Congresswoman Susan Wild is a mother, attorney, public servant, and a dedicated member of the Greater Lehigh Valley community for more than 30 years.
The daughter of a journalist and a career Air Force officer, she was born at Wiesbaden Air Force Base in West Germany, and spent her childhood on Air Force bases across our country and around the world—an experience that shaped her lifelong commitment to the families that serve and sacrifice alongside our servicemembers. After years of moving around, she finally found a place to call home when she settled in the Lehigh Valley to start her family. Susan built a successful legal practice in the Valley while raising her two children, Clay and Addie, and later became the first woman to be appointed Allentown's City Solicitor. In November 2018, she made history again when she was elected as the first woman to represent Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Representing the people of PA-07 is an extraordinary privilege, and I am committed to delivering results for our community. As an independent-minded Member of Congress, my focus is on serving all my constituents—regardless of whether they identify as Republicans, Democrats, Independents, or none-of-the-above.
Mindless partisanship has no place in a function government—and I’m doing my part to put an end to this harmful “us vs. them” attitude by working with both my Democratic and Republican colleagues to find common ground and get things done. I’m happy to report that 77% of the bills I have introduced and cosponsored are bipartisan bills. And over 60% of the votes I’ve cast during my time in Congress have been bipartisan. I’m also proud to be independently rated as one of the most bipartisan members of Congress by the Lugar Center. According to their analysis, I rank among the top 12% most bipartisan members in either party in the House.
I’m also not afraid to vote against what my party leadership wants - when I disagree with Nancy Pelosi, I say it with my vote. Since taking office in 2018, I’ve voted against the party line dozens of times. In fact, I was one of only 14 Democrats to vote against the HEROES Act in May 2020 because the $3 trillion spending bill failed to provide the kind of direct and immediate assistance needed to help struggling families back home. As a Member of Congress, my job is to be a voice for my constituents, and I don’t take this responsibility lightly.
I’m proud that the first piece of legislation I introduced—a bill that would have funded our Coast Guard through the partial government shutdown—earned bipartisan support. Our men and women in uniform who put their lives on the line to defend our nation need to know that our country will never again let politics interfere with our commitments to them, and I am determined to work across the aisle to rebuild that trust.
I believe that Democrats and Republicans must also work together to address the concerns that families of all political beliefs discuss around their kitchen tables, including shared concerns regarding health care. I’ve worked tirelessly to address the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs and monthly premiums, issues that I know many of my Republican colleagues find unacceptable as well. I'm proud that an amendment on stopping the rising cost of premiums, which I offered to the Protecting Americans with Pre-Existing Conditions Act, earned the support of 78 Republicans.
In another instance, I was glad to work with Republican Representative Glenn Thompson, a fellow Pennsylvanian, on an amendment to the Stronger Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act—which passed the House with bipartisan support—to increase proper reporting of child abuse. I’m also an active member of the Bipartisan Addiction and Mental Health Task Force, because tackling these urgent health crises must never be a partisan issue.
Throughout my time in Congress, I will continue working with my friends across the aisle on many of the key challenges we face, including lowering health care costs, rebuilding our country’s crumbling infrastructure, and fixing our broken trade policies.