Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a moderate Pennsylvania Republican, is applauding an effort to open the Keystone State’s primaries to unaffiliated voters.
On Tuesday, he responded to news that Pennsylvania’s Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro supports a bill passed by the Democratic-controlled state House to open primaries to independents.
“Thank you, Governor. This is the single most important thing we need to do to unify our country,” Mr. Fitzpatrick said on social media, noting he has introduced similar legislation on the federal level. “Every American citizen must have the right to vote in every taxpayer-funded election.”
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Under Pennsylvania’s closed primary system, voters must register as Democrats or Republicans to participate in one of the major parties’ primaries.
Open primary systems tend to favor more moderate candidates.
Mr. Fitzpatrick often bucks the party line and defies President Trump’s wishes.
In 2025, he was one of just two Republicans to vote against the president’s One Big Beautiful Bill.
In April, Mr. Fitzpatrick told Punchbowl News that he would become an independent if Pennsylvania adopted an open primary system.
The closed primaries are “killing our country,” he said, arguing that they pressure lawmakers to vote party line. “It’s killing good policy, and we got to fix that.”
Mr. Shapiro has expressed skepticism about the bill’s chances of passing the state’s Republican-controlled Senate.
“I think the state Senate has been an impediment to a number of common sense bills, and I think it’s important that we engage more voters, have more voter participation, and opening up our primaries is a good way to do that,” the governor told Center Square.
Mr. Fitzpatrick is running for reelection in a district that elected him by almost 13 points in 2024 but also favored Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
The Cook Political Report rates Mr. Fitzpatrick’s race as “likely Republican” against Democrat Bob Harvie.
Democratic state Rep. Greg Vitali criticized the open-primary bill in a speech before it passed Tuesday in the Pennsylvania House, saying the purpose of primaries “is to give parties the opportunity to choose their standard bearer for the general election.”
He continued, “I dispute the fact that independents are being excluded from anything. Independents are self-excluding. They are choosing. They are choosing not to be part of this process.”
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