Arizona’s Gallego rallies with Harvie against Fitzpatrick
Although the 2026 federal midterm election is more than 530 days away, Democrats are already chomping at the bit for the opportunity to diminish President Trump’s power by taking away his slim Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Nowhere is that more evident than in Bucks County, sometimes called the “swingiest” county in the commonwealth because of its nearly even partisan makeup.
On Saturday, Democrats held a rally and town hall with newly elected Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego and featuring Bob Harvie. Currently serving on the Bucks County Board of Commissioners, Harvie is the one candidate already announced to take on Republican incumbent Brian Fitzpatrick in Pennsylvania’s 1st Congressional District.
Gallego and other speakers denounced the possibility Republicans could reduce federal Medicaid spending. In his own remarks, Harvie made clear he will likely campaign less against Fitzpatrick, and more against Trump.
“So, we think about the past 100 days — it’s felt like ten years,” Harvie told the crowd.
When less focused on Trump, Harvie took shots at Fitzpatrick by saying the five-term representative hadn’t done enough for the district, whose boundaries are nearly exactly contiguous with Bucks County.
“We see him on Facebook, we see him taking pictures with kids at little league games,” he said. “But we don’t see him standing up to defend the Department of Education so those same kids can get a good education.”
Fitzpatrick, serving in his fifth term, has already fended off a number of these challenges in which Democrats have salivated to remove him given the district is one of the few swing House seats in the commonwealth. CD-1 is narrowly Republican, with the GOP holding a 12,500 voter registration advantage out of 564,000 total voters, according to the latest data supplied by the Pennsylvania Department of State. In percentages, it’s a 42-40 Republican advantage.
Fitzpatrick may also benefit from a recent surge in Republican voters. In 2022, the percentages were flipped, with Democrats enjoying a 42-41 tilt.
But Harvie and his supporters are banking on a “blue wave” similar to 2018, when Democrats gained a net total of 40 seats, flipping control of the House away from Republicans for the first time since 2010.
Yet even in that wave year for Democrats, Fitzpatrick was able to hold on to his seat, beating Scott Wallace by about 9,000 votes, 51 percent to 49.
Fitzpatrick, a former FBI agent, has been aided by the fact his work in Congress is frequently as politically diverse as his district. The Luger Center, a D.C.-based nonprofit, has named Fitzpatrick as the most bipartisan member in all of Congress five consecutive years.
Although Fitzpatrick’s campaign did not return a request for comment to this article, the National Republican Campaign Committee blasted the event, especially Gallego’s appearance. In an email, the NRCC said Gallego “wants to take away Pennsylvanians’ health care, jeopardize their safety, allow men in girls’ sports, and supports terror groups – and corrupt Bob Harvie stands with him. Harvie’s support for this radical agenda says everything voters need to know: Harvie is a danger to Pennsylvanians.”
As is usually the case for incumbents, Fitzpatrick also starts off with a fundraising advantage, given that his campaign committee has been up and running for years. In the first quarter of this year, Fitzpatrick’s committee raised just over $835,000 and has more than $5 million cash on hand.
Harvie, meanwhile, didn’t announce his candidacy until days after the first quarter began, so his first campaign finance reports won’t be publicly available until July.
