New Hampshire state Rep. David Nagel announced he has switched parties and will cease to be a Republican to become a Democrat.
The decision doesn’t have a large impact in the state legislature, leaving Republicans with a 216–177 majority. However, he said the catalyst took place last year, when GOP leadership removed him from the House Health, Human Services, and Elderly Affairs Committee after he broke with the party on several health-related votes.
“The lesson that I think we really need to take home from what’s going on today and why we’re here today is, how does each political party decide to include or not include the people like me, the people that are in the middle of that bell shaped curve that really deserve to have a voice but really don’t. The concern for me is that in the Republican Party, their response was basically to silence me, and I really don’t think that that’s a good way to deal with these kinds of issues,” he said when explaining his decision.
He went on to detail that he was planning on waiting until the next election to make the decision, but “with everything that’s been going on of late, I just could no longer wait.” “In a weird way, God spoke to me and told me this is the right thing to do,” he added.
Alexis Simpson, the House Democratic leader, reacted to the development: “When people ask why a very accomplished and effective leader, a Republican, is jumping ship, I think the answer is simple. Granite Staters are feeling the squeeze every single day, and New Hampshire Republicans have nothing to offer them, whether that’s on health care or education or housing, we just see excuses, infighting and more of the same failed policies. So our commitment grows by the size of our caucus today, by one member,” he said.
“Rep. Nagel and I are just getting to know each other, and we may not end up agreeing on everything,” Simpson added.
Nagel reacted to the statement, saying “I don’t think we’re going to have a huge amount of disagreements.”
Originally published on Latin Times
