Keeping a campaign promise to host public, in-person town halls because incumbent Republican Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick refuses to, Democratic congressional candidate Bob Harvie spoke to about 60 voters in Upper Bucks on Wednesday night about local and national political issues on their minds.
Harvie fielded questions concerning housing, health care, democracy, and the plausibility of unseating Fitzpatrick in Pennsylvania’s first congressional district on Wednesday night at a town hall in Richlandtown. He also promised to establish an office in Upper Bucks, a primarily conservative area, if elected.
Fitzpatrick has held PA’s first congressional seat since 2017, and defeated the previous Democratic challenger, Ashley Ehasz, by 15% in 2024. Harvie, a former high school social studies teacher with deep roots in Bucks Couynty, has served on the Bucks County Board of Commissioners since 2020, and previously served as chairman of the Falls Township Board of Supervisors from 2008 to 2020.
Harvie opened the town hall with an anecdote about his family’s commitment to government service in his childhood, saying his grandmother kept a bronze bust of John F. Kennedy in the dining room. However, he then questioned whether young people in the U.S. still believe there is an “American Dream,” as he did when he was younger.
“That’s a serious problem in this country. We’re built by dreamers. They believed there was potential and that they could do great things if they tried hard,” Harvie said.
Harvie said he believes the idea of “the American Dream” currently doesn’t have representation in national politics; rather, the federal government is scaling back services while allowing other countries to take the reins of the future.
“I see instead tax cuts for billionaires, while we’re cutting support for families who need it, and for people with disabilities. I see us surrendering science and technology and our future to other countries,” Harvie said. “For over a century, we owned the future of the world because we said, ‘We’re going to fix that’ … I don’t see us doing that anymore, and that concerns me.”
In an interview, Brian Reimers, chair of the Northern Bucks Democrats, said Richlandtown is “about a 60-40 Republican to Democrat split.” He added that the top issue for voters is high taxes, and the threat of political groups like Moms For Liberty, who are trying to take over school boards in order to transform public education
“It’s sort of a bellwether for Democrats, because if they can succeed up here, they can succeed down in the lower part of the county,” Reimers said. “[Fitzpatrick voters] see him as a moderate … but they don’t really look at his voting record. I have neighbors who say ‘he’s not such a bad guy, he’s a moderate,’ but they don’t look at how he actually votes.”
The first question Harvie fielded from the audience asked for three specific issues he would address if elected to Congress. Harvie responded by saying he would first focus on housing, since the country is approximately four million housing units short, and Pennsylvania ranks low compared to other states for new housing construction. Harvie then referenced William Levitt, who in 1950 helped mass-produce housing for low prices in Levittown in lower Bucks County. In contrast, the current average price for a home in Levittown now is $389,692. Additionally, Bucks County is the only southeastern Pennsylvania county projected to lose population over the next few decades.
“What kid coming out of college, what kid coming out of the military, who just got married, and wants to start their life can afford housing?” Harvie asked. “If there are ways for the government to assist developers to be able to afford the infrastructure, then housing prices may start to go down in terms of construction costs.”
Two more areas Harvie said he would focus on are pushing for campaign finance reform by supporting a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United, and mitigating the effects of the One Big Beautiful Bill recently passed.
“I’m going to do everything I can to roll back all these horrendous cuts that were just passed in this budget about a month ago,” Harvie said. “Half of [the county’s] budget is social services, and a lot of that money comes from the federal government and the state, and a lot of the state money is actually federal money that comes through the state, so those cuts are going to affect us.”
Nico Symer, a recent Penn State graduate from Quakertown, asked Harvie what Congress can do to ensure young people have a stable foundation when entering adulthood, mentioning housing, the potential effects of artificial intelligence, and student debt.
“Nobody should be making money off of students who want to go to college,” Harvie said, adding, “but the interest rate should be something that isn’t onerous, so I think really we should have rules about when you’re going to borrow money, the interest rate should be set at a certain rate that isn’t about making somebody who runs a bank wealthier.”
Responding to Symer’s concern about AI, Harvie said he believes technology often advances faster than laws do, and pondered gathering tech CEOs to have discourse, but, ultimately, said he does not know what the right answer is.
