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Former Georgia Lieutenant Colonel Jeff Duncan announced he would leave the GOP and join the Democrats.
Duncan, who served as a Republican from 2019 to 2023, wrote in the Atlanta Journal Constitution on Tuesday at Opeda that his path to becoming a Democrat began before President Donald tried to overthrow former President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
“My journey to becoming a Democrat has begun quite a bit before Donald Trump tried to steal the 2020 election in Georgia,” Duncan wrote in the newspaper.
“There are no dates in the sand calendar or lines that refer to the exact moment when my political mind changed, but I have it,” he continued. “My decision was focused on my daily struggle to love my neighbors as a Republican.”
Georgia GOP expels former Lt. government. Jeff Duncan from the party was allegedly disloyal
Former Georgia Lieutenant Colonel Jeff Duncan announced he would leave the GOP and join the Democrats. (Getty Images)
Duncan criticized Republicans for handling issues such as healthcare, Medicaid, gun safety, immigration and how to help the poor, pointing to several policy issues involved in his decision to change parties.
He said his tenure time taught him the best way to “love my neighbor” through public policy. Before his time as Lieutenant Governor, he worked at the Georgia home from 2013 to 2017. He chose not to run for reelection as lieutenant governor in 2022.
The former Republican has argued for decades that the solution to GOP lawmakers not having health insurance is to do their job, but noted that most uninsured people in Peach State live in working households but do not insured because of affordability or eligibility.
“So, in reality, they have jobs, they just have the wrong job,” Duncan wrote. “It doesn’t offer health insurance or generates ample spare money each month to provide your own health insurance plan.”
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Duncan was a Republican and served as lieutenant governor from 2019 to 2023.
Duncan also said the Trump-backed spending bill signed into law last month would leave Medicaid funds to “Shambles” to cut hundreds of millions of dollars from government programs. He also criticized measures to reduce supplementary nutrition support programs, more commonly known as food stamps, and the impact on ensuring children are not hungry at schools.
Duncan pointed to polls that showed support for gun control measures such as the Universal Background Check and the Red Flag Act.
He also criticized the Trump administration’s deportation policy for saying it “has been a lesson in how you don’t love your neighbor.” He said immigration policies should focus on securing borders and that while it would require the deportation of people from the country illegally committing felony, they should create a path to citizenship for other immigrants in the United States.
Duncan’s party switch comes after the Georgia Republicans expelled him from the party earlier this year over alleged disloyalty. The party’s resolution cited Biden’s support in the 2024 presidential election, and when he dropped out, he failed 2022 candidate Harkel Walker, insisting on support for former vice president Kamala Harris and efforts to undermine and disrupt Republican candidates, including current Lieutenant Colonel Burt Jones.
The former Republican also spoke in support of Harris at the Democratic National Convention in August.
The Georgia Republicans expelled Duncan from the party earlier this year over alleged disloyalty. (Ben Hendren/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Duncan has been a fierce critic of Trump and the Republican Party in recent years, particularly since the president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election loss and the Capitol riots of January 6, 2021.
“The list of reasons why I’m a Democrat now continues to grow,” Duncan writes. “Most importantly, my decision puts me in the best position every day to love my neighbor.”
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