DEMS/GOP/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “The longest-serving Republican in the Iowa legislature announced that he would become a Democrat, warning that his party of many decades would soon pay ‘a heavy price’ for its support of President Trump. The lawmaker, Representative Andy McKean, served a combined 24 years in the Iowa House and Senate between 1979 and 2003 and then returned to the legislature in 2017. At a news conference on Tuesday [4-23-19], he said he could not support Mr. Trump moving forward, in part because he found the president’s spending to be ‘reckless,’ his foreign policy ‘erratic’ and ‘destabilizing’ and his disregard for the environment concerning. He also attacked Mr. Trump’s demeanor, saying that he sets a poor example by insulting and bullying those he disagrees with and ridiculing and marginalizing people based on their appearance and ethnicity…With his announcement, Mr. McKean, 69, became one of several state lawmakers who have abandoned the Republican Party in recent months, citing Mr. Trump as a factor. At least four state lawmakers in Kansas switched allegiances after the midterms, as have a California State Assembly member and a state senator in New Jersey.”
–Matt Stevens, “Andy McKean, Iowa’s Longest-Serving Republican, Switches Parties Because of Trump,” The New York Times online, April 24, 2019