The largest structure proposed in Pennsylvania's 7th congressional district is a building that will, once completed, contain almost no workers. Across the road from Parkland High School in South Whitehall Township, a developer has drawn up plans for the Atlas data center campus, roughly 5.1 million square feet spanning six buildings, to be supported by its own electric substation. PPL Electric, the utility that serves the Lehigh Valley, says its load could triple over the next 5 to 7 years, and that without new generation the region could see brownouts. The students looking out at that substation will have to pay for the power it draws long after graduation.

Harvard-educated Ryan Mackenzie flipped this district to Republicans in 2024 by about 4,000 votes. In the May primary, Democrats nominated Bob Brooks, a 20-year Bethlehem firefighter who runs the state firefighters union, to take it back, and both men are campaigning on the same word, affordability, which in the Lehigh Valley relates directly to the electric bill. PPL's price to compare has climbed 66% since 2020. On June 1, it rose again, to 13.147 cents a kilowatt-hour, and energy analysts expect a typical summer bill to clear $200 (and for many home owners with large families and air conditioning it will surely be higher). Bloomberg has named the district a proving ground for whether the power bill can swing an election. Both men promise to bring costs down, though the price is set in a wholesale market that no member of Congress controls.