Its Trumps pick vs. Trump loyalist in bid to unseat the Lehigh Valleys congresswoman – lehighvalleylive.com

Republicans in Pennsylvanias 7th Congressional District will decide Tuesday who they want to run against U.S. Rep. Susan Wild, the incumbent Democrat who is seeking a second two-year term.

The GOP candidates, Lisa Scheller and Dean Browning, have had to wage unconventional campaigns as the threat of the COVID-19 coronavirus illness has all but nixed traditional ways to meet voters.

Theyre not going door to door because they dont want to be in contact with people, theyre not going to even like any spaghetti dinners or any firemens nights, said Lee Snover, chairwoman of the Northampton County Republican Committee. So no ones meeting them.

Both candidates spoke with lehighvalleylive.com this week for this look at who they are, their top concerns and what their goals would be if elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. The PA-07 district covers Lehigh, Northampton and southern Monroe counties.

Scheller and Browning also touched on how they're getting their word out.

Browning, who fell short in the Lehigh Valley's 2018 congressional primary to Marty Nothstein before Wild went on to victory, said he had counted on "what I view as my strength, which is my ground game -- going door to door, going to events ... and of course toward the end of March all of that was put on hold."

He's turned to phone calls and "lit drops," where campaign staff wearing masks and socially distancing themselves have been dropping off literature about Browning at voters' homes.

"Certainly the pandemic has had an impact on campaigning," Scheller said, noting she misses the grassroots campaigning she's been involved in. She's been doing phone calls, as well as doing outreach with groups via Zoom, she said.

"It's made it very difficult," she said. "I do spend a lot of time on the phone calling people."

Both Scheller and Browning are former Lehigh County commissioners. Here is a closer look at their candidacies.

Lisa Scheller is running for the Republican nomination in Pennsylvania's June 2, 2020, primary election to face Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Susan Wild in November in the 7th Congressional District covering Lehigh, Northampton and Monroe counties.Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com

Scheller is coming into Tuesdays election as President Donald Trumps favorite in the race, having picked up his endorsement a week ago.

She is chairwoman and president of Silberline Manufacturing, the business owned by her family where shes worked since 1987 and which she took control of following the death of her brother in 1998. The company has its global headquarters in Tamaqua in Schuylkill County, where Scheller grew up; it makes aluminum-based pigments for the automotive and other industries.

"The No. 1 issue facing Americans and facing Pennsylvanians in PA-07 right now is jobs and the economy," Scheller said. "As a business owner myself, I understand the struggle that people are going through with this coronavirus."

After the initial, necessary focus on keeping safe, Scheller said her first priority in office would be to work with the president to help put America back on track and back to work.

Since the coronavirus crisis began in March, Pennsylvanias unemployment rate has reached an unprecedented 15.1% and Lehigh and Northampton counties have seen nearly 80,000 people file initial claims for unemployment compensation.

Schellers other key issues, she said, are expanding education opportunities without financially burdening those who can least afford it, opposing abortion, supporting Second Amendment rights, securing the nations borders and opposing so-called sanctuary cities that refuse to assist in federal crackdowns on illegal immigration. With 38 years of continuing recovery from drug addiction, she also wants to take on opioid addiction, expanding on the Hope and Coffee shop she opened in Tamaqua with a mission of eliminating the stigma for those battling addiction.

"I'm running for U.S. Congress to be the voice of Pa.'s 7th District in Washington, and really to protect the American dream for generations to come," Scheller said.

That dream is threatened by government overreach, she said, pointing as an example to government attempts to manage health care through the Affordable Care Act of 2010. Obamacare, as its known, has been under attack throughout the Trump Administration. Moving to Medicare for All, as some Democrats advocate, would further impact costs and accessibility, Scheller says.

Scheller says she's not a politician, that she's an engineer and business owner who got involved in politics because she wanted to lower Lehigh County's taxes.

She is a divorced mother of two grown children, Leo and Zary, and lives in Allentown.

Dean Browning is running for the Republican nomination in Pennsylvania's June 2, 2020, primary election to face Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Susan Wild in November in the 7th Congressional District covering Lehigh, Northampton and Monroe counties.Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com

The very simple reason that Im running is I believe that America is a great country, and Im running to be an ally of Mr. Trump and be someone he can absolutely count on as he battles to keep America great, Browning said.

The candidate committed to helping to push Trumps agenda through Congress, working first to repair the economy from the impacts of the coronavirus fight. He says that damage is growing worse the longer the shutdown continues.

I understand the closing down to quote flatten the curve, Browning said, "... but my view is were well beyond that.

Browning said he supports a payroll tax holiday that would give workers a nearly 8% raise by suspending contributions of 6.2% for Social Security and 1.45% for Medicare/Medicaid, while saving employers a comparable amount on their own contributions.

"The second area that I want to work with and support the president on is reducing the critical threat from China," said Browning, who sees two avenues toward that objective. One is the military, for which he supports expanded investments in training and technology, and the second is the economy: "We need to start returning vital manufacturing back to the United States."

"They are not interested in being a responsible member of the world community," Browning said. "They are interested in being the dominant member of the world economy."

"The third area I want to work with the president on is finishing the wall," Browning said, going on to say he'd work to secure the southern border and eliminate federal funding for sanctuary cities and counties as part of a plan to reduce illegal immigration.

Returning to his support for the military, Browning called for an overhaul of the Veterans Administration that he says is using an antiquated system and suffering from a shortage of doctors. "A disgrace" is how he described the medical care afforded to veterans.

Brownings other main focus would be to make health care more affordable and put individuals and families in charge of their health care decisions, not insurance companies or the government. He sees the need for more competition through transparency, so patients know how the amount theyre paying for care compares to that being charged to someone on Medicare or Medicaid or who is uninsured. As for Medicare for All, he points to the VA system for an advanced look at what that would mean.

"To me, Medicare for All would just wind up being mediocre care for all," Browning said.

Browning, of South Whitehall Township, is retired from a career as an executive with Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of the Lehigh Valley, Harvel Plastics and New World Aviation.

He and his wife, Cheryl, have been married 32 years. They own three German shorthaired pointers.

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Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com.