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Roll Call: Fitzpatrick Among Biggest Shifts in Party Unity Score

During his 2018 bid for Congress, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Bucks) campaigned on being an independent Republican voice for the moderate district in the Philadelphia suburbs.

According to a new Roll Call article, he’s moved even more into the middle during this session.

Roll Call’s CQ party unity score, which refers to the percentage of time in which the representative sides with their own party votes, shows Fitzpatrick is tied for having the third biggest decline in party unity score this session from 2018 to May 16 of this year.

Fitzpatrick has experienced a 16.6 point decline in party unity score during this session, making him the only Pennsylvania Congressional representative in the top 10 in Roll Call’s CQ Unity Score shift for the year thus far.

The Bucks County Representative was just one of two Republicans nationwide to weather the blue wave in 2018 by winning boundaries that went to Sec. Hillary Clinton in 2016. 21 Congressional Republicans who were victorious in Clinton won districts in 2016 either lost their re-election bid or retired in 2018.

Scott Wallace, Fitzpatrick’s Democratic challenger in 2018, did not believe Fitzpatrick was the moderate he claimed to be since he voted with Trump over 80% of the time in the previous session. Fitzpatrick bested Wallace by just over 2.5 points in November.

Some of the signature votes that Fitzpatrick has bucked the majority of his party on thus far in the Democratic controlled House include HR 5, which addressed banning discrimination against LGBT people, and voting to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act. Fitzpatrick was a co-sponsor to both Democratic led bills.

Fitzpatrick is one of three Pennsylvania Republicans being targeted by the DCCC’s initial 2020 list, along with Reps. Mike Kelly (R-Butler) and Scott Perry (R-York). He is the only GOP representative in the state that represents a district that went to Clinton in 2016.

Before taking on Wallace last year, Fitzpatrick faced Veteran and former Bucks County Assistant District Attorney Dean Malik, who ran a pro-Trump campaign in the GOP primary.

It is currently unclear if Fitzpatrick will have a primary challenger in 2020.

7 Responses

  1. As a Bucks Country resident, I am sorry to have supported Fitzpatrick.
    Bucks county is more conservative than people think. I do not see how Fitzpatrick can win again. Conservatives are really P.O.’ed at him. A few of us MAGA supporters almost went to protest him.
    There is a few Venezuelan style Socialist here, but less than you would think. Most are brainless voting blocks looking for free handouts.

    1. Amen, I agree he must go, I have informed him he will never get my vote again.

  2. This is clear and the message is to Tomlinson as well that the Dems are growing leaps and bounds in the suburbs of Bucks and Montgomery. The only way Fitzpatrick can hang on is to switch to Dem otherwise he is toast in 2020 with Trump at the top of the ticket. If he switches to Dem he will draw the Dem endorsement and be able to defeat the Republican. If he fails to switch he is done in 2020.

  3. This is beyond the pale; the social-media sites on FB are afire.

  4. Look closely. He only votes against his party in votes that don’t matter and for bills that don’t go anywhere to get the appearance of being a moderate.

  5. Democrats should be happy. It’s almost like Scott Wallace won the election after all.

  6. It’s also unclear if the Congressman’s mental health with hold up. The guy is nutty.

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