“It’s trying to figure out a way to balance basic progress, because there’s going to be advantages to having AI just like there’s advantages to having computers and machinery of all kinds,” Harvie said. “We’ve gone through this. The machine comes along and makes things easier, but it does cost jobs. How do we balance it and do it in a way that’s safe in terms of our data, safe in terms of protecting jobs?”
Donna Shannon, from New Britain, asked Harvie, who also sits on the SEPTA board of directors, if he accepts any responsibility for the transportation authority’s financial struggles or if he had fired any of its employees. Harvie said he was appointed less than a year ago, and the financial issue largely “predates” his time, countering that SEPTA has recently implemented an austerity program that has saved over $30 million a year. Harvie added that the budget impasse in Harrisburg does not help the issue.
“This is one of the largest transit agencies in the United States of America…so we need a budget from the state senate to come out that fully funds all the transportation agencies in this commonwealth, including Pittsburgh’s and SEPTA,” Harvie said.
Brian Kline, from Richland Township, told Harvie millions of Americans are underinsured and face high medical costs, asserting that health care should be treated as a human right rather than a commodity. Kline then asked Harvie if he supports a national healthcare system.
Harvie concurred that health care should be a human right, adding that the recent budget bill will make access to healthcare worse than it currently is. However, Harvie said he does not believe America is “ready” for national health insurance, reasoning that it likely would not pass through the federal legislature. Harvie said he is in favor of mandating employers to provide health insurance, and for insurance to include dental and vision care.
“We have the best doctors, we have the best hospitals, we have the best researchers. If you can afford it, that’s the problem,” Harvie said. “[National health insurance] does work in other countries…but the majority of this country is too scared of losing the health insurance they have, which does work for them, even if it’s not perfect.”
Harvie added to his reasoning.
“We’re still seeing the backlash against Obamacare, and against the Affordable Care Act, and they both worked. It moved people out of medical poverty, it’s added health insurance for people, it’s kept people alive, and still, we’re seeing people who are saying, ‘no, I don’t want Obamacare,’” Harvie said.
Kinsey Bencsik, a senior high school student from Perkasie, told Harvie she’s concerned about fellow classmates dismissing political issues as unserious and social media negatively influencing them. In response, Harvie cited a statistic that there are about 300,000 less volunteer firefighters in Pennsylvania now than there were five decades ago, and said the younger generation may be losing an important network of trust.
READ: Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick Helps House Republicans Pass the ‘Gulf of America Act’
“At some point, I think as a nation, we’re losing our connectivity,” Harvie said. “Hate is easy. Love is hard … Fear is easy. Hope is hard, and so those emotions play on the fears people have. And, it’s a problem with politics in general, that fear works.”
Concerned about the 2026 midterm elections, Elizabeth Beatty, from Warrington, expressed fear that if Democrats don’t win back some congressional seats, a dictatorship could follow. Beatty asked Harvie if the sweeping Medicaid cuts, and other Republican-passed measures, could be reversed if the Democrats win control of either chamber.
Harvie said he believes there will likely be a Democratic House and a Republican Senate, and that the most significant current form of resistance are lawsuits filed against the Trump administration by states, because they rely on federal funds to provide services to their constituents. Harvie added that local elections matter as much as national ones.
“We are a weaker nation now than we were,” Harvie said. “But we have to win seat by seat by seat, and actually, it starts this year. You’ve got school board candidates. You’ve got local candidates. You’ve got county candidates. You’ve got judges. You’ve got Supreme Court judges in Pennsylvania, that if you don’t retain, there’s pain coming down the pipe.”
In light of Fitzpatrick’s long tenure in office, Mike Czerkie, from Riegelsville, asked Harvie what his campaign is focusing on to win the election.
Harvie responded saying members of his staff have worked on many Bucks County political campaigns in the past, and some have helped him win his own elections dating back to 2019.
“I could have gotten somebody who ran campaigns in California or something like that, but I didn’t want to have to explain to them the difference between Bakertown and Regal Street or Langhorne Borough and Langmore Manor Borough,” Harvie said. “I wanted people who understood this county and had experience winning in this county because the district, 90% of it, is this county.”
