A vulnerable House Republican in a battleground district admitted to Punchbowl News' Jake Sherman this week on Fly Out Day that he's thought about leaving the GOP and running as an independent — but there's a key issue that prevents him from doing so.
Specifically, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) said he'd make the switch if Pennsylvania were an open primary state, where people aren't locked into their specific primary based on their party registration — a law that, in his reckoning, creates too much of a structural disadvantage against independent candidates.
“Why don’t you just become an independent?” Sherman asked him.
“Because I live in a closed primary state,” replied Fitzpatrick.
“Would you if you didn’t?” Sherman followed up.
Fitzpatrick replied, "100 percent."
Multiple House Republican lawmakers have left their party to become independents in recent years. Former Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan became an independent in his last year in elected office after calling for President Donald Trump's impeachment, though he later cycled through other affiliations and became a Republican again.
More recently, Rep. Kevin Kiley of California became an independent to run for re-election after his district was redrawn by Proposition 50 to favor Democrats.
