“A whole lot of things make me uncomfortable about partisan politics,” Charleston Mayor Danny Jones said. Jones, a registered Republican since 1971, has stuck with the party in bad times and in bad times – and there have been a lot of bad times. But after Donald Trump became the party’s nominee for president, and with the state of politics in Charleston West Virginia, Mayor Danny Jones decided he’s had enough!
“I do not want to be identified with the political partisanship that is shaping so much of the debates nationally and in West Virginia,” Jones said. “I plan to complete my current term, and have no plans to run for any office ever again. I am not trying to pick a fight with anyone and, in fact, I am proud about how we’ve made so much progress in Charleston, where partisan politics has been non-existent in the 13-plus years I’ve been mayor.”
Jones announced Friday that he has switched his party registration to “unaffiliated.”
He pointed to multiple factors, specifically the social conservative bent of the West Virginia House of Delegates and the rise of Donald Trump as the party’s presidential nominee.
“For the first time in my life, I cannot support the Republican nominee for president,” Jones said, although he described himself as “not a Trump hater.”
