Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
With one month left and an expanding map of battleground districts across the country, the fight for control of the U.S. House has arrived in Pennsylvania in full force.<\/p>\n
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries \u2014 battling it out for the gavel come January \u2014 were both kicking off the final push of Pennsylvania\u2019s midterm elections this week, signaling the Keystone State\u2019s importance in determining party control of the chamber, which Republicans<\/a> have held since 2023. <\/p>\n Jeffries will visit Lower Bucks on Saturday to give a high-profile boost to Democrat Bob Harvie<\/a> in his challenge against Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick<\/a> in the Bucks County-based 1st Congressional District.<\/p>\n The Democratic leader will appear alongside Gov. Josh Shapiro<\/a>, marking the Democratic governor\u2019s second weekend in a row in Bucks. Shapiro\u2019s visit to Langhorne last week intensified the attention on the 1st District<\/a> when he stumped for Harvie and other Democrats in competitive downballot races that could have determinative outcomes.<\/p>\n Jeffries\u2019 visit follows Johnson\u2019s time Tuesday in each of the four competitive Pennsylvania districts that Republicans are trying to defend, including a private meeting with Fitzpatrick in Bucks and public events with the other swing-district Republicans. The House speaker\u2019s Pennsylvania stops launched a seven-state tour this week, as Democrats<\/a> expand the districts they are targeting across the country and the GOP goes on the defensive.<\/p>\n Johnson\u2019s and Jeffries\u2019 respective affiliated campaign organizations, meanwhile, are spending millions of dollars to flood the Pennsylvania airwaves in the coming weeks. That includes a new, nearly $1 million cash infusion for Harvie \u2014 a sign that Democrats see potential for a nationwide blue wave to oust Fitzpatrick after several failed attempts.<\/p>\n The National Republican Congressional Committee, for its part, has invested $120,000 in partnership with Fitzpatrick, who also has his own massive war chest, as the group prioritizes three other competitive districts in the state.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve seen this in past wave conditions where triage starts to happen,\u201d said Chris Borick, a political science professor at Lehigh University. \u201cIt becomes a math game. How much do we have left in resources? Where is it going to make a difference?\u201d<\/p>\n The battle for the gavel<\/p>\n Johnson, a Louisiana Republican who has led the House since 2023, is trying to defeat the odds and preserve a narrow majority as a largely unpopular president from his party sits in the White House.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, he went to a Harrisburg diner and college campus with U.S. Rep. Scott Perry<\/a> (R., York), a diner and Fraternal Order of Police headquarters in Bethlehem with U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R., Lehigh), and a rally at a local Hazleton business with U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R., Luzerne). Johnson\u2019s office confirmed he also met with Fitzpatrick, though they did not hold a public campaign event and Fitzpatrick\u2019s campaign did not return a request for comment.<\/p>\n Though he votes with President Donald Trump and his party most of the time<\/a>, Fitzpatrick is the last remaining Republican representing a Philadelphia suburb \u2014 one of the swingiest in the state. It is a political dynamic that has let him distance himself from Johnson and Trump more than any other GOP lawmaker from the state \u2014 or in the country \u2014 as he runs on a record of bipartisanship in a district that former Vice President Kamala Harris<\/a> won in 2024.<\/p>\n Even in the other three competitive seats that Trump won, Johnson\u2019s appearance is a risky maneuver, Borick and others say.<\/p>\n Sam Chen, an Allentown-based GOP strategist, worked for a candidate whom Mackenzie defeated in the Republican primary two years ago. He said the freshman lawmaker is a \u201cformidable campaigner\u201d who could benefit from any fundraising and get-out-the-vote message from a national figure like Johnson. But it might be only a \u201cmoderate\u201d benefit considering voters are largely unhappy with Republican messaging on issues like affordability and the war in Iran, he said. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think Mike Johnson is the right spokesperson for this. I don\u2019t think the administration at all, or anyone in Republican leadership, has messaged this correctly,\u201d Chen said. \u201cThey\u2019re doing it the same way Joe Biden<\/a> messaged it back when Harris lost in \u201924. So [Johnson serving as a campaign surrogate] could backfire in that it might drive some Democrats to vote.\u201d<\/p>\n Democrat Bob Brooks, the Lehigh Valley firefighter and union leader running against Mackenzie, was an early focus for the party as Jeffries and Shapiro rallied in support of the candidate in July<\/a>, with the House leader declaring the 7th as the key place to kick off Democrats\u2019 final 100 days of battle for the midterms. <\/p>\n The race, long considered a toss-up by nonpartisan national groups that evaluate elections, recently shifted to one that \u201cleans Democratic,\u201d according to the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. The change followed a Franklin and Marshall College poll that found Brooks leading Mackenzie 45% to 40%.<\/p>\n \u2018Bucks County\u2019s more amenable than Nebraska\u2019<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s worsening poll numbers, especially on economic-related issues, and voters\u2019 frustrations<\/a> have added to Democrats\u2019 optimism in races they previously thought were out of reach \u2014 including in Senate and House seats long held by Republicans. <\/p>\n That optimism has filtered to Bucks County<\/a>, where Fitzpatrick\u2019s brand has made him popular among Republicans and Democrats. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the official campaign arm associated with Jeffries (D., N.Y.), has not helped fund a challenger to Fitzpatrick since 2020, but it now intends to invest about $900,000 to boost Harvie, according to a source familiar with the plans.<\/p>\n \u201cDemocrats now are thinking, \u2018If we could be competitive in Nebraska and we could be competitive in Kansas and Texas, why can\u2019t we be competitive in the Pennsylvania 1st Congressional District?\u2019\u201d Borick said. \u201cBucks County\u2019s more amenable than Nebraska.\u201d<\/p>\n Fitzpatrick is one of only three House Republicans in the country<\/a> representing a district Harris won in 2024. <\/p>\n Before the latest shift in sentiment, it was unclear whether Harvie \u2014 a twice-elected Bucks County commissioner whom Democrats saw as a key recruit this year<\/a> \u2014 would receive competitive levels of support. Previous campaign finance reports show he lagged in fundraising<\/a> compared with the Democratic challengers in the other swing districts.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Fitzpatrick out-raised all candidates running in the four districts and has unleashed an unrelenting stream of ads targeting Harvie, a major shift from his previous campaigns. His campaign has allocated $4.5 million for ads from June through Election Day, according to the tracking firm AdImpact.<\/p>\n He spent a little more than $460,000 in total in his reelection bid two years ago. But as of this week, Democrats planned to outspend Republicans $8.4 million to $5.2 million through Election Day in the race \u2014 including Fitzpatrick\u2019s spending \u2014 though reserved ad time in the next few weeks could change.<\/p>\n Out of more than $87 million worth of ads already spent or planned to be spent in all four races between June 1 and Nov. 3, the $13.6 million in the Fitzpatrick-Harvie matchup represented the smallest piece of that pie, according to The Inquirer\u2019s review of spending tracked by AdImpact.<\/p>\n