Analysis: Trump spurs an uptick in politicians leaving GOP
Iowa state Rep. Andy McKean, right, the longest-serving Republican in the Iowa legislature, said April 23 that he's becoming a Democrat because of President Trump. By Aaron Blake Aaron Blake Senior political reporter, writing for The Fix Email Bio Follow April 24 at 11:45 AM The longest-serving Republican in the Iowa legislature became a Democrat this week. In doing so, Rep. Andy McKean made clear his move was all about President Trump.
Ballotpedia has tracked party-switchers in state legislatures across the country since 1994. Over that span, 71 state lawmakers have switched from Democrat to Republican, while 18 have switched from the GOP to the Democratic Party. Only twice over that span have we had more Republicans switching to Democrat than Democrats switching Republican in consecutive years: the tail-end of George W. Bush’s presidency and the last two years of Trump’s.
McKean’s colleague in the Iowa legislature, now-former state senator David Johnson, switched to independent during the 2016 election over Trump’s “racist remarks and judicial jihad,” calling Trump a “bigot” for suggesting that the U.S.-born judge overseeing the Trump University case, Gonzalo Curiel, was biased because of his Mexican heritage.
“I cannot be complicit in supporting that,” Bollier said of Trump. “I can’t call it leadership. I don’t even know what to call him. He is our president, but he is not representing my value system remotely.”In Connecticut, Aundré Bumgardner won a state House seat at the age of 20 in 2014. Bumgardner, who is black, was hailed as “part of the next generation of leaders in our party” by the state GOP.
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