Ashley Ehasz Announces Second Bid For PA-01 Congressional Seat

Democrat Ashley Ehasz has announced Thursday she will be running for the First Congressional District seat in 2024.

Ehasz, of Bensalem Township, ran in 2022 and lost to incumbent Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick, a Middletown Township resident.

“I’m Ashley Ehasz and 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 and fight for working families like mine. For too long, anti-choice Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick has sold out this district — now, his time is up,” she wrote in a social media post.

“This time, I’m back for Round 2 and ready to finish the job,” she added.

Ehasz is a U.S. Army veteran who has said she is “battle-tested and ready to win.”

The candidate’s announcement is the first for the 2024 congressional race for the district that covers all of Bucks County and part of Montgomery County.

Ehasz told The Philadelphia Inquirer in an article published Thursday that she believes she can flip the seat this time and is hoping for more national support.

In her past campaign, Ehasz told voters she was raised by a “struggling mother.” Her family had trouble at times affording basic necessities while she was growing up.

Ehasz’s upbringing led to her enlisting in the U.S. Army before she turned 18. She graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, and she went on to fly the U.S. Army’s AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopters and command troops.

Later, Ehasz graduated from the University of Oxford, penning a thesis that was featured in the Cornell International Affairs Review, according to her biography posted online.

Since 2021, Ehasz has been a regular fixture at area Democratic events. She had been speculated to be considering a second run for Congress.

In the last election, Fitzpatrick earned more than 40,000 votes over Ehasz. He also raised more money than the Democrat.

However, Democrats have announced the First Congressional District is one they will focus more resources on in 2024.

The First Congressional District has long been seen as one, at least on paper, that Democrats can flip, but Fitzpatrick has beat back every Democratic opponent since he first ran in 2016.

Fitzpatrick has framed himself as a moderate, while Ehasz worked in 2022 to paint him as a Make America Great Again-style Republican who only appeared to be a moderate. Ehasz worked hard to tell voters she was against abortion restrictions being pushed by Republicans.

Fitzpatrick, a former FBI special agent and attorney, was endorsed by former President Donald Trump in November 2020, but the congressman has not spoken of the endorsement and went as far as to ban this news organization from his press list after it reported on the endorsement.