Brooks seeks universal prekindergarten; Mackenzie cosponsored a childcare tax-credit expansion
Childcare costs are a factor for undecided voters as Democratic nominee Bob Brooks and Republican incumbent Ryan Mackenzie make childcare part of their pitches in Pennsylvania’s competitive 7th Congressional District north of Philadelphia. Brooks is campaigning for universal prekindergarten, expanded full-day kindergarten, increased Head Start funding and broader eligibility for federal childcare assistance. Mackenzie has cosponsored a bill expanding the federal childcare tax credit. About 16% of voters were undecided as of September, according to a Franklin and Marshall College poll.
The district is one of a handful that will determine which party controls Congress next year, and for millions of parents of young children, childcare is one of the largest strains on the family budget. Child Care Aware of America reported that childcare costs rose faster than inflation from 2020 to 2024 and that the U.S. average for full-time childcare topped $13,000 in 2025. In an AP-NORC poll from June 2025, about three-quarters of U.S. adults said the expense of childcare was a “major problem,” and 64% supported the federal government providing free- or low-cost childcare for children too young for public school.
AP reported that both parties were talking about childcare. The Associated Press described the midterm elections as “dominated by anxiety over rising prices for gas, groceries and housing” and called those rising prices “a liability for Trump and his Republican Party.”
Brooks, a retired firefighter, has cited his own experience pitching in on childcare for his two granddaughters. “The cost of caring for the people you love keeps climbing, and nobody in Washington seems to notice,” Brooks said in a news release.
The incumbent, freshman Republican Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, is a father of two children under age 3. He cosponsored a bill to expand the federal tax credit for childcare expenses; the proposal was folded into Trump’s bill of tax breaks and cuts to social programs, which also increased tax incentives for private employers that subsidize or provide childcare for their workers. “I will continue to work together with both sides to ensure that working families get the resources, representation, and support that they deserve,” Mackenzie said in a statement.
President Donald Trump had campaigned on cutting childcare costs by using tariff revenue, a plan that has yet to materialize. More recently, he expressed skepticism of federal money for childcare. “We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of daycare,” Trump told an Easter luncheon.
The urgency over early childhood policy accelerated during the pandemic. Daycare closures and weekslong quarantines highlighted the need for childcare and the financial strain on providers. To keep providers open, the federal government spent more than $50 billion on the industry, funding staff training, higher wages, protective gear and childcare assistance for more families. In 2021, President Joe Biden, a Democrat, proposed offering subsidies to most American families so they would never pay more than 7% of their household income on childcare; the proposal was narrowly defeated in Congress. Three years later, the last of the pandemic aid expired, and waitlists for childcare assistance grew sharply, forcing low-income households to sideline a parent from the workforce or forgo necessities to foot a childcare bill.
Childcare has since drawn proposals across the 2026 campaign. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic socialist, pledged to make childcare free for all residents. The Democratic governors of New Jersey and Virginia elected last year both campaigned on plans to increase childcare funding, and the Democratic nominee for mayor in Washington, D.C., won the primary in June after proposing to cap childcare expenses at 7% of a household’s income.
Jenny Escolastico, a mother of two children under 5, lives outside Allentown, Pennsylvania, in the contested 7th District. The rising cost of living has strained her household budget, and childcare costs could shape how she votes in November. Her household relies solely on her husband’s income, and she is staying home with her children, at least in part because she cannot afford to work. The Air Force veteran, who later worked in human resources, said, “What I would be spending on childcare would be more than what I would be making if I were working full time.” She added, “Childcare is another rent, another car note.”
Escolastico’s son attends state-funded prekindergarten, but returning to work would still mean finding after-school care for him and full-time childcare for her daughter. Those costs are top of mind as she weighs whether to vote Democratic next month, after voting for President Donald Trump in 2024.
With childcare prices rising, Lerin Hagenbuch of Allentown says she wonders why the country has not moved toward universal childcare. She recalled that she and her husband, a quality assurance manager, anxiously searched for childcare so she could return to her job as a special education teacher, only to find that some of their options would require her to take a second job. “There are staff shortages everywhere,” Hagenbuch said. “If these moms or dads who are staying at home were able to even work part time, what a shift that would be.” Her son is now in kindergarten, but childcare costs remain one of her top issues. She is a registered Republican who has not decided how to vote next month.
The Campaign for a Family Friendly Economy, a political action committee that advocates for greater government support for paid leave, childcare and elder care, hopes voters like Hagenbuch will side with Democrats, who have historically favored bigger-ticket childcare investments. The PAC said it spent $60 million this year backing Democrats in congressional and governor’s races, targeting voters in a dozen states with canvassing, ads and mailers. The PAC pursues voters from both parties who feel the cost of caring for a child or an aging parent is growing untenable. “This is something that every family is touched by,” said Phoebe Kilgour, the PAC’s deputy executive director. “And so when you talk to people about what candidates are gonna do to … lower the cost of care, it can be super persuasive.”
Becky Fisher of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, is a longtime preschool teacher who earns less than $20 an hour, and much of her paycheck goes toward before- and after-school care for her two sons at the childcare center where she works. Raised in a conservative Christian household, Fisher registered as a Republican when she graduated from high school and voted for President George W. Bush’s reelection before switching parties and backing then-Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024, the unsuccessful Democratic presidential nominee.
Fisher remains undecided this year and wants to back a congressional candidate who will do more than pay lip service to supporting families and teachers. Childcare and early education are among the lowest-paid professions in the nation, and many workers in the field are parents like Fisher. “Every parent is exhausted,” Fisher said.
For the undecided voters interviewed, childcare has become one of the issues they weigh most heavily. Both campaigns are competing on what each candidate would do to lower the cost of care.
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