There are two candidates for the office of Northampton County executive: Democrat Lamont G. McClure, the incumbent, and Republican Steve Lynch. Voters will choose one in the Nov. 2 election.

The candidates were asked to respond to the following question in 100 words or less:

How well do you think the county has handled the pandemic?

LAMONT G. MCCLURE

There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think of the people who died or lost their lives due to the federal government’s failures early in the crisis, but Northampton County has been fighting to crush the pandemic. We immediately secured as much personal protective equipment and testing kits for Gracedale and the prison as we could and shared it with our municipalities. When there wasn’t enough testing capacity, we formed a collaborative with the former Easton Hospital, and later with Coordinated Health/LVHN, to continue testing. We knew COVID-19 was causing economic damage, so we partnered with the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce to throw a lifeline to small businesses. We created an innovative small business grant program that has helped well over 1,000 Northampton County small businesses with $25 million of pandemic relief. We helped our small businesses survive, so that they might thrive on the other side.

Lynch did not respond.