President Donald Trump went off script during a recent speech in Pittsburgh with a strange attack against U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, one of two House Republicans to vote against his signature domestic policy package.

Without using his name, Trump accused the moderate Bucks County Republican of being disloyal for opposing his “big beautiful bill,” which became law last month.

“I did him a big personal favor. As big as you can get, having to do with death and life,” Trump said cryptically on stage at Carnegie Mellon University.

“Sure as hell he voted against us,” Trump said. “ … So much for favors.”

That comment underscored that Fitzpatrick has become a rarity in Washington as one of the very few Republicans willing to vote against Trump, a president who’s become accustomed to near-absolute GOP loyalty. A little more than a year before the midterm elections, the five-term lawmaker says his vote against Trump’s budget bill emphasizes his loyalty to the constituents of his purple district, which covers Bucks County and a sliver of Montgomery County.

Fitzpatrick’s independent streak — though questioned by some Democrats who note he has yet to actually sink one of his party’s key bills — could help him win reelection in a suburban swing district during a high-stakes year when Democrats are targeting his 1st Congressional District seat. But it could also spark pushback from Trump loyalists, especially if the president turns up the volume on his frustration with Fitzpatrick.

‘A big personal favor’

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) jumped on the president’s comment about doing Fitzpatrick “a big personal favor” in mid-July with an email blast questioning what “devastating blackmail,” Trump could be holding over Fitzpatrick and whether he’d use it to back a primary challenger against him.

The story behind the president’s comment is indeed deeply personal, but far from ominous, as described by several Pennsylvania Republicans and confirmed by Fitzpatrick.

In 2020, Fitzpatrick’s older brother, former U.S. Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, died at age 56 after a battle with cancer. The late congressman’s crowning achievement was bringing a national veterans’ cemetery to Bucks County at Washington Crossing. It seemed only fitting for the elder Fitzpatrick to be buried there, but the former Navy ROTC enlistee didn’t meet the years of service required.

Then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who had served with Mike Fitzpatrick in Congress, got a waiver from the acting secretary of Veterans Affairs under Trump to make the exception for the late lawmaker. Thousands of people came out to a two-day visitation to pay their respects before his casket was transported, as bagpipes played, to the military cemetery he helped create.

Brian Fitzpatrick, who was first elected to fill his brother’s seat in 2016, confirmed that account, but did not comment further on Trump’s recent remarks. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

‘Regardless of the outcome or consequences’

Two days after Trump’s Pittsburgh appearance, Fitzpatrick voted against the rescissions bill, which included deep cuts to public broadcasting and was pushed by the administration. The bill, like the budget package, passed without Fitzpatrick’s support. His opposition to both bills caused little harm to Trump’s or GOP leaders, but it again set him apart from the rest of the party.

As House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Republicans tried to whip votes for the budget bill late into the night on July 2, Fitzpatrick had already explained where he stood. And he wasn’t budging. He voted for the House bill initially, but said he opposed deeper cuts to SNAP and Medicaid added by the Senate and had concerns about the latter impact on hospitals.

“I made it abundantly clear to every level of House leadership, including to the Speaker himself, well in advance of the vote, that I was a hard No on the Senate language, and that my vote was not up for discussion or negotiation, regardless of the outcome or the consequences,” Fitzpatrick said in a statement.

The vote could shield him from the attacks Democrats are wielding against Republicans who voted for the unpopular bill.

But his likely opponent next year, Democratic Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie, said Fitzpatrick still bears responsibility for the harm the bill could cause, given he supported the original House bill, which passed by one vote, before he opposed the final Senate version.

“He should have killed that bill when it was in the House,” Harvie said. “I don’t know if he’s looking for this to be his John McCain moment,” he said, referencing McCain’s 2017 vote that protected the Affordable Care Act during Trump’s first term.

Harvie said Fitzpatrick is far from a maverick in his party.

“He’s doing what his party is allowing him to do,” Harvie said. “When they need his vote, he’s there with them. When they don’t, they tell him he can pretend to be an independent.”

The DCCC, which has long been trying to unseat Fitzpatrick and argues he exaggerates his bipartisan bona fides, plans to keep hitting him on the initial “yes” vote. The group has already started running ads that blame him for hospitals losing funding.

Fitzpatrick, for his part, said he voted his district.

