leaving the Republican party Archives

Another Republican Official Drops The Republican Party Like a Bad Habit

The Republican Party keeps dropping these folks like a cat shedding its hair. Or is it these folks are dropping the Republican party like a bad habit?

I prefer the latter.

Former Nevada Lt. Gov. Sue Wagner said Tuesday that she recently left the Republican party.

“It’s grown so conservative and tea-party orientated and I just can’t buy into that,” Wagner told the Reno Gazette-Journal. “I’ve left the Republican Party and it’s left me, at the same time.”

Wagner reflected on a party that has changed over the past few years.

“I did it as a symbol, I guess, that I do not like the Republican Party and what they stand for today,” Wagner said. “I’ve been a Republican all my life. My dad was active (in the GOP) in the state of Maine where I was born. It was more of a moderate, liberal Republican Party.”

Wagner, who served from 1991 to 1995 as the first female lieutenant governor in Nevada, supports abortion rights. In 2010, she would not endorse Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle because of her “extreme” views on abortion.

Why I Left The Republican Party

Former Nevada Lieutenant Governor Sue Wagner is not alone in her courageous decision to exit the Republican Party. Just last August, I made the same decision and resigned my position as Polk County Republican Party of Iowa Co-Chair. I immediately changed my party affiliation to Independent and later moved forward to officially switch my party affiliation to Democrat. Just as Sue Wagner said, I also stated that the Republican Party has left me. Back in 1996 when I registered to vote as a Republican and supported Robert Dole in the Iowa caucuses, I did not expect to some day welcome the opportunity to vote in the Democratic Party of Iowa caucuses, but that is precisely what I did on Tuesday, January 21 of this year.

Several reasons led me to my decision, and they’re similar reasons to why Wagner says she left the GOP. Republicans misread the electorate in 2012, and I became increasingly aware that I needed a change because the GOP no longer shared my values. The Iowa GOP holds views that are increasingly out of touch and are too extreme for me, and their unwillingness to compromise is on full display every day from local, state and national Republicans.

More.