Iowa's longest-serving GOP lawmaker joins the Democrats because of Trump
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Source: CNN
By Jamie Ehrlich and Eric Bradner, CNN
Updated 9:09 AM ET, Wed April 24, 2019
Washington (CNN) Iowa's longest-serving Republican state lawmaker is ditching the party in a protest of what he called President Donald Trump's "unacceptable behavior" and is joining the Democrats.
State Rep. Andy McKean, a moderate from eastern Iowa whose 29 years in the legislature include stints in the House and Senate, announced his party switch at a news conference Tuesday. He called Trump "a poor example for the nation and particularly for our children" and said he'll seek re-election in 2020 as a Democrat.
"With the 2020 president election looming on the horizon, I feel as a Republican that I need to be able to support the standard bearer of our party. Unfortunately, that is not something I am able to do," McKean said Tuesday of Trump.
"He sets, in my opinion, a poor example for the nation and particularly for our children by personally insulting -- often in a crude and juvenile fashion -- those who disagree with him, being a bully at a time when we are attempting to discourage bullying, his frequent disregard for the truth and his willingness to ridicule or marginalize people for their appearance, ethnicity or disability," he said.
The move -- which narrows the GOP's hold on the state House to 53 seats to Democrats' 47 -- is an embarrassment for Trump in a state that's under a constant political microscope due to its role as the first to cast votes in presidential nominating contests. Democratic presidential contenders will battle for the next nine months ahead of the state's caucuses next year.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/23/politics/andy-mckean-iowa-gop-lawmaker-change-party/index.html
Botany
(70,447 posts)This is a good start. I wonder if all those farmers who have had to plow their crops
into the ground because of Trump's idiotic trade policies will still vote republican?
Stuart G
(38,410 posts)If enough true Republicans do not vote, and stay at home..we could win in a landslide. They do not have to vote for us, they can not vote at all.
the_sly_pig
(740 posts)Lets see the guy vote for progressive legislation ....
moriah
(8,311 posts)So I mean he's not exactly going with the Republican caucus even if it was a bill that was going to pass. May have been strategic, but that was May 1 2018, so if he was already planning on dumping Trump it was a bad time to do it if he still wanted to get re-elected by pro-lifers.
Omaha Steve
(99,493 posts)See the earlier story here: https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142306528