Democrats Try to Make Bucks Sheriff Race about Trump and ICE

Bucks County Sheriff Fred Harran is running for re-election. He’s doing the job of the elected office: keeping residents safe.

Progressives, though, are attempting to put a Trump-target on Harran’s back. He holds a relatively unknown office but now he’s in the limelight because of a local Democratic alliance.  

Bucks County Democrat Commissioners Diane Marseglia and Bob Harvie have spent a peculiar amount of time at commissioners’ meetings attacking Harran. For example, Marseglia and Harvie cut him off during his monthly reports. They’ve tried to place limits on his officers and staff. They’ve threatened his budget.

If the Bucks County Commissioners seem vaguely familiar to you, it’s because they attracted national attention last fall – during the vote counting in the U.S. Senate race between now Sen. Dave McCormick and then-Sen. Bob Casey. In the commissioners’ role on the election board, they kept trying what can only charitably be called “new ways” to count ballots – ballots that were misdated and undated and in violation of a state Supreme Court ruling.

During public meetings – also broadcast on television and social media – Marseglia not only shut down citizens making points about the need to follow the law, she made motions and cast votes on ballots acknowledging that she was purposefully violating the law. “I think we all know that precedent by a court doesn’t matter anymore in this country,” said Marseglia. “People violate laws anytime they want. So, for me, if I violate this law, it’s because I want a court to pay attention…”

Well, they did. Federal and state courts “paid attention” and ordered Marseglia to stop what she was doing – flagrantly violating the law.

But her motions couldn’t pass without a second vote. Batman needed Robin. Marseglia had hers in fellow Democratic Commissioner Bob Harvie, who has already announced he’s running for Congress in 2026.

And so, the commissioners who proudly, publicly, and angrily violated the law – requiring court intervention to stop them – are now shutting down, lecturing, and threatening a county row officer. The violation: Sheriff Harvie, a career police officer who has worn the badge and put his life on the line since 1987, is following federal law.

Democratic allies are weighing-in: the ACLU has sued Harran to block the Sheriff's staff from cooperating with ICE.

And the Inquirer is doing its part. Just since the May primary, the paper has run stories about Harran six times with similar headlines making the Democrats' case: “Trump-style Sheriff,” “Trump-style politics,” and, “How Fred Harran mimics Trump in Bucks County.”

Why? When the Sheriff’s officers arrest, transport, or are asked to secure someone arrested for breaking state law – and their investigation shows that the person in custody is also an illegal immigrant (sometimes having broken the law in his or her native country) – they proceed with legally notifying ICE.

Harran didn’t hold a press conference to announce such arrests, nor did he post on social media. Instead, the office performed its job. But Harran – who has been honored by the American Red Cross, the Kiwanis, the Rotary, the Ameriseva Indian Cultural Society, and countless law enforcement associations – is now in the limelight because leftwing ideologues put him there.

A man who has committed himself to public service, has been honored for his service and his success, who used community policing and focused on training his staff on arresting people without force, is now “the bad guy.”

The late Democratic U.S. House Speaker Tip O’Neil used to proclaim that “all politics is local.”

But not anymore. Today’s Democratic Party has decided to nationalize every election. Now, every race is about advancing an ideology. Laws don’t matter. Custom doesn’t matter. The Constitution doesn’t matter.

Well, they do to Sheriff Harran, who is simply following the law. Bucks County is fortunate to have him.