On January 6 2021 a bunch of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol. A failed attempt to overturn Trump’s defeat since then many has left the party.
Republicans have started to leave their party after the US Capitol Riot. The storming of the United States Capitol was a riot and violent attack against the 117th United States Congress at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. It was carried out by a mob of supporters of Donald Trump, the 45th U.S. president, in a failed attempt to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. The Capitol was placed under lockdown while lawmakers were evacuated. Five people died and more than 140 were injured.
Since then thousands of people have left the Grand Old Party in Pennsylvania. A total of 19,000 Pennsylvania voters out of 30,000 who had registered to Republicans has left the party. Most of them have elected to become Independent.
“I knew I could not be a Republican anymore,” Diane Tyson a registered life long Republican “I just can’t — it’s not who I am. The Republican Party has gone down a deep hole that I want no part of. I don’t want an ‘R’ after my name.” she made this statement after she left Republicans and registered herself as Independent on January 7.
Kimberly S. Adams, a political science professor at East Stroudsburg University, told to Media “Many Republicans are aggrieved and embarrassed by the angry mob that stormed the US Capitol,” as a reason for the cause.
About 19,000 Pennsylvanians have left the Republican Party since Jan 6. That’s a huge drop in the bucket for a state with more than 8.8 million registered voters, and almost 3.5 million Republicans.
However not everyone who has left the party is because they oppose Trump now. According to reports earlier this year, the former US President has sought to launch a party of his own. This could attract plenty of his supporters from Republicans who think that The Grand Old Party was typified by the US Senate to leave Republicans and join his new party later on.
Tom Mack a 70 year old of Yardley, a Republican since the late 1970s said “It’s not the Republican Party I know,” he also added “It’s drifted far away from my beliefs. … The only way I can be heard at this point is to join those who have decided to leave.”
These voters who has left the Grand Old Party are generally a few years older than other Republicans and more likely they have voted in nonpresidential elections. It’s only a matter of time when we will be able to see for how long this exit surge is gonna last. Some of them who have, it is entirely possible that they may come back.
Lanethea Mathews-Schultz, a political science professor at Muhlenberg College and a former registered Republican said “You may say, ‘I’m no longer going to call myself a Republican,’ but the proof is in the pudding, how they vote in the next election,” she also adds “They’re not going to suddenly start voting for Democratic candidates.”
By Saumen Paul
