Asian American voters in Pa.'s Bucks and Montgomery counties could sway key US House race. Democrats are making their pitch

Fallon Roth, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Oct 20, 2026

Published in Political News

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PHILADELPHIA — National Democrats are targeting Asian American and Pacific Islander voters as they try to flip a Bucks County congressional seat next month in one of the mostly closely watched contests in the country.

The new 30-second ad from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee features Montgomery County Commissioner Neil Makhija, a Democrat and the first Asian American county commissioner in Pennsylvania.

Makhija criticizes five-term incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick on affordability issues and for being “not the same guy anymore” before urging voters to cast their ballots for Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie, the Democratic nominee.

“In Bucks and Montgomery counties, we deserve someone in Congress who actually represents us,” Makhija says in the digital ad, which is backed by a six-figure buy in the the 1st Congressional District, which includes all of Bucks County and a sliver of Montgomery County.

The district includes a large population of Asian American and Pacific Islander residents in communities such as Bensalem and Hatfield, who could play a key role in determining the outcome of November’s elections.

“Oftentimes, Asian American voters are invisible to the political parties, but when you start paying attention, you realize that in close races like this, we can decide the margin, and in many cases, do decide the margin,” Makhija said in an interview Tuesday.

Bucks County is home to over 30,000 Asian Americans, including more than 18,000 of whom are U.S. citizens of age to vote, Makhija said in a news release. (Census data shows Asian Americans make up nearly 7% of the county’s population and nearly 14% of Bensalem’s).

This past weekend, South Asian leaders such as Makhija and Democratic State Reps. Arvind Venkat and Tarik Khan knocked doors in Bensalem for Harvie and Democrats Eileen Hartnett Albillar in the 6th state Senate District and Bryan Allen in the 18th state House district.

He said that Harvie has “been doing a great job showing up and listening,” but it’s also up to officials within these communities to be reliable messengers.

For his part, in his close to 10 years in Congress, Fitzpatrick has built relationships with Asian American and Pacific Islander voters by regularly celebrating Diwali in the community and cosponsoring legislation, including a bipartisan bill to increase language access in clinical settings.

A national poll from the Associated Press and AAPI Data, released this week, found that Asian American and Pacific Islander voters were shifting toward Democrats on key issues ahead of the election.

AAPI voters favored Democrats over Republicans on the economy 41% to 21% as of September, while they were nearly evenly split between the two parties on the issue in March of 2025.

A similar shift took on place on immigration, which AAPI voter favor Democrats on 43% to 24%.