Christina Finello Says She Would Be District’s ‘Real Voice In D.C.’

Christina Finello has worked for months to convince voters that she’s the best choice in the race for the First Congressional District.

Leading up to election day and with mail-in and absentee ballots out to most voters, Finello has fine tuned her message that she and Democrats understand the district that includes all of Bucks County and a small portion of Montgomery County better than Republican incumbent Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick and President Donald Trump’s allies. Her campaign and Democrats have also increased efforts to link Fitzpatrick, who bills himself as a moderate Republican that has split at times with the rest of the party, as a Trump-backing congressman.

Finello, a wife and mother to two daughters who was born in Bristol Township and raised in Warminster, often talks about her family’s rise from living paycheck to paycheck to living a more stable middle class lifestyle. She said her dad obtaining a union job was the step her family needed to gain some stability and that’s something that stuck with her. In her economic argument, she has said she understands the cost of health care and raising a family, even noting she is working to pay down her student debt.

“I’m somebody who has lived and grown up in this district,” she said.

Her opponent also grew up in the district and returned to Middletown Township after serving with the FBI.

One of the factors that pushed her into running for Congress was “seeing Trump’s leadership and the impact it has had on the district.” She said she hears often about how the president’s attacks on the Affordable Care Act, lack of leadership on COVID-19, and disparaging comments about veterans hurt people in the area.

If elected, she vowed to be the district’s “real voice in D.C.”

Like Fitzpatrick, Finello, who has a doctorate clinical psychology and a law degree, came into the race without major political experience. She entered the nationally-watched election with her top political experience being that she is the only Democrat on the council of 1,000-resident Ivyland Borough.

Along the campaign trail, she has touted her work as Bucks County’s deputy director of housing and human services and her service at the Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disability Services. She said those jobs have required her to work with people of all different opinions and come to solutions for tough issues.

As Fitzpatrick and Republican groups have tied her to efforts to defund the police in mailers and advertisements, Finello has called the attacks “disappointing.” She pointed to her work in human services and as a council member that works with police. She said her previous roles have given her a “unique perspective” that includes supporting police and making reforms to the system, including increasing data shared, banning chokeholds, adding training for officers, and promoting community-based policing.

“These lies by the congressman and his allies are just not based in reality,” she said. “It’s time to stop playing games.”

Finello has heralded her endorsements from the sheriffs of Bucks County and Montgomery County, both of whom are elected Democrats. The Bucks County Fraternal Order of Police have endorsed Fitzpatrick.

Part of helping police officers, Finello said, was making sure people with mental health problems are able to get the treatment they need.

She said protecting the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, and improving upon it are “certainly” important steps to help everyone in the district. She said voters in the district are concerned about the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court case and the impact it could have on people with health problems and those with pre-existing conditions.

In addition, Finello supports offering a public option that would expand government-backed insurance for people who can’t or are unable to get health care through an employer.

“People should be able to keep insurance if they like it,” she said of those with private insurance.

Congressman Fitzpatrick Says He’s ‘Reasonable, Rational & Pragmatic’

Finnello often calls back to the importance of protecting those with pre-existing conditions, noting her daughter has a condition that before the Affordable Care Act might have limited her access to insurance.

On abortion, Finello said she believes the decision should be left up to women and not politicians.

“For me, this is something that I’ve always believed. Women are in the best place to make choices about their own bodies,” she said. 

Recalling her daughter’s problems while in the womb, Finello noted how difficult it was being presented the option of terminating her pregnancy before birth due a medical issue. In the end, her daughter was born healthy but with a pre-existing condition.

“I couldn’t imagine serious decisions like abortion to be left in the hands of politicians,” she added.

With the COVID-19 pandemic claiming more than 530 lives in Bucks County, Finello chided the Trump administration for downplaying the threat of the virus. Citing a Fitzpatrick radio interview that was later fact checked, Finello said the congressman also downplayed it.

Finello also said she was upset with the misleading comments the president continues to make about COVID-19.

“We have got to be guided by public health safety experts,” she said.

On border security, Finello said she supports having “effective” border policing, but that it needs to be done humanely. She said images of “inhumane conditions” among migrant detainees and hearing about more than 540 children government officials can’t place back with their parents “saddens” and sickens” her.

When asked what her first bill introduced in Congress if elected would be, Finello said she would have to look at major crises that need immediate attention like coronavirus, health care, climate change, and race relations. She also said campaign finance reform is something she hopes to tackle early on.

The candidate pledged to told in-person town hall events for constituents, a frequent criticism of the incumbent.

Throughout the campaign, Finello has boasted that she doesn’t take campaign contributions from corporate political action committees (PACs) like Fitzpatrick does.

Although, Fitzpatrick and his campaign have pointed out that she accepts funding and assistance from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which does accept corporate PAC donations.

Finello said the situation is different because she is not directly taking the money from those PACs, which support a variety of different interests.

She said that while Democrats have lots of “good ideas,” including on health care, she plans to take constituents voices to Washington D.C.

“At the end of the day and when I’m in congress, if I hear a good idea from somebody that doesn’t share the same political registration as I do, I’m all ears,” she said.

Many Democratic leaders didn’t expect her to be nominee when she entered the race last year, but after two other challengers dropped out, Finello became the frontrunner for Democrats. Finello defeated progressive challenger Skylar Hurwitz in the primary.

Fitzpatrick’s campaign took a moment of hesitation from Finello at a debate earlier this month when Finello said Fitzpatrick was the “most independent congressman” and has used it in advertising and text message blasts to voters.

Finello, in an interview with this news organization, said Fitzpatrick supports much of the president’s agenda and is far from being independent.

Across the nearly 700-square-mile congressional district, Finello, who voted via mail-in ballot for Joe Biden in the presidential race, said she has learned from the voters she has spoken to. She said she often understands many of their struggles first hand.

“Folks in this district are tired of having things taken away and not having somebody stand up for us,” she said. “They want to get back to place where we’re putting the people and their needs first.”

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