PA-1: Democrats fear a suburban Philly congressional race is their ‘biggest recruiting failure in the country’

… GOP Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Middletown Township survived the blue wave in last year’s midterm elections, which wiped out suburban Republicans across the country and delivered the speaker’s gavel to Nancy Pelosi. And while Democrats see Fitzpatrick as eminently beatable in 2020, there’s a problem: A top-tier challenger has yet to emerge. …

Some Democrats say that in a Clinton district, the party’s nominee doesn’t need to be a particularly superior political talent. What the party does need, they say, is a candidate who better resonates with moderate and conservative Democrats who live in Fitzpatrick’s power base of lower Bucks County.

In the past couple of local election cycles, Democrats have taken control of township governing bodies in upscale, traditionally Republican areas in central Bucks. But they’ve had more trouble in parts of lower Bucks, despite a voter registration advantage, where working class Democrats supported Trump in 2016. CONT.