A second democratic contender, who dubs himself a political “outsider”, announced his bid to unseat Republican incumbent Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-01) in the 2026 midterm elections.
Through a campaign that will not be seeking donations, Rob Strickler will run on protecting democracy, lowering taxes for low and middle income Americans, and reducing corruption through campaign finance reform, among other progressive-leaning issues.
Buckingham Township’s Strickler currently manages an eyewear company, with experience in the corporate world as a creative director, video game designer, and software product manager.
He will be facing Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie in the Democratic primary. Harvie announced his bid to unseat Fitzpatrick on April 3, and has since received endorsements from Bucks County Democratic Party Chair State Senator Steve Santarsiero, Montgomery County Democratic Party Chair Jason Salus, and more prominent democrats. So far, Strickler and Harvie are the only contenders for the Democratic nomination.
“There’s far too much money influencing our policy and government.”
Strickler admires Harvie for his public service, but said he’s dissatisfied with top Democrats endorsing Harvie immediately, “almost as if they don’t want anybody else to run.”
“Maybe they just really like Bob and wanted to support him right away, but I think that’s a mistake. I think we need to have a vetting process,” Strickler said.
Strickler believes recent history proves the ineffectiveness of this strategy, citing Hillary Clinton’s loss in 2016 and Kamala Harris’ loss in 2024, which he partially attributed to Joe Biden’s physical inability to run for a second term and his withdrawal so late in the race.
“But even at the local level, we have to be able to reach out to independents and disaffected Democrats, many of whom voted for Brian Fitzpatrick in past elections,” Strickler said. “So far from what I’ve seen, [Harvie] is more reactive than proactive. If you’ve been to my website, you’ve seen where I stand on the issues. I’m going out there and putting out my ideas.”
The first thing that comes to mind when people think of his campaign, Strickler hopes, is that he wants to provide relief for low to middle income wage-earning Americans. Strickler said he believes it can be solved in two ways: tax reform and election reform, saying a large part of the government’s issues concern money in elections. Strickler wants to “severely restrict, if not eliminate” donations for political candidates.
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“There’s far too much money influencing our policy and government. You don’t have to look any further than Elon Musk and the $290 million that he donated in the last election, where he basically ended up buying himself a government department named DOGE,” Strickler said. “It’s ridiculous, and that’s one of the big reasons why people are so turned off by politics nowadays.”
As for tax reform, Strickler proposes on his website eliminating income taxes completely for all taxpayers on the first $20,000 they earn, increasing the current top tax rate from 37% to 41% for earned income above $609,351 and adding an additional top rate of 47% on earned income above $900,000, and increasing the corporate tax rate from 21% to 25%.
Though he is running for the Democratic nomination, Strickler does not consider himself a staunch Democrat. In 2006, he registered as a Republican to vote for Ron Paul in the 2008 and 2012 primaries, then he re-registered as a Democrat to vote for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 primary. He knocked on doors for Clinton that same year, and he made phone calls for Biden in 2024.
“I’m not that attached to the Democratic Party, but I cannot on any level support the Republican Party ever since Donald Trump became the nominee back in 2016. It’s just completely become Donald Trump’s party,” Strickler said. “If I’m elected to Congress … I’m going to vote my conscience. I’m not going to follow the Democratic Party line, although I support most of the Democratic platform.”
Strickler said he believes Fitzpatrick is part of this new style of the Republican party, which is evident in the fact that he did not vote to impeach Trump for what Fitzpatrick himself called January 6th “nothing short of a coup attempt.”
“If I’m elected to Congress … I’m going to vote my conscience. I’m not going to follow the Democratic Party line, although I support most of the Democratic platform.”
“If I go to Washington, I’m going to change how our government is run and how our elections are run. That’s my top priority,” Strickler said. “I wish my top priority could be issues like global warming, but I feel our democracy is in such danger right now that we’ve got to focus first on the other issues.”
Fitzpatrick has recently been featured in national news for being one of two House republicans who voted against passing the budget bill, which cuts Medicaid and SNAP severely while providing massive tax cuts for the wealthy. However, by a 215-214 vote in late May, Fitzpatrick voted to send the bill off to the Senate. At the time, the bill would have cut $1.31 billion in Medicaid and CHIP funding for Bucks County.
“His vote advanced it to the Senate … and then when it came back from the Senate in probably worse shape, he got a pass to go ahead and vote no against it,” Strickler said.
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Strickler said he is not running for office to “make friends” in Washington, but to help fix the country’s alarming debt, which will significantly increase when the budget bill’s effects take place.
“I’m going to approach this like someone from the corporate world and say, look, we’re going out of business if we don’t fix this debt issue,” Strickler said.
With “no ambitions for a long career in office,” Strickler said if he feels he will not win the democratic primary, he would drop out and support the Democratic candidate “with every fiber of [his] being.”
“The most important thing that has to happen is we have to unseat Brian Fitzpatrick,” Strickler said.
