Rep. Jeremy LaCombe is the third Democrat to cross the aisle in recent weeks.
QUICK FACTS:
- Representative Jeremy LaComb of Louisiana has left the Democratic Party and registered as a Republican, the second representative to do so in the state.
- It is not yet known what caused LaComb’s switch.
- House Democratic Caucus Chair Sam Jenkins responded to LaComb’s new party affiliation: “We look forward to working with Rep. LaCombe during this legislative session to increase wages, lower costs, improve our schools and pass insurance reform that benefit Louisiana families and small businesses.”
- LaComb’s new GOP affiliation gives Republicans 71 members out of the 105-seat House.
RECENT PARTY SWITCHES:
- Explaining his departure from the Democratic Party, Louisiana state Rep. Francis Thompson stated, “The push the past several years by Democratic leadership on both the national and state level to support certain issues does not align with those values and principles that are a part of my Christian life.”
- Rep. Tricia Cotham of North Carolina switched her affiliation to the GOP on April 5, citing at a press conference that the Democratic Party “has become unrecognizable” and “wants to villainize anyone who has free thought, free judgment, has solutions, who wants to get to work to better our state, not just sit in a meeting and have a workshop after a workshop, but really work with individuals to get things done, because that’s what real public servants do.”
- “If you don’t do exactly what the Democrats want you to do, they will try to bully you; they will try to cast you aside,” Cotham added.
- Although North Carolina Democrat Party Chair Anderson Clayton and Mecklenburg County Democrat Party Chair Jane Whitley claimed Cothom’s departure was “deceit of the highest order,” House Rules chairman Destin Hall said, “Her principles and her views have not changed. What has changed is the Democratic Party in North Carolina.”
BACKGROUND:
- One hundred and sixty-nine state legislators have switched parties since 1994, according to Ballotpedia.
- Of those 169, 48 senators and 121 state representatives have switched party affiliation.
- Eighty lawmakers have switched from Democrat to Republican and 23 state lawmakers crossed the aisle from Republican to Democrat.
