(The Center Square) – An Illinois Democrat tasked with helping her party flip the U.S. House back into the party’s favor hit the campaign trail in one of Pennsylvania’s key swing counties on Saturday.
U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood, representing Illinois’s 14th Congressional District, is one of the co-chairs of the Red-to-Blue program for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, known as the DCCC for short. Just 10 days out from the general election, Underwood went to the Philadelphia suburbs to stump for Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie over Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick.
“Bob might be unassuming, a nice, normal, regular guy,” Underwood said during a speech in Langhorne. “But I’ll tell you this much: he’s got Fitzpatrick nervous.”
Fitzpatrick, currently serving his fifth term in Congress, represents Pennsylvania’s 1st U.S. House District, located in the suburbs north of Philadelphia. In 2024, he won his bid for reelection by double digits, while Vice President Kamala Harris narrowly carried these boundaries over President Donald Trump.
Fitzpatrick is also the only Republican in the Keystone State, and just one of three nationwide, to represent a district Harris won over the president that year.
Throughout the 2026 campaign, Fitzpatrick has been viewed as the favorite to earn a sixth term in the U.S. House, although in recent weeks Democrats have launched a full-court press to flip the seat as the race appears to be tightening.
The Cook Political Report, Inside Elections, and Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a trio of national ratings outlets, describe the race as “Leans Republican,” which signals it’s in Fitzpatrick’s favor. However, a new Philadelphia Inquirer/New York Times/Siena University poll showed Harvie holding a narrow lead.
While Democrats have unsuccessfully attempted to unseat Fitzpatrick in previous cycles, Underwood believes this time is different.
“It’s been really interesting because affordability is the key issue top of mind for voters across the board,” Underwood said in an interview with The Center Square.
Underwood blamed President Donald Trump’s administration for the tariffs he’s enacted, the war in Iran, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, saying those are three “catastrophic instances” that have “jeopardized the financial security [and] economic security of working families.”
“I mean, talk about toss-up territory,” Underwood said. “I mean, we are right in there, and Bob Harvie’s going to win.”
Fitzpatrick, co-chair of the U.S. House Problem Solvers Caucus, has touted his bipartisan track record during his reelection bid, while Democrats note he still votes with Trump a majority of the time.
“The energy, the effort that you all have put into this community has Fitzpatrick so scared,” Underwood said during Saturday’s rally. “He’s been launching these ugly attacks, straight up lies, and then brought in his allies Elon Musk and MAGA Inc. to spend millions trying to intimidate voters into staying home or voting against their interests, as Fitzpatrick has in the Congress.”
Musk, the world’s richest man, started a political action committee that has invested money supporting several Pennsylvania Republicans running for Congress, including Fitzpatrick’s reelection bid.
On Saturday, Fitzpatrick joined the Philadelphia Building Trades Council, which usually backs Democrats, for a rally boosting his bid for another term.
If Democrats are successful in flipping the U.S. House and Senate, Underwood told The Center Square, the party should “focus on accountability and affordability” in 2027.
Underwood said Democrats are “fighting for an affordable America,” and, in a list of priorities, she mentioned lowering the cost of everyday goods, reversing Medicaid cuts, and making the Affordable Care Act tax credits permanent.
She also said there’s an opportunity to ensure they address hearing, dental, and vision in the healthcare space.
“And then we call it holding the crooks accountable,” Underwood said to The Center Square. She also said that House Republicans have “completely yielded” to the White House and won’t schedule oversight hearings.
“And if they refuse to come and testify, that might mean taking it that next step further, right,” Underwood told The Center Square. “In the first Trump term, we saw what happened.”
“We had to hold people in contempt, and people went to jail for refusing to comply with the law. That’s what accountability means,” she continued. “I think people use the I word and they get caught up in things like that. No one’s campaigning on that. That is not the promise that we’re making. What we’re saying is that there will be justice for the Epstein victim. We’re saying that we understand that there is a need for accountability, transparency, investigations, baseline oversight of taxpayer dollars, and we’re going to be doing that work.”
