Democrat Bob Harvie defeats five-term Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick in Philly suburbs

(This story has been updated with quotes from Harvie, DNC Chair Ken Martin and Gov. Josh Shapiro.)

Challenger Bob Harvie toppled five-term Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick to win a key congressional seat in the Philadelphia suburbs for Democrats.

The win was the fourth U.S. House seat flipped by Democrats in the commonwealth. The party will hold an 11-6 majority in the chamber’s Pennsylvania delegation.

According to the Associated Press, which called the race for Harvie at 12:37 a.m., he held 53% to 47% lead over Fitzpatrick.

“Bucks and Montgomery County voters have sent an unmistakable message: this seat doesn’t belong to one person or one political party, it belongs to the people,” Harvie said, adding the people put their trust in a native of blue-collar Bristol borough who was the first in his family to go to college. “Only in America”

With a 6-point margin, the Harvie-Fitzpatrick race was the closest among four competitive House races in the commonwealth, where Democrats upset Republican incumbent amid a blue wave that flipped at least 25 seats.

“We shocked a whole lot of political pundits who said for months that this race wasn’t winnable. We did it with a simple message: if you want to change Washington, we’ve got to change who we send there. And change Washington is exactly what we’re going to do.

Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin congratulated Harvie, the state Democratic Party and his campaign organizers.

“As an educator and twice-elected Bucks County commissioner, Bob has been a consistent champion for working families in his community,” Martin said. “In the House, he will be a steadfast fighter for Pennsylvania’s 1st Congressional District while fighting to lower costs, protect healthcare, support workers, and make life more affordable.”

Harvie is a native of Bucks County who focused on the kitchen table issues that mattered to voters, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Suzan DelBene said in a statement.

“Everyone loves an underdog story, and tonight Bob proved that a guy from Bristol Borough and a former public school teacher can make it to the halls of Congress thanks to his relentless focus on fighting for the community that raised him,” she said. “Bob is going to shake up a broken Congress and work with anyone to restore the American Dream.”

Fitzpatrick faced Harvie, who is vice-chair of the Bucks County Board of Commissioners and a former educator, in one of four Pennsylvania congressional races targeted by national Democratic groups as the party worked to win a majority in the U.S. House.

The 1st Congressional District includes all of Bucks County and a narrow strip of neighboring Montgomery County, each of which includes part of the Philadelphia suburbs and stretches into rural areas north of the city. 

“Tonight, Bucks County showed up to reject the chaos, cruelty, and corruption in Washington — and to vote for a public servant who knows what it means to show up, deliver for his community, and get things done,” Gov. Josh Shapiro said in a statement.

Harvie defeated former congressional science advisor Lucia Simonelli to win the Democratic nomination in the primary election. While he’s trailed Fitzpatrick in polls for most of the year, a recent New York Times/Siena University poll gave him a 2-point advantage over the incumbent. The non-partisan Cook Political Report, meanwhile, changed its rating for the race on Friday from “leans Republican” to a “toss up.”

Together, the candidates raised more than $11.4 million, while outside groups poured nearly $17 million into the race, including more than $9 million opposing Fitzpatrick,

As a Bucks County native who grew up in blue-collar Bristol and taught at Bucks County Technical High School, Harvie campaigned on deep roots in the community and an understanding of the challenges some residents face.

He said his experience as a commissioner and a township supervisor taught him that public service is about delivering for constituents and not about politics. He touted his record of bipartisan success as a member of the three-member board of commissioners improving housing affordability and navigating the COVID-19 pandemic.

Harvie has criticized Fitzpatrick for supporting the Trump administration’s policies and for taking contributions from corporate PACs, while pledging not to accept any himself. 

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Fitzpatrick, a retired FBI special agent, won re-election in 2024 against Democratic challenger Ashley Ehasz by a 13% margin. 

Fitzpatrick has long been a target of Democrats, as was his older brother Mike Fitzpatrick who held the seat before him. The district has remained red since the elder Fitzpatrick defeated former U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy in 2010, even as other districts in the once-staunchly Republican Philly suburbs went to Democrats.  

In the campaign against Harvie, Fitzpatrick cast himself as an independent voter, touting his role in a bipartisan Problem Solving Caucus that has tackled election reform and accountability in Congress. Fitzpatrick’s campaign also notes he was one of two House Republicans to vote against the Trump administration’s Big Beautiful Bill, which contained massive cuts to Medicaid and food assistance.

He said he opposes President Donald Trump’s “blanket and indiscriminate tariffs,” but also voted “yes” on procedural measures that blocked the House from considering resolutions to end the emergency declaration Trump used to enact them.

His campaign has attacked Harvie as “divisive” and a “hack,” while a PAC aligned with Fitzpatrick ran ads alleging Harvie is the subject of an FBI investigation into political corruption. Harvie’s campaign sent a cease and desist letter to Fitzpatrick in July stating that the claims are false and defamatory. 

The following month, Harvie sued the Defending America PAC and Chris Pack, a Republican consultant, for defamation.  

Harvie told the Philadelphia Inquirer last month that he has never been under investigation and that he appeared as a witness in 2022 before a federal grand jury in a probe into Falls Township, where he served as a supervisor from 2003 to 2020.