“The only people that I report to are the residents of Pennsylvania’s First Congressional District — they are my bosses, and I answer to them and them alone,” Fitzpatrick said in a statement to The Inquirer.

‘A gutsy thing to do’

There used to be dozens of Fitzpatrick-like moderates in Washington, often crossing the aisle and assembling a nuanced voting record. But this type of lawmaker has become increasingly scarce as the electorate has grown more polarized.

Fitzpatrick is one of just three Republicans in the House who represent districts that Trump lost in 2024. One of the other two, U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., is retiring this year.

And Fitzpatrick’s 1st Congressional District is unique even among swing districts, with more rural, suburban, and working-class pockets — a true microcosm of the state and the country.

“He’s gotta play four-dimensional chess with his constituencies and understand the impact of legislation and how it impacts such a wide variety of coalitions,” said GOP consultant Matt Beynon, whose consulting agency worked with both Fitzpatrick brothers.

Headed into the 2026 midterm election, Harvie is well-known in the county and could present the toughest challenge to Fitzpatrick in years.

But Fitzpatrick still appears to hold broad appeal. He has out-raised Harvie 5-to-1, as of the end of June. And even as the national Democratic Party gears up to try and oust him, Fitzpatrick’s Democratic colleagues in the House are commending him for voting against Trump’s legislation.

“It was a gutsy thing to do,” U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi, a New York Democrat who co-chairs the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus with Fitzpatrick.

“When you’re in a tough seat that could go either way, it makes you have to represent all your people … it forces you to be more in tune with your people.”

U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat who grew up in Bucks County, called Fitzpatrick’s vote “principled” and said he has “always found him to be independent minded, down to earth and true to his values.”

“I wish a few more Republicans had joined us,” added U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle of Philadelphia, the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee which oversaw much of the debate around the budget bill.

A primary challenge?

As a relatively moderate Republican, Fitzpatrick is already unwelcome in some more conservative GOP clubs in Bucks County. After his vote against the so-called “big beautiful bill,” MAGA influencers and grassroots organizers like Scott Presler descended on social media, abuzz about recruiting primary challengers to run against Fitzpatrick in 2026.

That approach could backfire for the party, said Jim Worthington, a Bucks County health club owner and a longtime Trump ally. Worthington, who has some significant policy disagreements with Fitzpatrick, said he still sees him as the party’s best shot at holding on to a critical seat in Philadelphia’s increasingly blue suburbs.

“We cannot afford to lose this seat and have Democrats voting to impeach Trump every other week,” said Worthington, who noted that the scrutiny from Republicans toward Fitzpatrick would likely be more intense had the bill not passed.

Fitzpatrick has handily defeated more conservative challengers in the past.

“He knows his district better than anyone,” said State Rep. Joe Hogan, a Republican who represents Bucks County. “He’s outperformed everyone on the ticket consistently.”

Still, some Republican strategists question whether Fitzpatrick further distancing himself from Trump could hurt him in a general election when he’ll need support from the base.

“There’s a good chance that Trump voters stay home on Brian Fitzpatrick,” said one GOP strategist who did not want to be named while criticizing a member of his party. “Unless Trump does something to signal to them.”

Fitzpatrick and Trump have disagreed in the past. Fitzpatrick was the lone Pennsylvania Republican to confirm former President Joe Biden’s electoral victory in 2020. A former FBI agent who spent a stint stationed in Ukraine, he is among the strongest voices of support for Ukraine in Congress, consistently pushing the administration to do more to aid the country.

But Fitzpatrick has steered clear of any public confrontations, and until the enigmatic comment in Pittsburgh, Trump largely had, too.

But debate over the bill continues even after its passage. In the weeks since, Fitzpatrick has had his eye on legislation to roll back certain provisions in the bill package, a pursuit that could further agitate Trump.

He introduced the Bipartisan Tax Fairness Act of 2025 with Maine Democratic Rep. Jared Golden. The bill would establish a new top income tax rate of $1 million for individuals. He’s also working on a bill that would extend Biden’s IRA Energy Tax Credits, and another that would extend ACA premium tax credits.

“I do not report to any party, or any person, in Washington, D.C.,” Fitzpatrick said in the statement to The Inquirer. “Whatever consequences come with that, I am prepared to accept.”

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