Pennsylvania’s 1st Congressional District encompasses all of Bucks County (and part of Montgomery County), a county outside of Philadelphia that is the setting for the M. Night Shyamalan film Signs. The film presents Bucks County as primarily rural, but in actuality it is very suburban, being sandwiched between Philadelphia, Allentown and Trenton. After redistricting in 2018, it has been represented by Brian Fitzpatrick, a Republican who likes to highlight his “independence” from Donald Trump but in reality has voted for Trump’s agenda 75% of the time and twice voted against his impeachment. This fall, PA-1 presents one of the best opportunities for Democrats to flip in their quest to take back control of the House of Representatives.

One of the candidates running in the Democratic primary election for this district is Lucia Simonelli (she/her), a millennial who grew up without healthcare or financial stability but went on to get her PhD in Mathematics and works as a scientific advisor in the U.S. Senate. Her top issues in her campaign are Climate Change, Medicare for All, and abolishing ICE.

Where are you based?
Quakertown, PA

What is your position/what position are you running for?
US House Rep for PA-01

How would you briefly summarize your platform?
Our platform is based on a set of values – access, balance, safety, science, opportunity, and fairness – and the fact that fighting the acute concentration of wealth and power is critically important if we want good policy that serves us, the people.

What inspired you to run?
Patriotism seems to come so effortlessly to some, but I have struggled with it. I’ve had a hard time feeling patriotic when our country violates international law and is complicit in genocide. It has felt hard to feel patriotic when our country subsidizes an industry by billions and billions that is seeding misinformation and blocking efforts to address the humanitarian and environmental crisis that is climate change, hard when our country commodifies the human right that is healthcare, hard when our family, friends, and colleagues are part of the immigrant community that is being violently targeted because they’ve become scapegoat for what is truly behind increasing crime rates and our economic struggles — which is an oligarchy fueled by the systemic injustices it creates and maintains.

But ironically, I found patriotism inside the very government that I blame for so much. I served in the US Senate, and I fell in love with our legislative process. I realized that at its core, it is a complex and beautiful mechanism that is the final part of the relay from voter to elected official to the creation of policy that affects so many lives. But it serves the public good when it’s rooted in integrity, accountability, objectivity, knowledge, and respect for evidence and facts. I’ve seen firsthand how dark money, corporate power, and special interests have gummed up the works. I’m running for office because patriotism for me has now become an active pursuit to protect and restore a process that I’ve come to appreciate so much.

What change are you hoping to bring to your district and country?
People have lost faith in elections; the sentiment that “both parties are the same” is a real thing. If our campaign goal is to raise an unconscionable amount of money from dubious sources to spend on consultants and TV ads, then we prove them right. If we succumb to the advice that saying what’s right – Medicare for All, Abolish ICE, the Israeli government committed a genocide – is not strategic to win, then we prove them right. If we are beholden to party leaders or big donors, we prove them right. We hope to help build back trust in politics by offering something that is fundamentally different, by showing people that how we campaign is the model for how we will lead. We aren’t endorsed by the party because we aren’t the establishment, and we aren’t the establishment because we put people over the party.

What do you consider to be your major accomplishments so far?
I have worked as a scientific advisor in the Senate. I have been working on federal climate, energy, and science policy for about seven years in various capacities, so I understand the legislative process and how to work within it effectively.

What do you feel are the most important issues right now, why, and how do you plan to tackle them?
Climate Change: I think climate change is the issue of our day, in part because of its unmatched intersectionality. Addressing climate change is addressing affordability, public health, the treatment of marginalized groups, economic competitiveness, national security, dark money in politics, the livelihood of future generations, etc. First, I would support coupling investment in transmission infrastructure with the responsible reduction of red tape for permitting clean energy projects. This would increase grid reliability and significantly lower utility bills – electricity costs are too high right now! Second, I support investing in research, development, and demonstration programs across agencies for economic sectors that are more complex to decarbonize, such as industrial processes and agriculture. This would ensure that domestic manufacturing remains globally competitive and that farming remains resilient as weather patterns change. Third, I would support restoring and increasing funding to programs developing ways to integrate carbon management into our infrastructure in a way that simultaneously supports mitigation and adaptation.

Healthcare: Medicare for All is the policy equivalent of ‘healthcare is a human right.’ It would put into place the optimal structure to ensure that everyone in this country has access to quality healthcare. Some of my family, who live abroad, have never had to deal with monthly premiums, denial of coverage, or medical debt – no one in the United States should either. Medicare for All would be cheaper per capita than our current system through a reduction in administrative fees and prescription drug costs. As a step toward Medicare for All, I really like the State-based Universal Healthcare Act, which would allow states, voluntarily, to trial Medicare for All through a waiver program. This leverages states as laboratory spaces, which could help to build political will for a national program.

Immigration: As the daughter of an immigrant, this is an extremely important topic for me. I believe immigration policy should reflect fairness, dignity, legal integrity, and practical solutions that prioritize human rights and safety. Because of this, ICE must be abolished. Increased training and other reforms cannot fix the systemic issues of the agency that have led to the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, as they were murdered by seasoned officers. Other law enforcement agencies already exist to protect against criminal activity; there is no reason to have a special agency specifically targeting a group of people with lower per capita crime rates than US citizens. I do support a secure border and immigration reform. I’m in favor of a humane approach that (i) ensures adequate personnel, training, technology, and infrastructure along the border, (ii) replaces deterrence-focused detention with community-based reception systems, (iii) directs federal resources toward timely asylum processing and humanitarian support, and (iv) strengthens coordination between government and civil society to ensure arriving migrants are welcomed into communities.

America is extremely divided these days. How would you hope to bridge that divide with your constituents to better unite Americans?
Polarization has been weaponized to destroy our democracy and to maintain the corrupt power structure. When we don’t talk to one another, we aren’t able to leverage the power of unity and of the collective. One interesting manifestation of this is the false distinction presented between progressive policies and working class policies or between "kitchen table issues” and systemic reformation. It’s imperative that we connect the dots. We can bridge the divide by being unafraid to support what we believe is truly for the people and through this, showing that we are unified by being on the same side of a power structure that makes the rich richer by keeping the rest of us down. The real division is not across party lines, it is between us and the top 1% that hoards $50 trillion dollars of wealth.

How do you see your unique identity and background to be an asset to you in office?
I bring the experience of growing up working class. I bring the experience of knowing the burden and consequences of living with financial insecurity and the fear of not having health insurance. I bring the experience of reliance on public services like media, transport, libraries, parks, education and how they offered me and my family an opportunity to gain more solid footing. I bring experience as a mathematician, the experience as an educator, and someone who has worked on federal policy for seven years, including in the United States Senate. I can bridge all of the experiences to connect the decisions in Washington to working class lives.

What is your motto in life?
I derive my life motto from a Richard Feynman quote about cultivating curiosity: “Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent and original manner possible.”

Where can we find out more about you?
www.luciaforcongress.com Facebook Instagram Bluesky X

Facebook: @luciaforcongress
Instagram: @luciaforcongress
Bluesky: @luciaforcongress.com
X: @lucia4congress

Our Favorite Progressive Candidates in 2026 - Lucia Simonelli, Pennsylvania's 1st Congressional District