Major Democratic super PAC commits to spend $20 million in Pennsylvania's competitive US House races

PHILADELPHIA — A major national Democratic super PAC said Thursday it will spend $20 million on ads across four Pennsylvania congressional districts that could help determine whether the party wins control of the U.S. House later this year.

The House Majority PAC's investment — about $6 million more than the PAC poured into Pennsylvania races in the Republican-dominated 2024 election — could become a significant boost for Democratic candidates facing well-funded Republican incumbents.

An equivalent GOP organization also said Thursday it plans to spend heavily in the same areas, with $13.5 million worth of anticipated ads to defend its recent gains in Pennsylvania.

The Democratic PAC's announcement is one of the first signs that the national partyintends to commit resources to unseating five-term U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, the last Republican representing a Philadelphia-area district.

Democrats have long had their eye on winning the Bucks County-based district, though many political observers say the Republican has a better chance of holding onto it compared with the GOP incumbents in the other three competitive districts in Pennsylvania.

For the first time since 2020, the PAC is backing efforts to unseat Fitzpatrick, part of an almost $12.9 million ad buy in the Philadelphia media market.

That media market extends to the Lehigh Valley, where the money will also go toward opposing first-term U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R., Lehigh), widely considered the most vulnerable incumbent in Congress this election.

In the Wilkes-Barre market, where another freshman, U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan Jr. (R., Lackawanna), is trying to hold onto his seat, the PAC is pushing roughly $3.7 million.

In Harrisburg, the PAC has committed to spend almost $3.5 million against U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (R., York).

The PAC is aligned with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.), who is poised to become the first Black speaker if Democrats take the House this fall.

The spending in Pennsylvania is planned for the fall and is part of a larger commitment from the PAC to spend $272 million to help Democratic House candidates across the country. Democrats need a net gain of only three seats to win the majority for the second half of President Donald Trump's term.

Mike Smith, the PAC's president, said in a statement that the financial commitments show that Democrats are "on offense heading into November."

"While Democrats are expanding the map nationwide, House Republicans are losing ground after failing to lower costs, making health care more expensive, and dragging us into another costly and unpopular foreign war," Smith said. "Democrats will take back the House in November, and elect Hakeem Jeffries as the next Speaker."

The committee's GOP counterpart, the Congressional Leadership Fund, is aligned with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) and said it plans to spend $153.1 million on television and digital ads. The $7.6 million planned for the Philadelphia media market and roughly $3 million each for the Harrisburg and Wilkes-Barre markets are also all more than the PAC's initial investments in 2024.

Chris Winkelman, president of the Congressional Leadership Fund, said in a statement that the group is "committed to defending our own while aggressively supporting" new candidates.

"This initial reserve reflects the reality that this cycle, again, will be fought on a narrow map," Winkelman said. "Republicans hold the terrain, and it's a tall order for Democrats to break through our strong, battle-tested incumbents."

The announcements came after new campaign finance filings last week revealed Democratic challengers in two competitive districts have built up war chests that rival the incumbents'.

Janelle Stelson, a former local television anchor whom Perry narrowly defeated two years ago, raised almost $2.2 million in recent months. That was nearly twice as much as Perry and left Stelson with $3.2 million in her campaign, compared with the Republican's $2.3 million.

Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, running against Bresnahan in a district that covers the northeastern corner of the state, also outraised the GOP incumbent in the last quarter — almost $1.5 million to his $1.2 million — while closing in on his total balance of $2.2 million.

But in the 1st Congressional District in the Philadelphia suburbs, Democrats have struggled to keep up with Fitzpatrick.

The Bucks County Republican had $7.6 million in his campaign bank account after raising nearly $1.2 million during the first three months of the year — far eclipsing likely Democratic challenger Bob Harvie, a Bucks County commissioner, who raised $428,000 last quarter and had $604,000 in the bank.

Harvie still needs to win the May 19 primary to become the nominee. The Democratic committees in Bucks and Montgomery Counties have rallied behind him as he faces Lucia Simonelli, a grassroots candidate and climate policy adviser.

Mackenzie, the Lehigh Valley Republican who defeated a three-term incumbent Democrat in 2024, is also set to enter the general election campaign with a hefty financial advantage.

His campaign had nearly $2.5 million on hand as of April 1 while four Democrats were spending their more limited resources in a competitive primary race.

The House Majority PAC, the largest political action committee focused exclusively on Democrats winning the House, will likely be one of several outside groups looking to bolster the candidates' own efforts in the Pennsylvania districts, flooding the airwaves in the process. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee will also be targeting the four districts.

Republicans have vowed to protect the seats they won in the wave that came with Trump's election in 2024. The National Republican Campaign Committee — which has named Fitzpatrick, Mackenzie, Perry, and Bresnahan among its priority candidates this year — boasted this week of raising more than its Democratic counterpart through the beginning of this year.

"Democrats used to count on a cash advantage to hide their radical policies from voters, but that crutch is now gone," NRCC spokesperson Mike Marinella said in a statement. "Republicans have the momentum, the money, and the firepower to take the fight straight to them in November."

Early announcements of large outside investments are not particularly surprising, but they are another sign that the four Republican-held swing districts in Pennsylvania "are in essence the heart of the 2026 cycle," said Chris Borick, director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion.

"The amount of spending that's going to go on — we're used to it in Pennsylvania, but it's going to be exceptional even by our high standards," Borick said.