About a week before the event, the Montgomery County Democratic Committee announced it was hosting what it called a “town hall” on July 10 for Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie Jr., who is running for Congress.
But when a Delaware Valley Journal reporter came to cover it, the event had been moved to a different location than the one shown in the committee’s app– and without any announcement.
Harvie is hoping to be the Democratic challenger to incumbent U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick in the 2026 general election. The event organizers’ app showed that the town hall would be held at McGerks restaurant in Horsham. However, when the reporter arrived at the designated time, the receptionist and manager at the eatery said there was no event that night. They said other people had also shown up looking for the Harvie town hall.
Neither the Harvie campaign nor the Montgomery County Democrats responded to requests for an explanation. State Rep. Melissa Cerrato (D-Horsham), who was named as host of the town hall, also declined to respond.
But the folks at Defending America PAC, which supports Fitzpatrick, say they think they know why. The event was not an open “town hall” where candidates face the voters, but rather a “closed-door campaign event.” They released a public call for WHYY, the left-leaning public radio station, to correct its coverage of the event.
“Nowhere in the (WHYY) story – or from Harvie himself – is it mentioned that this was a closed-door campaign event sponsored by the Montgomery County Democratic Committee, with the location only disclosed to pre-screened, vetted attendees on the day before the event after they RSVPed. Instead, (Harvie and WHYY) misled the public into believing it was a legitimate, unscripted town hall,” the PAC said.
Harvie has been using the town hall issue to attack Fitzpatrick, accusing him of not holding one since 2017.
Chris Pack, Defending America PAC president, called out what he sees as Harvie’s hypocrisy.
“If Harvie wants to beat his chest like a tough guy about hosting a town hall, he should grow a pair and actually answer questions on these issues instead of hiding behind WHYY’s bulls**t, biased puff piece, weeks after Brian Fitzpatrick once again showed his independence by crossing party lines to protect WHYY’s funding,” Pack said.
WHYY Senior Managing Editor Mark Eichmann did not respond to a request for comment.
Outside McGerks the night of the (nonexistent) event, a woman told DVJournal that she also came to attend the town hall, only to find out that she had been sent to the wrong place.
The woman, who did not give her name, said that she was an active Democrat who had knocked on doors for Kamala Harris. She complained that disorganization had likely cost Ashley Ehasz the race when she ran against Fitzpatrick in 2024.
“She didn’t know how to run a campaign,” she said. The woman had volunteered at the Lansdale office, which had campaign literature for other candidates, but none for Ehasz, she said.
Now it was the Harvie campaign sending her to the wrong location.
“He’s not getting my money now,” she said.