AP, Topeka :
Two moderate Republican legislators in Kansas became Democrats on Wednesday, capping an unprecedented round of GOP defections in the Kansas City suburbs that soured on President Donald Trump and a close political ally of his in this year’s race for governor.
State Sen. Dinah Sykes and Rep. Stephanie Clayton joined two other moderate lawmakers who switched last week. All four women are from Johnson County, which is the state’s most populous county and which Democratic Gov.-elect Laura Kelly carried in the November election.
Kelly defeated conservative Republican Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state who trumpeted his endorsement by Trump. Kansas City-area voters also showed their displeasure with the president by electing Democrat Sharice Davids, a Native American and LGBT lawyer, to Congress, ousting Republican incumbent Kevin Yoder. Clayton said her decision to leave the GOP was prompted by concerns that its leaders are not committed to boosting public school funding. She also acknowledged that her constituents, particularly women, are upset with Trump and said her discomfort with his policies helped pushed her to leave the GOP.”I hear every day from people who have been Republicans for their lives, lifelong, and they just said, ‘I can’t do this anymore. This is not what
I stand for,’ and that’s how I felt,” Sykes said. “I’m better served to focus on my job than trying to defend the Republican Party.”
In Oklahoma, state Rep. Johnny Tadlock , who represents a rural district in the state’s southeast corner, switched to the Republican Party. In 2017, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice also switched to the GOP in a state Trump won by nearly 42 percentage points.
Kansas Democrats have had a few high-profile party switches over the past 20 years, most notably in 2006, when Mark Parkinson , a former state GOP chairman, ran as a Democrat for lieutenant governor. He became governor in 2009 when then-Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius resigned to become U.S. health and human services secretary.
