Georgia’s former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan said goodbye to the Republican Party and joined the ranks of Democrats.
He suggested his move was imminent since before 2020, when President Donald Trump attempted to change the results of the Georgia election.
“My decision was centered around my daily struggle to love my neighbor, as a Republican,” Duncan wrote in an opinion piece for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
He served as the lieutenant governor from 2019 until 2023.
He touched on many policy issues where he agreed more with Democrats, including drawing urgency toward the 11.4% of Georgians who don’t have health insurance or the half a million residents who make too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford health insurance.
These residents belong to working households, the former lieutenant governor said. “So, the reality is they have a job, just the wrong job. One that doesn’t offer health insurance or generate enough spare money each month to afford their own health insurance plan,” he added
Duncan championed the universal want for gun safety reform, including universal background checks and “red flag laws.” Using words like “heartless” and “pointless,” he criticized the federal government’s deployment of militarized troops to conduct raids on undocumented migrants and protect federal buildings in blue cities.
This isn’t the first time he has stood boldly against his party. He was expelled by the Georgia GOP for being disloyal to the party’s priorities.
Duncan’s endorsement of former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris for the 2024 presidential election didn’t help and neither did his support for Harris at the Democratic National Convention last year.