PHILADELPHIA — Two Democrats vying to unseat U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., later this year made their pitches to voters ahead of their party’s primary in just three weeks.

Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie, who is endorsed by the local party committees for the May 19 primary, and Lucia Simonelli, a grassroots candidate and climate policy expert, sat down Monday night in Middletown Township for a moderated candidate forum with the League of Women Voters of Bucks County.

It was a cordial back-and-forth between Harvie and Simonelli as they fielded questions about their legislative priorities, the economy, artificial intelligence data centers, and even, at one point, authoritarian regimes during the more than 90-minute event in front of a packed room in the township’s municipal building.

But the forum also underscored the different approaches that Harvie, a moderate, and Simonelli, a progressive, would take in representing in the 1st Congressional District, which represents all of Bucks County and a sliver of Montgomery County.

This seat is one of four Pennsylvania congressional districts being targeted by both parties that could help determine the control of the U.S. House.

Here are highlights from Monday’s candidate forum:

Bob Harvie focuses on Brian Fitzpatrick

Though it was a Democratic primary forum, it was clear Harvie, the party’s front-runner, is already looking toward a November matchup with Fitzpatrick.

The commissioner frequently took jabs at the Republican lawmaker on various issues, including abortion, the economy, and immigration.

“We have just failures of leadership. You have weak representation,” Harvie said of the current makeup of Congress, “especially from people like Brian Fitzpatrick, who care much more about keeping their job instead of doing their job.”

Since being elected nearly a decade ago, Fitzpatrick — a moderate Republican representing one of the most purple districts in Pennsylvania — has been tough for Democratic challengers to beat due to his nuanced policy positions, fundraising prowess, and name recognition.

But Democratic Party leaders in Bucks County believe that this year will be different and that Harvie is their strongest candidate yet, thanks to his Bucks County roots, focus on affordability issues, and track record of winning countywide elections.

How to fix the U.S. healthcare system?

The two Democrats overlapped on different topics throughout the evening, but the contrasts in Harvie’s pragmatic philosophy and Simonelli’s progressivism still shone through, including in discussions of how to fix the U.S. healthcare system.

Both candidates agreed on the importance of accessible and affordable healthcare amid growing costs.

Harvie said that reinstating the tax credits from the Affordable Care Act, which expired at the beginning of this year, would be a strong first move to repair the system, in addition to negotiating drug prices and encouraging competition among manufacturers.

Fitzpatrick was one of 17 House Republicans to join Democrats in voting to extend the ACA subsidies earlier this year.

Simonelli, however, took it a step further and called for universal healthcare.

“We need more than just extending the ACA subsidies, because that’s exactly what Rep. Fitzpatrick also stands for,” she said. “We need something more ambitious, because that just creates another problem for three years from now.”

Simonelli said that her preference would be to pass Medicare for All nationwide, but that she would also support universal healthcare within individual states.

“Healthcare systems are local. Networks are local. People don’t want to change their doctors, and they don’t have to,” Simonelli said. “But we do need the leveraging power of the government and all of the people to make sure that we have accessible and affordable care.”

The candidates on Trump

Mentions of President Donald Trump — who in 2024 became the first Republican presidential candidate to win Bucks since 1988 — were sprinkled throughout the event as both candidates opted to highlight the negative impacts of the president’s policies on Bucks County voters.

Though she did not mention Trump by name, Simonelli said one of her legislative priorities if elected would be to hold federal immigration agents and “our elected officials and their appointed cabinet members accountable.”

“We need to impeach,” she said.

Harvie, in an interview with The Inquirer earlier this year, said he would not commit to supporting articles of impeachment against Trump, explaining that he would need to evaluate evidence presented and that Democrats should prioritize cost-of-living issues.

But the president was still a frequent focus in Harvie’s answers during Monday night’s forum.

On issues like immigration, election administration, and the economy, Harvie consistently tied Fitzpatrick to Trump, echoing arguments made by his party that the Bucks County Republican votes with the president when it matters.

“They don’t care about anybody except the billionaires who are putting money into their pockets and putting money into their campaigns,” Harvie said of Fitzpatrick and Trump during an answer about Social Security and Medicare.

Fitzpatrick has strayed from Trump and other members of his party on various issues — and the president has called him disloyal in one instance and has so far refrained from endorsing him this year.

“This is a critically important election,” Harvie said. “This is a seat we have to win. Brian Fitzpatrick, again, has been in office for 10 years. The simple question to ask yourself: ‘Is this country better than it was 10 years ago?’”

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