Just last month, three Kansas state lawmakers took the unusual step of swapping party affiliation: all three from Republicans to Democrats.
Now, California assemblyman Brian Maienschein is following suit.
Maienschein announced his decision at a press conference Thursday surrounded by his elated new peers.
“As the Republican Party has drifted further right, I and my votes have shifted to the left,” he said, per the Sacramento Bee. “I can either keep fighting to change the Republican party, or I can fight for my constituents.”
He put some of the onus on President Donald Trump.
“His conduct has been very offensive really since the beginning,” he said. “His conduct was reprehensible, immature, counterproductive to what I believed was best for the country.”
Per the Bee, Democrats now enjoy a whopping 61 of the 80 seats in the California Assembly.
The chief justice of the California Supreme Court, Tani Cantil-Sakauye, also made the leap last month, though she switched her affiliation from Republican to no-party-preference.
The three Kansas lawmakers—Sen. Barbara Bollier, Sen. Dinah Sykes and Rep. Stephanie Clayton—cited a Republican Party increasingly out of step with their beliefs, similarly to Maienschein.
