The Philadelphia Inquirer praised Ehasz as the right fit for Bucks County, while delivering a withering critique of Brian Fitzpatrick’s performance in office.

Once again, the Philadelphia Inquirer has endorsed Ashley Ehasz for US Congress over incumbent Brian Fitzpatrick.

Ashley Ehasz is a 2010 graduate of West Point who served as a Apache helicopter pilot and commander in Iraq and Kuwait. In describing Ehasz as the unequivocal “better choice,” the Inquirer cited the following:

• Unlike Brian Fitzpatrick, Ehasz would be a relentless champion for women seeking to restore their reproductive rights.
• Choosing Ehasz would “help tip control away from a Republican Congress beholden to Trump that was the least productive in history,” and would “prevent the GOP from enacting Project 2025, a sweeping plan to instill far-right conservative personnel and policies across every corner of the federal government.”
• Ehasz is better positioned to defend democracy and to “hold Trump accountable.”
• Raised by a single mother, Ehasz is “more in tune with the real-world challenges facing middle-class voters in her district.” She could pursue solutions to “pocketbook issues as well as mental health, substance abuse, and immigration reform without having to worry about where Trump stands.”

The Inquirer had much to say about Brian Fitzpatrick’s poor performance in office: “[A]s Trump bent the GOP-controlled House to his will, Fitzpatrick has come up small on major issues involving women’s rights and defending democracy.”

• Fitzpatrick “voted for a 20-week national abortion ban, against legislation that would have codified Roe v. Wade, and for defense budgets that blocked the military from paying for female service members to travel to obtain abortions.”
• Fitzpatrick voted against impeaching Trump twice, “for his role in inciting the attack on the U.S. Capitol” and for “trying to extort Ukraine.”

Fitzpatrick “has been on the wrong side of history” in the past, the Inquirer said, while echoing Liz Cheney’s warning that “the GOP can’t be trusted to stay in power” in 2025.

The Inquirer also took note of Fitzpatrick’s near total withdrawal from public discourse in recent years. Fitzpatrick “refused to meet with The Inquirer Editorial Board, has not debated Ehasz, and has largely run a stealth campaign with limited public availability.” Fitzpatrick refuses to say whether he supports Trump—he ran from a reporter who asked the question—and his disengagement makes it impossible to determine whether he would support a national abortion ban.

“A public official who can’t make their case for reelection should not be reelected,” the Inquirer said.

We at Newtown Democrats are grateful to the Inquirer for putting into sharp relief the stark differences between Ashley Ehasz and Brian Fitzpatrick. It’s time for new leadership in PA01.