YARDLEY, Pa. — Mary Ryan may be a registered Republican but she has never voted for President Donald Trump, turned off by his crass style of politics and chaotic approach to governing.
But the 60-year-old medical writer from the Philadelphia suburbs has consistently backed her party's congressman, five-term Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick.
Until now.
This year, Ryan is so fed up with Trump and his grip on Congress that she is planning to vote in November for Fitzpatrick's Democratic opponent in the 1st Congressional District, Bob Harvie, a twice countywide elected commissioner who is a former social studies teacher.
Even though Fitzpatrick has pitched himself as a voice of reason in Washington, Ryan said that “I don't see it happening.”
Defections like this one could sink Fitzpatrick’s reelection chances and cost Republicans their narrow U.S. House majority. As one of the few Republicans representing a congressional district won by Democrat Kamala Harris in the presidential race two years ago, Fitzpatrick has done as much as any House Republican to distance himself from Trump: Fitzpatrick voted against Trump's tariffs, his signature tax legislation and his power to wage war against Iran without congressional approval. The lawmaker even skipped Trump’s recent midterm convention in Dallas.
But that may not be enough to overcome the collateral damage of the president's sagging approval rating and soaring fuel prices because of the war.
Fitzpatrick, speaking briefly after a Sept. 11 memorial in his district, said he understands this year's political challenges and always considers what is best for his constituents with every vote.
“That’s the job,” he said. Representatives for Fitzpatrick did not respond to requests for a more complete interview.
Democrats have tried for years to defeat Fitzpatrick
Harvie describes the race and his decision to run in almost existential terms.
“The lack of trust in our government, the lack of trust in each other and seeing each other as enemies based just on, you know, the color of your skin, the religion you practice, who you voted for,” he said in an interview this summer. “I worry about just the basic foundations of this nation.”
Fitzpatrick has consistently survived challenges in his politically mixed district. He won by 13 percentage points in 2024 when Harris won by less than a single point in the district. In 2022, he won by about 10 points when Democrats were elected to the U.S. Senate and governorship. In 2020, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden won the district by about 5 points while Fitzpatrick carried it by about 13 points.
“Every two years Democrats in Washington label Congressman Fitzpatrick as vulnerable. Every two years he wins anyway,” said Robert Speel, an associate professor of political science at the Penn State campus in Erie. “It’s, to some extent, possibly like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football and failing each time.”
Harvie pointed to his deep roots in the district as a basis for why he could be different from previous Democrats who ran against Fitzpatrick.
“I’m not somebody who needs to be reintroduced or introduced to people of this district. And that’s very, very different than any race he’s ever run before,” he said.
Jean Dolan, 61, is a Democratic voter from Newtown who has never backed Fitzpatrick and does not plan to this year. She has been frustrated with Trump's immigration crackdown and she worries about how anti-vaccine sentiment in his administration could affect public health. As she sees it, Fitzpatrick is not independent enough from his party's leaders.
“He's a nice guy. I know people like him a lot in the community,” she said. But, she added, “you have to serve everyone in your district."
Fitzpatrick has been willing to criticize Trump
Fitzpatrick graduated with an MBA and a law degree and worked as a special agent for the FBI and as an assistant U.S. attorney. He also worked in private practice as a lawyer and accountant before running for the seat previously held by his brother, Mike Fitzpatrick, who died of cancer in 2020.
Jim Rachau, a 45-year-old photographer from Doylestown, is a registered independent who plans to vote for Fitzpatrick again this year. Rachau is not thrilled with the war or the economy, but said Fitzpatrick has earned his support with his prior public service as an FBI agent.
“You would think serving for the public good, he would have their best interest at heart,” Rachau said.
In Congress, Fitzpatrick has not shied away from disagreeing with Trump. He criticized the president, for example, in April when Trump called Pope Leo XIV “weak,” and captive to the “Radical Left."
“There’s so many angry voices out there. We all know that's the case,” Fitzpatrick said in an episode of a podcast launched this year with U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi, a Democrat who represents a battleground district in New York. “People are sick and tired of the noise. They’re sick and tired of elected officials not being focused on the kitchen table issues that people really care about.”
Fitzpatrick also posts online regularly about meeting with groups across the district. He recently showed up to a picket line with striking sheet metal workers; he dropped by a local Catholic church's parish picnic; and he stopped at a community college hosting a maternity coalition.
Fitzpatrick spends millions on attack ads against Harvie
Fitzpatrick has also unleashed a wave of spending in the race already, disbursing nearly $5 million, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Negative attack ads against Harvie have mushroomed. Many claim Harvie is under FBI investigation, which the Democrat denies. He has filed a federal defamation lawsuit against a super PAC running some of the ads.
According to the suit, local media reported in 2020 with few details that the FBI was investigating local government and that Harvie was called to testify as a witness in the case. His attorneys say he has never been charged.
The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.
No debate has been scheduled between Fitzpatrick and Harvie, but the men appeared at the same Sept. 11 memorial, standing on opposite sides of the speaker’s lectern. They did not appear to speak to each other.
Ryan, the medical writer from the Philadelphia suburbs, said she is thinking less about Fitzpatrick and more about how Republicans in Congress and their reluctance to buck the president.
“Incumbents just feel they can’t cross that line. If they do, they’re not going to get reelected," she said. But she acknowledged that may not matter in the end. "They might not get reelected anyway.”
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