Tipsheet

Life-Long Democrats Speak Out About Why They're Voting Republican This Election

Spencer Brown
Spencer Brown  |  November 02, 2022 10:30 AM

In the final week of the midterm election cycle, voters are making their final decisions about who they'll be voting for when they get into the voting booth next Tuesday. With so many tight races in battleground states — and even some typically deep-blue states and districts — the number of "undecided" voters in final polls is dwindling, and many are saying themselves that they are breaking for the GOP to vote for a Republican candidate for the first time in their lives.

In a Twitter thread and post on Speaking Wrong At The Right Time, Adam Coleman explains why he's one of those people voting Republican for the first time.

Coleman explains that he's not a Republican, but an independent who was a "vote blue no matter who" kind of moderate Democrat years ago." Until now. "I don't recognize that Democrat party anymore," Coleman writes among his many reasons for voting GOP this time around. "The party I used to support stood for liberal values like free speech & now pushes harder and harder for censorship," he adds before explaining "I will continue to vote Republican until every pro-lockdown Democrat is out of office" and "will continue to vote Republican until every pro-perversion Democrat is out of office."

And Coleman isn't alone. Fellow Democrat voters chimed in on his thread to echo criticism of Democrats' radical leftward lurch and say they, too, would be voting GOP for the first time this year.

Another Twitter user, Allison, posted that she'd be voting Republican for the first time and explained that what Democrat leaders did in Oregon made her "see the light" with additional credit to Thomas Sowell.

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Allison was, notably, not the only Oregonian to be fed up with Democrat leadership to the point of jumping to vote for Republicans. 

A recent story published on Common Sense dug into what's going on with Oregon politics and why some voters are ready to vote GOP for the first time. Journalist Leighton Woodhouse went and talked with the lifelong Democrats who are bailing on their party this November to find out why. 

One resident Woodhouse spoke to, social worker Diana Sapera, explained how "there are times [her kids] want to go to Portland and check out shops. Now, I don’t feel comfortable doing that. My kids are scared, seeing grown adults yelling, hitting things, throwing things. They see needles and are like, ‘What is that?’” she said. The lifelong Democrat told Woodhouse that she cast her mail-in ballot for Republican gubernatorial candidate Christine Drazan.

Another "self-described 'union guy'" Woodhouse spoke to explained that "nearly every vote he's ever cast has been for Democrats" but "this time he's voting for Drazan." He asked to remain anonymous "out of fear of drawing attention to himself" in the liberal enclave. His main concern? "There's a stunning amount of violence from Antifa," the union guy told Woodhouse.

Woodhouse's report continues by outlining the other signs of a "general deterioration" that have become apparent on Democrats' watch:

The sound of gunfire became routine, residents told me when I visited the site last week. One said you could smell the paint thinner-like odor of meth labs in the encampment, which burst into flames on several occasions. City firefighters refused to go into the encampment; it was too dangerous. 

Then the homeless started stealing neighborhood dogs for ransom, Kevin Dahlgren, the president of a Pacific Northwest homeless advocacy group, told me. One homeless person told Dahlgren that bodies of deceased camp residents are buried in the site’s marshy ground.

As Woodhouse's story notes, "13% of undecided voters leaning toward Drazan are registered Democrats, according to a recent poll. (Among undecided voters leaning toward Kotek, only 4% are Republicans.) In an era of hyper-partisanship, that degree of party disloyalty is remarkable," he notes. "According to a Pew study from 2020, only 4% of voters that year cast ballots for a major candidate of the opposite party."

It's not just in Oregon where Democrats are jumping ship, either. 

In New York, "lifelong Democrat" and New York City Council Member Robert Holden penned an op-ed explaining why he's voting for Republican Lee Zeldin for governor because that campaign is "about common sense and saving our state."

For some of the same reasons — crime and drug crises among them — there are many New Yorkers ready to throw out the old Democrat guard and bring in some fresh GOP leaders to tackle the challenges affecting the Empire State. A recent panel on Fox News featured lifelong Democrats who were crossing over to vote for Zeldin this November:

And another lifelong Democrat, writer and civil rights attorney Jenin Younes, declared that she would be voting Republican in 2022 "and in every election for the foreseeable future" because the GOP platform "poses far less of a threat than Democrats."

Younes' case is that if Dems don't get a shellacking this November and in the 2024 cycle, "they will be sent the message that Americans are by and large ok with" what Democrat policies have wrought.