This Bucks County Democrat and veteran swiped back after GOP group accused her of ‘pro-Hamas activism.’
“I proudly sacrificed years of my life in combat defending Americans and the American way of life against terrorist groups like Hamas,” said Ashley Ehasz, who is challenging Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick.
This article originally appeared in our Clout column. Clout provides often irreverent news and analysis about people, power, and politics.
Republicans this year are hoping to turn the war in Gaza into a winning campaign issue by accusing their opponents across the aisle of being weak on Israel. But one local Democrat who served in the military isn’t having it.
It all started when the National Republican Campaign Committee, the campaign arm for GOP candidates in U.S. House races, questioned whether Ashley Ehasz, a U.S. Army veteran and Apache helicopter pilot challenging U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, has engaged “pro-Hamas activism.”
“I proudly sacrificed years of my life in combat defending Americans and the American way of life against terrorist groups like Hamas,” Ehasz, who is running in the Bucks County-based 1st District, posted on X. “For @RepBrianFitz — who has never served a day in uniform — and the @NRCC to now say I support Hamas? Go [EXPLETIVE DELETED] yourselves.”
The no-holds-barred response, posted with a photo of Ehasz sitting in an Apache, came after the NRCC, which backs Fitzpatrick, blasted Ehasz over a $1,500 donation she received from Wendy Rockefeller. The aristocratic family’s current patriarch, David Rockefeller Jr., sits on the board of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, which has funded Jewish Voices for Peace, an anti-Zionist organization.
“Extreme Democrat Ashley Ehasz proudly powers her campaign with cash from the very same billionaires underwriting the antisemitic chaos sweeping college campuses,” NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella wrote in a release. “Voters need to know, does Ehasz agree with their pro-Hamas activism or will she dump their donations?”
Other Democrats quickly lined up behind Ehasz to criticize the NRCC, including U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, who is a member of the bipartisan and centrist Problem Solvers Caucus with Fitzpatrick.
“Partisanship is one thing. Flagrant attacks on the patriotism of those you disagree with, many of whom are veterans, is a naked attempt to divide our country,” Gottheimer said.
Fitzpatrick’s campaign took umbrage with Ehasz’s choice words. Fitzpatrick, a former FBI agent, was embedded with U.S. Special Forces during the Iraq War, according to his congressional website.
“Ashley Ehasz’s comment about Congressman Fitzpatrick is false and defamatory,” campaign spokesperson Nancy McCarty told Clout. “And the matter has been turned over to the campaign’s lawyers.”