YARDLEY, Pa. — The Brian Fitzpatrick election in Pennsylvania’s 1st Congressional District is emerging as a key test of whether a Republican who has repeatedly broken with Donald Trump can withstand national headwinds this fall.
Mary Ryan, a 60-year-old medical writer from the Philadelphia suburbs and a registered Republican, said she has never supported Trump, citing his abrasive politics and turbulent governing style. She has long backed five-term Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, but this year plans to vote for Democrat Bob Harvie, a twice-elected county commissioner and former social studies teacher. Despite Fitzpatrick’s pitch as a moderating voice in Washington, Ryan said, “I don’t see it happening.”
Defections like Ryan’s could imperil Fitzpatrick and the GOP’s narrow U.S. House majority, according to analysts. Representing one of the few Republican-held districts that Democrat Kamala Harris carried in the last presidential race, Fitzpatrick has made conspicuous breaks with Trump, including votes against tariffs, the 2017 tax law and authorizing the president to take military action against Iran without Congress. He also skipped Trump’s recent midterm convention in Dallas.
Those steps may not offset broader political crosscurrents, including the president’s declining approval rating and soaring fuel prices tied to the war, which could affect swing-district Republicans.
Speaking briefly after a Sept. 11 memorial in the district, Fitzpatrick said he weighs each vote based on what benefits constituents. “That’s the job,” he said. His campaign did not provide a fuller interview.
Brian Fitzpatrick election in a split district
Democrat Bob Harvie casts the race in near-existential terms, pointing to eroding trust in institutions and in one another. “I worry about just the basic foundations of this nation,” he said in a summer interview.
Fitzpatrick has repeatedly outperformed the top of the ticket in the politically mixed Bucks County-based district. He won by 13 points in 2024 when Harris carried the seat by less than a point. In 2022 he won by about 10 points even as Democrats captured the U.S. Senate and governor’s office. In 2020, Joe Biden won the district by roughly 5 points while Fitzpatrick prevailed by about 13.
“Every two years Democrats in Washington label Congressman Fitzpatrick as vulnerable. Every two years he wins anyway,” said Robert Speel, a political science associate professor at Penn State’s Erie campus. “It’s, to some extent, possibly like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football and failing each time.”
Harvie argues his longstanding local profile sets him apart from past challengers. “I’m not somebody who needs to be reintroduced or introduced to people of this district. And that’s very, very different than any race he’s ever run before,” he said.
Some voters remain unmoved. Jean Dolan, 61, a Democrat from Newtown, has never supported Fitzpatrick, citing concerns about Trump-era immigration policies and anti-vaccine sentiment. She questions Fitzpatrick’s independence from party leaders. “He’s a nice guy,” she said, but added that a representative must serve everyone in the district.
Record, résumé and a costly fight
Fitzpatrick holds an MBA and law degree, served as an FBI special agent and assistant U.S. attorney, and worked in private practice as an attorney and accountant before succeeding his brother, the late Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, who died in 2020.
Some independents cite that background as key. Jim Rachau, a 45-year-old photographer from Doylestown, plans to support Fitzpatrick again despite dissatisfaction with the war and the economy. “You would think serving for the public good, he would have their best interest at heart,” he said.
In Congress, Fitzpatrick has publicly disagreed with Trump, including criticizing the former president in April after Trump labeled Pope Leo XIV as “weak” and captive to the “Radical Left.” On a bipartisan podcast launched this year with Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York, Fitzpatrick said voters are tired of the noise and want elected officials to focus on kitchen-table issues.
Fitzpatrick also highlights district outreach, posting about visits with striking sheet metal workers, a parish picnic at a local Catholic church and a community college maternity coalition event.
The contest has already grown expensive. Federal Election Commission reports show Fitzpatrick’s operation has disbursed nearly 5 million dollars. Negative ads targeting Harvie have proliferated, many alleging he is under FBI investigation. Harvie denies the claim and has filed a federal defamation lawsuit against a super PAC airing some of the spots.
The lawsuit notes that local media in 2020 reported the FBI was examining local government and that Harvie was called as a witness. His attorneys say he has never been charged. The FBI did not comment.
No debate has been scheduled. Fitzpatrick and Harvie appeared at the same Sept. 11 memorial, standing on opposite sides of the lectern without interacting.
For Ryan, the longtime Republican voter now backing Harvie, the question is less about Fitzpatrick than about congressional Republicans’ reluctance to confront the party’s leader. “Incumbents just feel they can’t cross that line,” she said. “They might not get reelected anyway.”
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