{"id":162210,"date":"2026-04-10T09:21:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T09:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/162210\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T09:21:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T09:21:07","slug":"pa-election-2026-1st-congressional-district-primary-voter-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/162210\/","title":{"rendered":"PA election 2026: 1st Congressional District primary voter guide"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bob Harvie and Lucia Simonelli are facing off in the May 19 Democratic primary<\/a> in a bid to unseat Republican incumbent Brian Fitzpatrick in November and represent Pennsylvania\u2019s first congressional district.\n<\/p>\n

Fitzpatrick, who often touts a commitment to bipartisanship<\/a>, is running unopposed in the Republican primary. He was first elected to the U.S. Congress in 2016, to represent the eighth congressional district. After the state\u2019s congressional districts were redrawn in 2018<\/a>, Fitzpatrick was reelected to represent what is now the 1st congressional district.\n<\/p>\n

In 2018, Scott Wallace came the closest<\/a> of any Democratic candidate to unseating Fitzpatrick, capturing 48.7% of the vote. Ashley Ehasz was the Democratic candidate challenging Fitzpatrick in both 2022 and 2024<\/a>, and was defeated<\/a> both times.\n<\/p>\n

This fall, Democrats are aiming to flip<\/a> this and three other seats in Pennsylvania to take control of the House.\n<\/p>\n

Only registered Democrats can vote in the Democratic primary on May 19. Polls will be open on Election Day from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. The last day to register to vote is May 4<\/a>, and the deadline to request a mail ballot is May 12.\n <\/p>\n

Bucks County\u2019s 1st Congressional District: What to know about the U.S. House seat<\/p>\n

The district encompasses Bucks County and parts of Montgomery County.\n<\/p>\n

Every member of the U.S. House of Representatives is elected to a two-year term, and the number of representatives in each state is proportional to the state\u2019s population.\n<\/p>\n

Legislators in the House introduce and vote on legislation, serve on committees, represent their districts and provide oversight to the executive branch, among other duties.\n<\/p>\n

Who is Bob Harvie?<\/p>\n

Currently the vice chair of the Bucks County Board of Commissioners, Bob Harvie launched his congressional campaign<\/a> a year ago.\n<\/p>\n

Born in Bristol Borough, Bucks County, Harvie spent more than two decades as a high school social studies teacher before jumping into politics, first as a member of the planning commission and then as a supervisor in Falls Township.\n<\/p>\n

In 2019, he and Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia won seats on the county board of commissioners, giving it a Democratic majority for the first time in nearly 40 years<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

At a town hall in Horsham in July 2025, Harvie challenged Fitzpatrick\u2019s bipartisanship<\/a> claims and touted his own record of working across the aisle as commissioner in a county that Trump narrowly carried<\/a> in the 2024 elections.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m committed to working for the people of this district, whether they vote for me or not,\u201d Harvie told WHYY News<\/a> at the forum last summer. \u201cMy job is to try and make their lives better. My job is to try and make sure they have a chance to achieve the American dream and to rebuild the middle-class and the working-class in this country, because right now they\u2019re angry that they\u2019re being left behind.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

What are Bob Harvie\u2019s priorities?<\/p>\n

Harvie is focused on pocketbook and affordability issues, per his campaign website<\/a>, including raising the federal minimum wage, supporting union workers, repealing the Trump administration\u2019s tariffs, boosting small businesses and codifying tax relief for the middle class.\n<\/p>\n

Other priorities include:\n<\/p>\n

Improving roads, infrastructure
\nAddressing the housing shortage crisis
\nInvesting more in education, from early childhood through career training and college
\nExpanding affordable health care
\nCampaign finance reform
\nPublic safety, including increasing funding for local law enforcement and restoring cybersecurity funding at the national level
\nIncreased support for veterans<\/p>\n

Who has endorsed Bob Harvie?<\/p>\n

Much of the Democratic establishment endorsed Harvie before the March 10 deadline to get on the ballot, a move some Democratic candidates criticized<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

State Sen. Steve Santarsiero, chair of the Bucks County Democratic Committee, which has endorsed Harvie, told WHYY News last year that Harvie has \u201ca real chance to win.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cA 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,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

In addition to the Bucks County Democratic Committee, Harvie\u2019s endorsements include:\n<\/p>\n

The Montgomery County Democratic Committee
\nU.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean
\nU.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio
\nU.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon
\nFormer U.S. Rep Matt Cartwright
\nBucks County Democratic Chair Sen. Steve Santarsiero
\nMontgomery County Democratic Chair Jason Salus
\nBucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia
\nMontgomery County Commissioners Neil Makihja and Jamila Winder
\nBucks District Attorney Joe Khan
\nBucks County Sheriff Danny Ceisler
\nMontgomery County Sheriff Sean Kilkenny
\nTransport Workers Union Local 234
\nVoter Protection Project
\nEvery Democratic member of the state Senate and state House delegation representing PA-01<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bob Harvie and Lucia Simonelli are facing off in the May 19 Democratic primary in a bid to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[197,25694,28,7529,30,29],"class_list":["post-162210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-bucks-county","tag-elections-2026","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-elections","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}