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It’s become commonly accepted that President Donald Trump is proving to be a weight on Republicans running for reelection around the country. In Pennsylvania, 70% of voters do not believe the president is doing a good job, according to a Franklin and Marshall poll released Oct. 22.
That has left the four Republican incumbent members of Congress in deeply purple districts navigating strong headwinds as Democrats appear favored to flip congressional seats and possibly take back control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Two of them could be a test of how much impact Trump will ultimately have had after the votes are counted on Nov. 3. While U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, R-Dauphin County, continues to align himself with the president, U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Bucks County, is keeping his distance. Fitzpatrick’s separation strategy may, or may not, protect him in what some strategists call his biggest challenge yet.
“When you look at the paths for Congressman Fitzpatrick and Congressman Perry within their districts, they’ve taken strikingly different strategic approaches,” said Chris Borick, professor of political science and director of the Lehigh University Opinion Observatory. “If this turns out to be a historic wave election, even individuals that have some degree of insulation might not survive, but the odds certainly are much better.”
Fitzpatrick has presented himself as a moderate since he first ran to replace his brother Mike Fitzpatrick in 2016. Facing this cycle’s tough political environment, he has leaned into that depiction and touts his votes against Trump’s proposals, even drawing the president’s ire.
“I’m ranked No. 1, most independent on every scorecard, every single metric,” he said in an interview with WHYY News. “The president has made his thoughts clear about how he feels about me.”
Democrats still accuse Fitzpatrick of voting with Trump when it’s convenient. For example, he voted for the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” when it passed the House by only one vote, and then voted against its final passage when it passed by a four-vote majority.
Overall, he has voted for White House priorities around two-thirds of the time.
Borick said that keeping his distance from the president may be what saves him.
It “gives him some room in a cycle like this with independent voters and maybe some more conservative Democrats to find a path forward that’s just not going to be there for a lot of Republicans in swing districts,” he said.
