Trump frustration threatens Fitzpatrick’s once-safe Pennsylvania seat

Over nearly 10 years in Congress, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick has cultivated an image as a middle-of-the-road GOP lawmaker who operates above the partisan fray and is willing to buck President Donald Trump.

It’s a formula that has allowed Fitzpatrick, who is among the most moderate lawmakers on Capitol Hill according to his hometown newspaper, to win swing voters and consistently outperform his party in a highly competitive district that opted for Joe Biden in 2020 and Kamala Harris in 2024. But in a year when Republican candidates across the country are being weighed down by Trump, Fitzpatrick is facing a stiff challenge from Democrat Bob Harvie in Pennsylvania’s 1st Congressional District, and testing whether his personal brand can carry him in a difficult national political environment.

“Brian Fitzpatrick is Brian Fitzpatrick. I’m not Donald Trump. I’m not anybody else. And that’s the way voters should approach this,” Fitzpatrick told CNBC. “I’m not happy with [Trump]. I’m not happy with his tone. I don’t think he’s done a sufficient job. I think leaders are supposed to unite our country, unify people. He has not done that.”

The battle between Fitzpatrick and Harvie comes as Trump’s approval rating craters, the Iran war drags on and consumer prices rise. The contest is one of the approximately four dozen House seats considered in play in the Nov. 3 election that will decide control of Congress for the last two years of Trump’s term. Pennsylvania voters are often an indicator of how the country will swing overall, and because the state is on the East Coast, Fitzpatrick’s district is one to watch as returns come in.

Democrats are on offense and spending money in districts previously thought out of reach — including Fitzpatrick’s, in a race that could signal Democratic success outside of just the most vulnerable seats.

But Harvie, a former high school social studies teacher and county commissioner, is still a long shot to win. The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter shifted the race in Democrats’ direction, from “Likely R” to “Lean R,” earlier this month. Erin Covey, who leads coverage of House races at the Cook Report, called Fitzpatrick Democrats’ “white whale.”

As part of Democrats’ final push to unseat Fitzpatrick, Harvie was joined earlier this month by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro for a rally in Bucks County.

“This is an incredibly important state,” Jeffries told reporters after the rally. “The Commonwealth is a big swing state, and Bucks County is a big swing county. And so this is a critically important race.”

Fitzpatrick grew up in Bucks County, which makes up much of the district, and is a former FBI agent who succeeded his brother, Michael, in 2017. He’s a co-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus and, according to a recent Philadelphia Inquirer analysis of his voting record, has voted against the White House and his party this Congress more than any other House…