# PA-01 (2026) — Brian Fitzpatrick vs. Bob Harvie ## Snapshot **Settled May 19: [[Brian Fitzpatrick]] (R) vs. Bucks County Commissioner [[Robert Harvie Jr.]] (D).** Harvie won the Democratic primary with about **65%** over mathematician and former Senate science adviser Lucia Simonelli, in line with the page's pre-primary expectation; Fitzpatrick was unopposed for the first time in his career despite Trump's refusal to endorse him and a public MAGA campaign for a primary challenger. Cook (Aug 25): **Likely Republican** — the only one of the three Republican-held Harris seats (with NY-17 and CA-41) rated better than Toss Up for the incumbent. Fitzpatrick beat Ashley Ehasz by 9+ points in both 2022 and 2024 and entered 2026 with $7.66M on hand. ## Incumbent — Brian Fitzpatrick (R) Six-term member (2016 in the old PA-08, succeeding his brother; PA-01 since 2018). Former FBI special agent and federal prosecutor; Problem Solvers Caucus co-chair; CIA Subcommittee chair since February 2025. Voted to advance the One Big Beautiful Bill, then **no** on final passage over the Senate's Medicaid amendments; Trump has called him disloyal and excluded PA-01 from his November 2025 Pennsylvania endorsement sweep. No primary challenger materialized (Scott Presler's recruitment effort failed; Mark Houck declined). ## How the Democratic nomination was decided (May 19, 2026) | Candidate | % | |---|---| | **Bob Harvie** | **~65** | | Lucia Simonelli | ~35 | (AP, ~51% counted.) - **[[Robert Harvie Jr.]]** — Bucks County Commissioner (vice chair); former high-school social-studies teacher from Bristol Borough; with Diane Ellis-Marseglia flipped the county board to Democratic control in 2019 for the first time in nearly four decades; won countywide in 2019 and 2023. Endorsed by the county committee before the ballot deadline, which the other candidates criticized. - **Lucia Simonelli** — University of Maryland PhD, former Senate scientific adviser; universal healthcare and wealth-tax platform; "half the time, a tenth of the funding." ## General election Fitzpatrick vs. Harvie. Cook Likely R; Sabato Likely R; Inside Elections Lean R. No public poll located. ## Ratings history - Cook Likely R (unchanged; Aug 25 edition). ## Key dates - 2026-05-19 — primaries (held) - 2026-11-03 — general election ## Intel notes - **The un-endorsed Republican is the safest of the three Harris-seat Republicans.** Fitzpatrick's brand survived a Trump snub, a MAGA recruitment drive and a no vote on the party's signature bill without drawing a challenger; the Bucks County establishment closed ranks. That is what a personal vote looks like in a Harris+ district, and it is why Cook holds Likely R while NY-17 and CA-41 sit at Toss Up. - **Harvie is the county-machine nominee**, chosen by an early committee endorsement over a grassroots-progressive alternative — the opposite outcome from MI-07, in a district where the party's theory is that a Bucks County name beats a national one. - **The Medicaid no-vote** is Fitzpatrick's inoculation against the OBBBA attack that Democrats are running against every other Republican in a Harris seat. ## Outside-money log — FEC Form 24 notices ### Receipt date 2026-10-08 — [[House Majority PAC]] $190,989.00 **[[House Majority PAC]]** (FEC **C00495028**, filing as `HMP`) disclosed **$190,989.00** in this district on **1 Schedule E line** in a single Form 24 notice — **file 2018607**, `F24N`, received **2026-10-08T23:07:55**, expenditure date **2026-10-06**, election code `G2026`. | Direction | Candidate | Amount | Lines | |---|---|---|---| | oppose | [[Brian Fitzpatrick]] | **$190,989.00** | 1 | The notice as a whole is **$21,914,974.25 across 146 lines covering 44 candidate positions in 19 states**, **98.59% of it negative**, with **[[Waterfront Strategies]]** placing **72.0%** of the money. The full document is recorded at [[House Majority PAC 21.9M House IE October 2026]]. A single line. The filing carries candidate ID `H6PA08277`, which encodes his first filing in the old PA-08 rather than the district he now represents. 🔴 **This notice was filed late on receipt date 2026-10-08.** It was filed 53 minutes before the receipt date closed. The document's aggregate column is not published here as a district total; the figure above is summed from the document's own lines. Source: `docquery.fec.gov/dcdev/posted/2018607.fec` ## Related KB entities - [[Brian Fitzpatrick]] · [[Robert Harvie Jr.]] · [[Donald Trump]] - [[NY-17-2026]] — the other Harris-seat Republican at Toss Up - [[2026 House Races Hub]] ## Content leads - **"The Three Republicans in Harris Seats"**: Lawler, Calvert, Fitzpatrick — why only one is Likely R. ## Sources - [WHYY — PA-01 Democratic primary winner (May 19, 2026)](https://whyy.org/articles/election-2026-pennsylvania-primary-first-district-bucks-county-winner/) - [Washington Examiner — PA-01 Democratic primary results](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/congressional/4573062/pennsylvania-1st-district-democratic-primary-results/) - [Philadelphia Inquirer — Pennsylvania primary swing-district results](https://www.inquirer.com/politics/nation/pennsylvania-primary-election-swing-district-results-20260519.html) - [Cook Political Report — 2026 House race ratings (Aug 25, 2026)](https://www.cookpolitical.com/print/ratings/races/house)