U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R., Pa.) has been a member of Congress for nearly a decade, and it is difficult to determine what exactly he has accomplished.
Fitzpatrick, 52, claims to be a problem solver, but he is really part of the problem. Fitzpatrick entered Congress with the MAGA wave that first swept into Washington with Donald Trump in November 2016.
He is a member of a Republican House majority that has been one of the least effective and most dysfunctional in modern times. The GOP controls the House, Senate, and the White House — and still can’t do much to help the American people.
Because Fitzpatrick represents a swing district that covers Bucks County and portions of Montgomery County, he doesn’t always vote lockstep with his Republican colleagues. But when Fitzpatrick’s vote is needed, he backs Trump’s incoherent agenda, which has made life more expensive for everyone.
That agenda speaks for itself: costly tariffs, cruel deportations, unprovoked war, tax breaks for the superrich, massive debt, healthcare cuts, brazen corruption, abuses of power, self-enrichment schemes, and constant chaos.
For Fitzpatrick’s constituents, Republican control in Washington has resulted in higher interest rates, sluggish job growth, and increased prices on everything from gasoline to food, cars, housing, and utility bills. Not to mention a host of constitutional, ethical, and legal abuses with no oversight or pushback.
He did vote against Trump’s signature legislative accomplishment: the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, which added trillions to the ballooning deficit, extended tax cuts for the wealthy, slashed Medicaid and other support for the most vulnerable citizens, and added billions to support Trump’s deportation roundups.
But Fitzpatrick’s no vote came only after final passage of the measure was assured. Weeks before the measure’s final passage, he was the deciding vote to advance the bill that ultimately became law.
He often performs this type of calculated two-step to appear not so extreme to his more moderate constituents. But the results spell pure MAGA.
Fitzpatrick, who recently married a Fox News correspondent, pulled a similar switcheroo on Trump’s costly war in Iran. Initially, he voted against limiting Trump’s power to wage war in Iran before voting to block further military action. He even issued a muddled statement about the war that said nothing.
So he was for the war before he was against it. The result of Trump’s strategic blunder that GOP congressional members enabled has been higher gas prices, billions wasted on bombs, and needless death and destruction with no way out.
Fitzpatrick has harmed his constituents in other ways. He repeatedly supported Trump’s tariffs, which have upended trade relations with allies, roiled financial markets, and increased prices for small businesses and consumers.
He is increasingly out of step with his own constituents. He supports data center development, which most voters oppose. He also opposes codifying abortion rights, which a majority of the public supports.
Fitzpatrick has also been largely missing in action in his own district. He has not held a town-hall meeting with voters since 2017, calling them a waste of time.
He has refused to debate his opponent, Bob Harvie, a Bucks County commissioner. Fitzpatrick declined to meet with this Editorial Board to make his case for reelection — even though The Inquirer endorsed him in the past.
If 80% of success is just showing up, Fitzpatrick has failed his constituents.
The problem may rest with who Fitzpatrick really represents. His campaign is largely funded by billionaires and out-of-state corporate PACs backed by Wall Street banks, Big Pharma, and Koch Industries.
More broadly, the GOP-controlled Congress has failed to uphold its sworn oath to support the Constitution and serve as a check on the executive branch of government.
Fitzpatrick’s true character is shining through in the onslaught of attack ads aimed at his opponent. An ally with a checkered past was recently exposed for planting negative articles about Harvie. That’s a Tammany Hall move.
Fortunately, voters in Pennsylvania’s 1st Congressional District have a more upstanding alternative in Commissioner Harvie.
Harvie, 54, is a Bucks County native who grew up in a blue-collar family (Bristol Borough) and was the first member in his family to go to college. He taught social studies in the public schools there for many years. He is humble, hardworking, and understands the affordability challenges facing Pennsylvanians.
He would bring some much-needed compassion and decency to a Congress that is turning into TikTok performance artists more interested in viral posts than making government work for the people they represent. Even better, Harvie will answer to the people, not Trump.
Unlike Fitzpatrick, who has not held an in-person town hall in nearly a decade, Harvie has held five town halls since April and has four more scheduled this month.
Harvie was elected commissioner twice. He knows how to work with Republicans and Democrats. The three-member commission includes one Republican, yet more than 90% of the votes have been unanimous.
The commissioners have opened mental health care facilities, launched sustainability programs, and passed a bipartisan resolution opposing the use of warehouses as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities.
If elected, Harvie said his top priority would be to address affordability issues facing residents. He also wants to restore trust in government, starting with a ban on stock trading by members of Congress and a clampdown on corporate control of politics by passing a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.
“I was raised to love this country,” Harvie told the Editorial Board. “I cannot stand what’s happening to it.”
Many Americans agree. That’s why The Inquirer endorses Bob Harvie for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 1st District.
