Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick said he would leave the Republican Party if Pennsylvania moves to open primary elections, a blunt warning from one of the party’s most independent-minded members in Congress. Fitzpatrick said the state’s closed-primary system is a major reason he still registers as a Republican.
He said the current rules force lawmakers to think first about primary voters instead of the broader public, a dynamic he argued warps decision-making in Washington and Harrisburg alike. In his telling, that pressure has become so distorting that he said it is ignorant to subscribe to a party and that he has a disdain for ideologues and partisans.
The comments came in an interview on Punchbowl News and underscored the unusual political lane Fitzpatrick occupies in Pennsylvania’s 1st District, where he has represented the seat since 2017. He said the word he prefers most is independent, but Pennsylvania’s rules make that label hard to live out in practice because voters who register as Independent would forfeit the right to vote in half of elections.
That tension has defined Fitzpatrick’s career for years. He opposed the final passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, voted in January for a three-year extension of enhanced Obamacare subsidies and has backed several of President Donald Trump’s priorities, including efforts tied to the southern border. He also said he was upset when people criticized Sen. John Fetterman, D-Penn., another sign of how often he has broken with party reflexes.
Fitzpatrick said he feels most comfortable in the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, which he co-chairs with Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y. That fits the profile he has built in a district Sabato’s Crystal Ball listed as leans Republican on April 21, even as Democrats Bob Harvie and Lucia Simonelli prepare for their primary on May 19 for the chance to challenge him on Nov. 3.
The friction is plain: Fitzpatrick says he remains a Republican because Pennsylvania’s closed-primary rules make that the practical path, yet he also said he would not stay in the GOP if the state ever changes those rules. On the record, he left no doubt about where he would go if voters opened the system: 100% out.
