Mackenzie spokesperson Arnaud Armstrong and National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Maureen O’Toole also issued statements critical of Crosswell.
“Ryan Crosswell is so unprincipled that he switched parties and became a carpetbagger just so he could run for Congress in a community where he has never lived,” Armstrong said in a statement.
In response, Crosswell in a written statement said the “carpetbagger” label is “insulting to all the Pennsylvanians who have left home to serve their country” and said Mackenzie is “incompetent at best and indifferent at worst.”
Reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at Liweber@mcall.com.
