Bucks Commissioner Bob Harvie to challenge Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick for Congress in 2026

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Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie announced Thursday that he will run for Congress in 2026. The Democrat, a Bristol Borough native and former Falls Township supervisor, will look to unseat Republican incumbent Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick in the race for the 1st Congressional District, which includes Bucks County and parts of Montgomery County.

Harvie, announcing his candidacy on X, touted economic issues and “a return to fairness” as the focus of his campaign.

“People are working longer and harder, but they still can’t get ahead,” he said. “The American Dream—the idea that if you work hard, you can build a better life for yourself and your family—is slipping further out of reach.”

Harvie, a former high school history teacher, became county commissioner in 2020 when Democrats took control of the county board of commissioners for the first time in nearly 40 years.

Fitzpatrick, a moderate Republican who has repeatedly distanced himself from President Donald Trump, has represented the area since 2017. He defeated Democratic challenger Ashely Ehasz in 2024 by more than 12 percentage points.

Fitzpatrick did not respond to a request for comment.

State Sen. Steve Santarsiero, chair of the Bucks County Democratic Committee, said Harvie “has a real chance to win.”

“Bob brings a lot of things to the table as a candidate, but also as a prospective congressman,” Santarsiero said. “He has now for five years served Bucks County as a commissioner, and he’s done a really good job in that role. Think about the years in which he has served, you know, his very first year having to manage a major public health crisis with the COVID pandemic, and then all the work that he did and in making sure that both the 2020 and the 2024 elections went off as smoothly as possible here in Bucks County.”

Santarsiero said if he wins, Harvie could shift the balance of power in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“Bob Harvie is a vote for a Democrat as the Speaker of the House,” he said. “And that, I think, is a really important part of all this … A Democratic majority in the U.S. House runs through the 1st District, and I think that is a compelling reason that many voters will have in voting for Bob.”

Trump narrowly carried Bucks County in 2024. Santarsiero said he thinks recent events and the next 18 months could sway “disillusioned” Republican voters to support Harvie and other Democrats on the ballot in 2026.

“We are seeing already with the policies of the Trump administration and the Republicans in Congress that a lot of the progress we’ve made in recent years is at risk, especially when it comes to our economic growth,” he said. “These tariffs that the president is putting in place really threaten not only inflation, but high unemployment.”