A dispute has emerged in one of the nation's most competitive congressional districts, pitting the Pennsylvania Green Party against an independent candidate seeking to appear on the November ballot under its label.

Andrew Tupone submitted nomination papers containing thousands of signatures to the Pennsylvania Department of State last month, aiming to secure a place on the ballot in the state's 7th Congressional District, which covers the Lehigh Valley and has long been one of Pennsylvania's most closely divided battlegrounds. In a subsequent statement, he appealed directly to the Green Party's progressive base.

"[Incumbent] Congressman [Ryan] Mackenzie has been in lock step with Trump and he must be stopped," the statement read. "After the Democratic National Party put their thumbs on the scale in the primary for Bob Brooks as the nominee, I believe local grassroots voters deserve another choice and that's why so many are backing my candidacy."

The Cook Political Report rates the PA-07 race a "toss up."

The state Green Party, however, is warning that Tupone's bid may be designed to deceive voters. On Monday, the party filed a formal objection in Commonwealth Court challenging his ballot access.

"Tupone and his agents or affiliates … misled voters into signing the Nomination Papers on the mistaken belief that they were helping to place a candidate supported by the Green Party onto the ballot," the objection states. "Many of the voters who signed Candidate Tupone's Nomination Papers would not have done so had they been aware that Candidate Tupone was not actually affiliated with or endorsed by the GPPA."

The objection highlights that Tupone was a registered Republican until mid-February 2026, when he switched his registration to Democrat. He changed it again to Green in April.

"My political beliefs always remained the same. It doesn't matter what party I was registered to," Tupone told the Capital-Star. "I am trying to buck the establishment of both parties … I'm running for universal healthcare, ending the genocide in Gaza and standing up to the establishment parties."

A separate challenge was filed by Democratic voters with ties to the party, who allege problems with many of the 9,460 signatures Tupone gathered. Like the Green Party, they accuse him of compensating out-of-state individuals to help collect signatures.

"I am not aware of any paid operation and just thankful for the volunteers that want change this November and tired of the two party establishment," Tupone told the Capital-Star.

Chris Robinson, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Green Party, said the party first learned of Tupone through media coverage after he had already filed his nomination papers.

"We had no idea who he was," Robinson said. "There were records of him running for office in the past as a Republican, and you can look up his voter registration — anybody can do that — and it said he was a Republican up until [February] of this year."

Robinson also discovered that Tupone had previously run for a Magisterial Judge seat in Northampton County, appearing on the 2021 general election ballot as a Republican. Tupone had also cross-filed and competed in the Democratic primary on both occasions.

Tupone dismissed the spoiler allegations, telling the Capital-Star that any such accusation is "simply not true and a false accusation by political operatives." In toss-up House races decided by margins of a few thousand votes or fewer, third-party and independent candidacies have historically drawn intense scrutiny, as even a small share of the vote can exceed the margin between the two major-party nominees.

Whether the Green Party has legal standing to remove Tupone from the ballot remains uncertain. Under Pennsylvania law, minor political parties cannot hold primaries like the Democratic and Republican parties. Instead, prospective candidates must collect signatures and submit them to the Department of State to qualify for the general election ballot.

"That's the way the Pennsylvania regulations are written," Robinson said.

He noted that resolving the issue would require bipartisan reforms in the state House, such as permitting minor parties to hold their own primaries or adopting "fusion voting," a system that allows candidates to represent multiple parties simultaneously.

"There's a whole bunch of things like that, and every voter you talk to probably has different things they'd like to see," he said. "But nobody cares about that in Harrisburg. The people who are legislators in Harrisburg would like to keep things the same. It worked for them. Why change it?"

The 7th Congressional District contest is widely expected to be among the races that determine which party controls the U.S. House in 2027. The race has drawn sustained national attention throughout the year. According to OpenSecrets, a nonprofit organization that tracks political spending, the campaign has already attracted more than $9.5 million in contributions, with just over 75% originating from outside Pennsylvania.