The Republican congressman Ryan Mackenzie has been accused of embellishing his résumé with private sector experience in real estate sales amid an acrimonious showdown over his Pennsylvania seat. Mackenzie, who has previously been accused of lying about his age on Tinder, “was a real estate salesperson licensed in PA”, according to his LinkedIn profile, and biographies have consistently listed it has his former profession. In a statement to the Guardian, however, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) accused the congressman of having “fabricated a career … that never existed”.
His campaign would not comment on whether he ever used his real estate license, or made any sales. His office also did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the Tinder allegations, or reports of a staffer scrubbing the story from Wikipedia. Mackenzie is attempting to keep his seat in a Pennsylvania’s seventh congressional district, where he won his first term in 2024 by 1% of the vote.
Trump won Pennsylvania in the US presidential election two years ago, after losing the state to Joe Biden in 2020. Mackenzie is running for his seat against Democrat Bob Brooks, former president of the Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association – and has called his opponent a “fraud”, a “conman”, a “lobbyist”, a “dumpster fire candidate” and a “union boss”. Mackenzie’s campaign manager claimed Brooks has “all the hallmarks of a common criminal”.
Ahead of the US midterm election in the battleground district, the DCCC has characterized Mackenzie as a career politician who has supported both Trump and policies pursued by the Trump administration that have resulted in increased costs for Americans – including tariffs and the war in Iran. As Mackenzie attacks Brooks, the DCCC has alleged Mackenzie has embellished his résumé, and pointed to misleading citations of “licensed real estate sales”. Mackenzie’s state representative campaign told Patch.com in 2012 he had “private sector experience as a real estate salesperson”.
Mackenzie has cited holding a real estate license, which he received in 2006 in Pennsylvania, but did not renew when it expired in 2008. During this same period, he worked for the Republican Federal Committee of Pennsylvania and the US Department of Labor. Now it looks like Mackenzie and his allies have embellished his résumé and fabricated a career in real estate that never existed,” said Eli Cousin, a DCCC spokesperson, in a statement.
His office did not deny the allegations at the time. For a 2025 Harvard Business School talk featuring Mackenzie, Mackenzie would “reflect on his career path from the real estate sector to public service at both the state and federal level”, according to the event’s web listing. A LinkedIn post for the event stated “discussions ranged from how Rep Mackenzie transitioned to and built a career in politics”.
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