{"id":175661,"date":"2026-04-25T09:09:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T09:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/175661\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T09:09:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T09:09:11","slug":"fitzpatrick-says-he-would-be-independent-if-pennsylvania-were-open-primary-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/175661\/","title":{"rendered":"Fitzpatrick says he would be independent if Pennsylvania were open primary state"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) said he would drop his GOP<\/a> party label and register as an independent if Pennsylvania<\/a> were not a closed primary state.<\/p>\n

\u201cI registered Republican when I was 18 because I liked Reagan, I still like Reagan,\u201d Fitzpatrick said<\/a> in an interview with Punchbowl News. \u201cI\u2019ve, over the years, even before I got here, have sort of rejected the two-party system. I really don\u2019t believe in it. I think it\u2019s so incredibly divisive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since 2017, Fitzpatrick has represented the Keystone State\u2019s 1st District, one of the most competitive swing districts in the state. Though President Donald Trump won the district\u2019s Bucks County<\/a> in 2024, the suburban Philadelphia county had been blue in almost every presidential election over the past few decades.<\/p>\n

The four-term congressman, who is up for reelection in November, told<\/a> Punchbowl News that he is not an independent because Pennsylvania has a closed primary system. When asked whether he would register as an independent if it became an open primary state, he said, \u201c100%.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI want everybody to be an independent,\u201d Fitzpatrick said. <\/p>\n

The Pennsylvania Republican co-chairs the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus with Rep. Tom Suozzi<\/a> (D-NY). He voted against<\/a>\u00a0the final passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. He voted with House Democrats and\u00a017 other Republicans<\/a>\u00a0in January for a three-year extension of enhanced Obamacare subsidies. But he has also\u00a0touted<\/a> several of Trump\u2019s key policies, including cracking down on the southern border.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019ve gravitated towards the Problem Solvers [Caucus],\u201d Fitzpatrick said. \u201cIt\u2019s the only two-party group in Congress. That\u2019s where I feel the most comfortable. But I honestly view that as a means to an end of non-partisanship, where we can get to just everybody being an independent and we just formed coalitions around ideas,\u201d Fitzpatrick said.<\/p>\n

CENTRIST REPUBLICANS SAY MAP WARS BACKFIRED ON GOP<\/a><\/p>\n

Pennsylvania\u2019s 1st District Democratic primary race<\/a> will be held on May 19, with Bob Harvie, vice chairman of the Bucks County Board of Commissioners, facing off against former U.S. Senate scientific adviser Lucia Simonelli. The winner will take on Fitzpatrick on Nov. 3.<\/p>\n

Election forecaster Sabato\u2019s Crystal Ball lists the district as \u201cleans Republican<\/a>,\u201d as of April 21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) said he would drop his GOP party label and register as an independent if…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7097,31343,28,30,29,5085,78672],"class_list":["post-175661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-congress","tag-independents","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-republican-party","tag-third-party"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}