A woman who says she survived Jeffrey Epstein’s grooming and abuse stood in Bristol, Pennsylvania, this week and told a small crowd gathered around a bookmobile stacked with printed Epstein files that the documents inside contain her life. Sharlene Rochard has spent recent weeks touring Bucks County and other Pennsylvania swing districts, appearing alongside Democratic candidates who are using Epstein’s ties to Donald Trump as a closing argument in some of the most competitive House races in the country.
Rochard appeared in Bristol with Bob Harvie, the Bucks County commissioner challenging Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick in Pennsylvania’s 1st Congressional District, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. She has described meeting Epstein as a teenager while traveling to the United States, and says she was later brought to New York, Florida, and Epstein’s private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Rochard, who lives in Canada, now works alongside fellow survivors pushing for the full release of Epstein-related records, calling for what she describes as justice, accountability, and transparency.
“I am a real person,” Rochard said, according to the Inquirer. “I need justice.”
A Bristol Bookmobile Stop Draws a Few Dozen Voters
The Bristol stop drew a couple dozen visitors to the bookmobile, the Inquirer reported, among them Langhorne resident Deb Crasnick, Bensalem resident Diane Grant, and Falls Township resident Tracey Marshall. Most of the bookmobile guests told the Inquirer they planned to vote for Harvie, but also said cost-of-living concerns, not the Epstein files, were topping their list of priorities heading into the 2026 election. That tension between a splashy national controversy and kitchen-table economics runs through much of the broader campaign: Pennsylvania Democrats, including Harvie, have centered their general-election messaging on affordability even as they lean on Epstein-related attacks in swing districts, according to the Inquirer.
Harvie has discussed transparency and equal justice. The race is one of four closely watched Pennsylvania congressional contests that could help decide control of the U.S. House, the paper reports.
Fitzpatrick’s Reversal and a Near-Unanimous House Vote
Fitzpatrick has represented the 1st District since defeating Democrat Scott Wallace by less than two points in 2018’s closest contest, and has since beaten Democrat Ashley Ehasz in the past two elections, winning his most recent contest by more than 12 points, according to a WHYY voter guide on the race. Fitzpatrick voted to block the release of the Epstein files, according to the Bucks County Beacon. He ultimately voted for the Epstein Files Transparency Act after Trump reversed his own opposition to the bill, the Inquirer reported.
Fitzpatrick said in 2025 that he is unequivocally behind Epstein victims and their family members, and campaign spokesperson Heather Roberts has said the congressman stands with victims and supports disclosure and transparency. Trump, for his part, has called the Epstein case a hoax and said the files already shared publicly are enough.
Rochard’s Tour Continues Across Swing Districts
Rochard’s Pennsylvania swing came as the bookmobile truck arrived in the state roughly one month before Election Day. In Harrisburg, she was welcomed by Janelle Stelson, the Democrat challenging Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Perry in the 10th District, who has promised to take on what she calls a culture of corruption across government. Rochard was also slated to appear in Bethlehem with Democrat Brooks, who is running against U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie in the 7th District.
The Pennsylvania stops are part of a larger, officially nonpartisan tour organized by the Institute for Primary Facts, a nonprofit that says it builds public art installations. The Chicago Tribune has described 3.5 million declassified documents. Other reporting has described the traveling collection differently: an Associated Press account carried by The Mercury described a truck in Kansas City, Kansas, packed with more than 3 million pages, while a separate Chicago Tribune report put the tour at 14 cities.
The Tribune, which tracked the bookmobile’s Sept. 23 stop in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood, described the effort as a way to bring the Epstein files to the people in a way that humanizes the experience. The exhibit has also made stops well beyond Pennsylvania: in Dallas, where 3,437 printed volumes lined an event space according to KXAN, and in Warren, Michigan, where Michigan 10th District candidate Christina Hines spoke at a similar traveling exhibition, per C-SPAN.
