Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick will have the distinction of being the only Republican in Congress who backs a carbon tax if he can hang on to his seat covering the Philadelphia suburbs. Previous supporters of the policy are planning to retire or have lost their seats.
Climate change is not a dominant issue in his race, but Fitzpatrick is offering proposals that challenge GOP orthodoxy in order to win the support of college-educated suburban swing voters who value environmental protection and pragmatism.
Fitzpatrick, a 46-year-old former FBI agent, is an accountant by trade who understands the economic costs of ignoring climate change, friends and allies say, and appreciates carbon pricing for its efficiency.
“Brian is valuable to have around because he takes a lot of pride in thinking for himself and is willing to test ideology and focus on solutions,” said former Rep. Ryan Costello, a fellow centrist Republican who opted not to run for reelection in Pennsylvania’s nearby 6th District.
“When you are a Republican, being against all forms of taxes is very dogmatic. Nobody likes taxes. But a carbon tax is the most cost-effective way to reduce emissions. Brian recognizes that,” Costello told the Washington Examiner.
Fitzpatrick, along with Rep. John Katko of New York and Rep. Mike Garcia of California, is one of three House Republican incumbents up for reelection in districts — in his case, Pennsylvania’s 1st — won by Hillary Clinton in 2016. Election analysts rate Fitzpatrick’s race against Democrat Christina Finello as leaning Republican. He narrowly won reelection in 2018 after his district was redrawn in a way that made it slightly more left-leaning.
Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, is expected to do well in the Philadelphia suburbs, which could challenge down-ballot Republicans such as Fitzpatrick.
But Costello and other analysts expect Fitzpatrick’s carbon tax advocacy to distinguish him from President Trump, a climate change skeptic whose environmental rollbacks repel many suburban voters.
“There are going to be a big chunk of Biden-Fitzpatrick voters,” said Costello, who is now managing director of Americans for Carbon Dividends, a GOP advocacy organization backing a carbon tax. “He will get more crossover voters than any candidate in the country.”
In addition to climate, Fitzpatrick is running on other policies normally associated with Democrats, including gun control and immigration reform.
“He has tried to find ways to separate himself from the president and make clear he is not on board with broad parts of the Trump agenda,” said Christopher Borick, a political science professor at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania. “He has made the environment and climate the poster child of that separation.”
Supporters expect Fitzpatrick to avoid the fate of other Republicans who have supported carbon taxes because he has managed not to alienate the Left or Right.
The only other Republican supporter of carbon pricing in the current Congress, Rep. Francis Rooney of Florida, is retiring from his district in the conservative, wealthy Naples area.
Rep. Carlos Curbelo lost his southern Florida House seat in the blue wave of 2018 after becoming the first Republican to introduce national carbon pricing legislation in nearly a decade.
Curbelo said his aggressiveness on addressing climate change helped him stay competitive, noting he ran ahead of Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Rick Scott in a district easily won by Clinton in 2016.
“Regardless of what happens with this election, we will continue to see a strong rejection of many of Trump’s environmental policies, which includes ignoring the issue of carbon pollution,” Curbelo told the Washington Examiner. “It will only help Fitzpatrick the way it helped me.”
Fitzpatrick does not have to worry about being outflanked to his left on curbing climate change.
His opponent, Finello, a county health and human services official, mostly emphasizes Trump’s struggles containing the coronavirus pandemic and tries to tie Fitzpatrick to the president’s opposition to the Affordable Care Act.
Fitzpatrick has been endorsed by a host of environmental groups across the political spectrum, including the left-leaning League of Conservation Voters. The league’s endorsement is noteworthy because this year, it stopped supporting centrist Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, perhaps Fitzpatrick’s closest Republican counterpart on environmental issues in the upper chamber.
Tiernan Sittenfeld, senior vice president of government affairs for the league’s Action Fund, noted Fitzpatrick is rated 86% by the group’s environmental voting scorecard, the highest of any Republican member.
“Rep. Fitzpatrick is an ally and an important voice in Congress,” Sittenfeld said.
In addition to introducing carbon tax legislation last year, Fitzpatrick has sponsored or co-sponsored more than 30 environmental bills. These include bills to protect drinking water from PFAS chemicals, to keep the United States in the Paris climate accord, to block oil drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge, and to maintain the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan limiting emissions from coal plants.
“He’s built this record during a time when these actions have run counter to what his party’s leadership is pushing,” said Joe Bonfiglio, president of Environmental Defense Fund Action, which this summer ran a mail and digital campaign highlighting Fitzpatrick’s environmental leadership.
Indeed, Fitzpatrick has gone further than House Republican leadership with his proposals to address climate change. House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy and allies unveiled a legislative package in February focused on using trees and technology to capture carbon emissions, a response to polling showing the vulnerability of Republicans among young and suburban voters.
But McCarthy and his group, which did not include Fitzpatrick, emphasized their more limited agenda would not include a carbon tax.
Still, there are few signs Fitzpatrick’s outlier stance has made him a target of conservatives.
Myron Ebell, a senior fellow at the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute, which opposes carbon taxes, suggested he’s not plugged into Fitzpatrick’s reelection bid.
“I can’t believe that supporting a CO2 tax helps, but he’s the one running, and so, I presume he knows better,” Ebell said.
Heather Reams, executive director of the conservative Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions, said her group opposes carbon taxes but endorsed Fitzpatrick anyway. She said Fitzpatrick could be valuable in a democratically controlled Congress as a “bridge-builder to the Left” to help moderate liberal policy solutions such as mandates.
“He understands the balance of clean energy expansion, a robust economy, and addressing climate change in a way that won’t bankrupt the country,” Reams said. “He walks the talk better than anyone in the House.”
