3 Kansas Republican State Legislators switch parties to become Democrats

[banjomike]

When one party has next to complete power in a state government, it becomes very hard for any ambitious person in that party to rise.

But when that same ambitious person senses a failure coming from his party, there's often a better chance of rising to prominence in the minority party.

Under Brownback, Kansas collapsed financially. That has left a good opening for the Democrats, but an even better opening for a person who was on the side of that collapse, now sees the light, and promises to fight for the right cause in the right party this time.

That person will still be thought of as being a conservative, but one who has reformed. A prodigal son come home is welcomed by his old friends and his old foes alike.

It's possibly a risky strategy to rise, but when it works, it really works.
A party that has been constantly on the losing side often finds it harder to win because they've forgotten how to do it. At the same time, the party that wins over and over grows too accustomed to winning every time.

So the prodigal son who promises to fight hard can sometimes find a better path to higher state office if he can just win once. He will bring some of the voters along who voted for him before. And when desperation overcomes political affiliation, the better path can appear.

[Smash255]

Originally Posted by James Bond 007

And in spite of that particular demographic which is, indeed, less educated and supports democrats, what Bureacrat said was nonetheless true.

Now, back to the topic at hand, the Manhattan-to-KCK corridor is increasingly filled with techies and service workers in jobs requiring college degrees. Not to mention that Manhattan (home of K State) and Lawrence (home of KU) are pretty big college towns (Lawrence these days is pretty liberal). The techies and other white collar workers in suburban Johnson County, mirroring nationwide trends, are increasingly voting democratic. As this part of the state becomes increasingly urbanized, it will become increasingly democratic.

Of course, there is still a lot of the rest of the state, which is still predominantly red and likely will be for a long while, which is why I don't ever think Kansas will become a blue state, but it definitely has the potential to become a purple state.

Johnson County FWIW went from Romney +17.40 to Trump +2.59. Kobach lost by 16.5 points last year there in his race for Governor. The educated suburban voters shifting hard against the GOP is certainly shown in Kansas as well.

[PilgrimsProgress]

Originally Posted by MMS02760

I am not generally in favor of candidates getting elected under one party label and then later switching. The extremism of the Republican Party however is the root cause of this as sane people can no longer in good conscience continue to be a part of it.

That's funny! Guess you didn't hear about the freshman Demwits who are driving the party off the cliff and want Nervous Nancy's hide. They don't even bother hiding their hate for Jews, Christians, conservatives and white people.

Here are a Jew, a black and a gay man who used to be Democrats. Why did they #WalkAway?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATwS...w&index=2&t=0s