Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick said he would leave the Republican Party if Pennsylvania had open primary elections, a blunt rejection of party loyalty from one of the GOP’s most independent-minded House members. In an interview with Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer, Fitzpatrick said he would do it “100%,” adding that the state’s closed-primary system traps lawmakers in partisan calculation.
Fitzpatrick, a Republican from Pennsylvania, represents a competitive purple district he has controlled for eight years and has repeatedly bucked party lines on some of President Donald Trump’s key initiatives. He voted against the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act, and said he has “disdain for ideologues and partisans” because, in his view, it is “ignorant to subscribe to a party.”
The comments landed in a Congress where only one U.S. House of Representative member identifies as an Independent in the 119th Congressional legislative session. Fitzpatrick said, “Countless people go to the floor saying I really want to vote for this, but I got to worry about my primary,” and argued, “It’s killing our country. It’s killing good policy, and we got to fix that.”
Pennsylvania’s closed primary system means only registered party voters can cast ballots in primaries, a setup Fitzpatrick says distorts how lawmakers behave long before Election Day. He said he could not run as an independent in Pennsylvania and asked, “Do you want to forfeit your right to vote in 50% of elections?” That argument cuts against a political culture in which parties still dominate ballot access, even as some members try to carve out room to break with them.
Fitzpatrick’s stance also sits alongside a small but visible group of lawmakers who do not fit neatly inside party lines. Kevin Kiley is listed as the only House Independent in the 119th Congress, though he was first elected as a Republican, while Bernie Sanders and Angus Cloud are named as Independent senators who caucus with Democrats. Fitzpatrick’s remarks make plain where he sees the system heading: not toward more loyalty to party, but toward a cleaner break from it if the rules ever allow one.
He also said he was “upset” when people criticized Sen. John Fetterman, a sign that his willingness to cross the aisle is not limited to one side of the Capitol. Fetterman has often voted with Republicans on key issues, and Fitzpatrick’s reaction suggests he values independence when it appears in a Democrat as much as in himself. In a chamber defined by tight margins and hard tribal lines, Fitzpatrick was not describing a hypothetical theory of reform. He was saying the structure of the system is already shaping the votes before they are cast, and that he would walk away from his party if Pennsylvania gave him a different way to compete.