At 18, Rep.-elect Robert Brooks survived a house fire that left him with just the clothes on his back. That experience shaped his fireground philosophy when he joined the fire service more than a decade later.
“It made me a better firefighter because I understood, more than others, what people are going through on their worst day,” he said.
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After 20 years in the firehouse, that instinct to consider the perspective of those in need put Brooks on the path to politics.
From the fire station to the Hill
In August 2025, five months after retiring from the fire service, Brooks announced he was running for the U.S. House of Representatives seat in Pennsylvania’s 7th congressional district. On his campaign website, he declared that everyday Americans are “getting burned,” and he was running to “put the fire out and make Washington work for us.”
In addition to providing an abundance of fire-related puns, Brooks’ fire service experience helped prepare him for the campaign trail, he said.
“Living in a firehouse for 20 years, you get some pretty thick skin,” he joked. “And I needed thick skin to get through a nasty primary and general election.”
It paid off. On Nov. 3, Brooks defeated Republican incumbent Ryan Mackenzie with 56.1% of the district’s vote.
“It was a great feeling all the way around,” he said of his win. “We’re getting ready to roll in and start making a difference.”
New to Congress, but not to advocacy
As a former first responder and current president of the Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association (PPFFA), Brooks believes his background makes him uniquely prepared to represent the people in his district.
“Firefighters deal with everybody,” he said. “When we’re running into a burning building, we don’t stop at the door and ask if you’re a Democrat or Republican. We just go in and take care of business.”
And Brooks plans to take that non-partisan view of public service to Congress.
“Republican, Democrat, Independent — it doesn’t matter,” he said. “We’re going to represent all the people here in PA 7.”
But while Brooks may be a rookie in his political career, he’s familiar with the legislative process through his work at the PPFFA and in coordination with the Firefighters’ Association of the State of Pennsylvania, an advocacy group for volunteer firefighters, and the Pennsylvania Fire and Emergency Services Institute (PFESI), an educational non-profit for the advancement of fire and EMS services in the state.
“We’ve really made a strong coalition when we walk into Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office with a fire problem,” Brooks said. “I would like to see more of that.”
As a state union leader, he’s worked with several politicians to get public safety-related legislation passed and enacted, including a bill that was signed into law last month prohibiting the use and sale of PFAS-containing firefighting foam in Pennsylvania. The bill also requires disclosure of PFAS in firefighting gear and expanded financial assistance to help state fire departments replace gear with safer alternatives.
For Brooks, the bill shows the power of a united fire service: “If the fire service comes together, we’re going to be in a much better place than if we let them keep us divided between volunteers and paid guys.”
A congressional agenda through the lens of public safety
Though Brooks will now head to Congress as a U.S. representative, his top priority when it comes to his constituents still has a public safety angle: bringing down the cost of living as a gateway to addressing the volunteer firefighter shortage in Pennsylvania.
“Right now, everybody’s struggling,” he said. “What can I do as a representative to make things more affordable? Everybody should be able to work one job and pay their bills.”
That alone, he said, would make recruitment and retention easier.
“We’re losing volunteers because people can’t afford to walk away from work for two hours,” Brooks said. “People can’t afford to put in the time that they need to train. It’s not because people don’t want to help others. If we can make life more affordable, maybe we can create the opportunity for more people to give their time and volunteer in their community.”
Brooks’ other top priorities include Medicare expansion, an increased minimum wage and legislation that protects workers’ right to unionize.
Ultimately, he said, he wants to go to Washington and make life better for the people in his district, regardless of party.
“It’s my job to go to D.C. and present a product that helps them,” he said. “We need to all be swimming in the same direction. We’ve got to stop the division and negativity, and I think it’s my job to prove to voters that we’re representing them.”
