| Bucks County is once again the center of the political universe, and Bob Harvie’s campaign to unseat vulnerable Republican Brian Fitzpatrick could decide control of the House in November.
Harvie told the crowd on Tuesday night: “The dream of going to the moon happened in this building. The dream of winning the space race happened in this building. Once again, America needs this county and this commonwealth. Once again, they need us to stand up for them.”
The wind is blowing strongly at Harvie’s back after Democrats swept all row offices, flipped the Sheriff’s office, and elected a Democratic District Attorney for the first time in Bucks history in a “blue wave” November 2025 election. That momentum continues to build: early 2026 party registration trends are sounding the alarm for Republicans, and nearly twice as many PA-01 Democrats (91K) voted in Tuesday’s primary as Republicans (46k).
For more on why Brian Fitzpatrick is highly vulnerable, read this memo.
DCCC Spokesperson Eli Cousin:
“Vulnerable Republican Brian Fitzpatrick is running scared. He knows Bucks and Montgomery families are sick of him and his fellow D.C. Republicans cashing big checks while voting to unleash higher prices and devastating health care cuts on Pennsylvanians. He won’t be able to outrun his record.”
- In the mid-20th century, NASA astronauts like John Glenn, Neil Armstrong, and Buzz Aldrin trained for the groundbreaking Mercury and Apollo missions at a Bucks County naval air development hub’s centrifuge, which spun at 173 miles per hour, mimicking space’s swirling gravitational forces.
- Decades later, a boisterous crowd of Democrats gathered at that same site — the piece of space history now retrofitted into a sprawling event hall called The Fuge — embarking on their own ambitious mission: flipping the U.S. House and the Pennsylvania State Senate in the fall.
- And it was not lost on the Democrats in attendance, waving mini American and Pennsylvania flags and sipping drinks Tuesday night, that Bucks will be the center of the political universe for the next six months.
- “The dream of going to the moon happened in this building. The dream of winning the space race happened in this building. Once again, America needs this county and this commonwealth. Once again, they need us to stand up for them,” said Democratic Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie, who will be challenging longtime GOP incumbent U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick in the fall.
- Harvie’s quest to unseat Fitzpatrick in the 1st Congressional District will be the top race in Bucks County and one of four marquee contests in Pennsylvania this fall as both parties fight for control of the U.S. House.
- There are also three competitive races in Bucks that could help determine the majority in the state Senate, which has been under GOP control for more than three decades.
- “The path to flipping the Senate runs right through Bucks County,” said Clerk of Courts Eileen Hartnett Albillar, a social worker and Democratic challenger to incumbent GOP State Sen. Frank Farry in the 6th Senate District.
- Democrats expect Shapiro’s campaigning ahead of November, when he will be at the top of the ballot, paired with President Donald Trump’s sinking approval ratings, to help usher in massive wins for Democrats.
- Harvie and other Democratic candidates are also expected to emphasize affordability-focused messaging as gas prices and other costs continue to rise across the country.
- Democrats Tuesday were optimistic that 2026 will prompt a “blue tsunami,” as State Sen. Steve Santarsiero, the county party chair, called it.
- Fred Marshall, 70, an author and Newtown resident, said this year reminds him of when former Democratic U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, the last Democrat to represent Bucks County, was running for Congress during a blue wave in the 2006 midterms amid backlash to the Iraq War.
- “I felt like we were at that same tipping point where your actions can have a huge, oversized impact,” Marshall said.
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