CROSSING THE AISLE

Longest-Serving Iowa Republican Becoming a Democrat, Blames Trump

Andy McKean says America will ‘pay a heavy price’ for Trump’s recklessness and ‘disregard for the truth.’

In a stinging op-ed in the Atlantic, Iowa’s longest-serving legislator Andy McKean says he is becoming a Democrat because of President Donald Trump’s “reckless spending and shortsighted financial policies; his erratic, destabilizing foreign policy; and his disdain and disregard for environmental concerns.” McKean writes that he might have “limped along” to work for the Republican Party, but the 2020 presidential election made him decide to become a Democrat. “He sets a poor example for the nation and our children,” McKean writes. “He delivers personal insults, often in a crude and juvenile fashion, to those who disagree with him, and is a bully at a time when we’re attempting to discourage bullying, on- and offline.” The elder statesman, who was first elected to the state legislature in 1978, continued: “In addition, he frequently disregards the truth and displays a willingness to ridicule or marginalize people for their appearance, ethnicity, and disability.”