Representative Mitchell Disaffiliates with the GOP

One member of the Grand Old Party has had it.

Representative Paul Mitchell of the state of Michigan has had enough with the baseless claims of electoral fraud by Trump and his allies and so he has officially disaffiliated from the Republican Party. His letter to RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is embedded below:

CNN reports: Congressman cites Trump’s efforts to overturn election in announcing decision to quit GOP

“This party has to stand up for democracy first, for our Constitution first, and not political considerations,” Mitchell said on CNN’s “The Lead.”

“Not to protect a candidate. Not simply for raw political power, and that’s what I feel is going on and I’ve had enough.”

BTW, lest anyone think that Mitchell might be a candidate to help with the friendly wager about an independent/center-right third-party candidate winning a seat, Mitchell is retiring at the end of this term (his second).

Mitchell will serve as an independent for the remainder of this Congress.

He has clearly had enough of Trump’s nonsense:

“Oh my God,” Mitchell tweeted last month, “@realDonaldTrump Please for the sake of our Nation please drop these arguments without evidence or factual basis. #stopthestupid.

“Following Trump’s vow to “keep going” in a Fox News interview that aired Sunday morning, Mitchell tweeted: “Courts have heard the ‘evidence’ provided of ‘fraud’ and found it unsubstantiated numerous times.”

“Continuing this circus is just … so damaging … so unproductive … so narcissistic…what about our country?”

Mitchell is to be commended for publicly standing up for truth, as opposed to his 126 colleagues who cynically signed on to support the Texas AG’s baseless Supreme Court filing.

Update: Edited for clarity. Mitchell did not run for re-election in 2020, and so his resignation from the party at this late date, while better than nothing, is only for the waning weeks of the lame duck session.

FILED UNDER: 2020 Election, Democracy, US Politics, , , , , , ,
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. Jay L Gischer says:

    Politics is a team sport. You can’t really succeed without a team. Which is why I didn’t think Trump would get very far, but I was wrong about that.

    Still, I think at some point he’s going to take his ball and go home and to the devil with the rest of you losers.

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  2. MarkedMan says:

    Sure, kudos. I guess. Another Republican discovers a bit of a spine on his way out the door, but did nothing to stop anything when Trump was at the height of his powers. And of course it is only when “his own” and himself are attacked that he seems to develop an understanding of right and wrong.

    Still, this is best we can hope for in a Republican profile in courage.

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  3. gVOR08 says:

    With 5 weeks left in Trump’s four year presidency this guy decides to bail? What’s the point supposed to be? Is he trying to do a Barr and fake a last minute epiphany hoping to buy a soft landing outside the cult?

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  4. Gustopher says:

    While I understand not wanting to push away people breaking from the protofascist attempted coup…

    For fuck’s sake, this guy is useless. Now? Really? Not like… a week after the election? He was a lame duck then too, with nothing to lose.

    This isn’t even “I’m not running for re-election, so I can speak my mind for once because I didn’t have the courage to before”, this is “well, looks like the attempts to overturn the election failed, and everyone is going to turn on trump soon… by the way I am troubled by that. One of those at least. Or that they even attempted.”

    If he devotes himself to something worthwhile, I’ll have a bit more respect for him. But right now? Nope.

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  5. Not the IT Dept. says:

    I hope the reason he was holding off on this was so that his family could sell their home and move to another state first. The risk of a bunch of nutbars on the front lawn every day was a real possibility.

    Otherwise, yeah, kind of late to the game, doofus.

    Also: it’s increasingly not about Trump anymore. There are other emerging “leaders” to watch for, like Lin Wood. He’s laying down a trail to go after things for himself.

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  6. Paine says:

    As far as principled stands go this is pretty weak sauce. It’s like he wants all the credit without having to take any of the heat.

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  7. FWIW, I agree that his timing makes the stakes low for this guy, I think the nature of the situation is such that that is the wrong place to be focusing.

    We need every single ally for truth and democracy that we can get, even those with imperfect timing.

    This guy voted for Trump twice and has come to this conclusion. If he can influence even a handful of others, this is a good thing.

    Indeed, this move is the very definition of better late than never.

    I am not asking to venerate this guy, but let’s not lose track of the fact that we (the country) needs as much of this kind of action as possible.

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  8. Tim says:

    @Steven L. Taylor:

    I am not asking to venerate this guy, but let’s not lose track of the fact that we (the country) needs as much of this kind of action as possible.

    You are absolutely right. Those who wonder why so few Republicans dare to speak out against Trump only need to look at comments like those above as part of the reason they are hesitant to do so. Not only will they be castigated by those in the Trump cult, they will also receive nothing but contempt from those who should be applauding their action.

    In the words of the immortal Pogo: “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

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