Democrat Ashley Ehasz, on Thursday, announced that she plans to run for Congress in the 1st District again in 2024, setting up a possible rematch with incumbent Republican Brian Fitzpatrick.
A mere five months have passed since Fitzpatrick won re-election to the Bucks County seat with 55 percent of the vote, a difference of about 35,000 ballots.
“...I’m running for Congress again in Pennsylvania’s 1st District to defend our democracy, restore reproductive rights, tackle corporate greed, advocate for bold gun safety measures & fight for working families like mine,” Ehasz said on Twitter Thursday morning.
Ehasz, a combat veteran and Apache helicopter pilot, is out of the gate early in the cycle. The 2024 general election is 19 months away. Last time, she announced her candidacy 13 months before the 2022 general election.
Reached Thursday, State Sen. Steve Santarsiero, who chairs the Bucks County Democratic Committee, did not weigh in on the 2024 congressional race.
“Right now, we are focused on bringing sanity back to our school boards, winning local government races, our statewide judicial candidates and, of course, holding our county row offices and re-electing Bob Harvie and Diane Marseglia, our first Democratic majority on the board of commissioners in over 30 years,” he said.
Fitzpatrick on Friday morning told the Herald that he will run again in 2024.
Ehasz wasted no time in going on the offensive Thursday.
“For too long, anti-choice Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick has sold out this district — now, his time is up,” she tweeted. “This time, we’re back for Round 2 and we’re ready to finish the job.”
To win, Ehasz likely will need more support from national Democratic organizations than she received last time when neither the Elect Democratic Women PAC nor the DCCC, the official campaign arm of the Democrats in the U.S. House, chose to highlight the 1st District among their key races, and her PAC support exceeding $5,000 was limited to two donations totaling $10,000 from the VoteVets PAC.
Two years ago, she waited until Oct. 12 to throw her hat in the ring.
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