More than 30,000 Republican voters resigned from the Republican Party in the weeks following the US Capitol insurrection on January 6.
Tens of thousands of voters became ex-Republicans this month in states like Pennsylvania, Arizona, North Carolina, Maryland, Colorado and Florida, according to a report on Wednesday. The hill, citing state statistics. Far fewer voters abandoned Democratic Party membership during the same period.
In Pennsylvania, nearly 10,000 Republicans split from the Republican Party on January 25. Of these, 3,476 changed their registration to the Democratic Party, while the remainder was transferred to a third party or remained without affiliation. The state saw 2,093 Democrats move to the Republican Party during the same period, while 1,184 left membership or moved to a third party.
A similar departure from the GOP was observed in the other states. The report states that two counties in the Miami, Florida area saw 1,000 Republican voters leave the party in the two days after the attack, while only 96 Democrats left their party. In three other Florida counties, more than 2,000 Republicans left the party, more than six times the number who left the Democratic Party.
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Nearly 6,000 voters left the Republican Party in North Carolina, while nearly 5,000 in Arizona and more than 4,500 in Colorado have also withdrawn their Republican registration in recent weeks. In Maryland, 2,300 Republicans reportedly became Democrats or were no longer affiliated during the same period.
The number of people who switched parties may be much higher nationwide, as only a small number of states report statistics on a weekly basis, with some issuing monthly reports and others not providing data. Changing parties is a relatively common activity, but the recent wave of voters leaving the Republican Party is unusual because the changes often happen before an election.
Many Republicans vehemently denounced the deadly violation of the Capitol, which came after former President Donald Trump made false claims that President Joe Biden had “stolen” the presidential election. House Democrats joined 10 Republicans who voted to make Trump the first president to be impeached twice due to his alleged incitement to protesters.
Despite widespread condemnation of violence on Capitol Hill, there is no indication that the majority of Republicans have made any move to leave or distance themselves from the party. Many also supported at least some of Trump’s false claims about electoral fraud, and after the insurrection, only a small fraction said they no longer supported the former president.
A Morning Consult poll released on Wednesday revealed that 50 percent of Republicans believe Trump should continue to play an “important” role in the Republican Party, while another 30 percent said they would be willing to leave the party if Trump formed the your own “Patriot Party” as an alternative.
The number of Republican voters who left in the weeks after the insurrection represents a very small portion of the party’s base, but even a small change in places like Pennsylvania and Arizona could spell trouble for the Republican Party, given the narrow margins that recently decided elections in battlefield states.
Newsweek contacted the National Republican Committee for comments.