{"id":59897,"date":"2026-05-06T19:37:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T19:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/59897\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T19:37:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T19:37:12","slug":"california-rep-kevin-kiley-ditches-the-gop-in-blow-to-partys-razor-thin-majority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/59897\/","title":{"rendered":"California Rep. Kevin Kiley ditches the GOP in blow to party\u2019s razor-thin majority"},"content":{"rendered":"

California Rep. Kevin Kiley<\/a> has officially ditched the Republican Party, becoming the first Independent in the lower chamber since 2019 amid his frustrations with GOP leadership and redistricting<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While Kiley (I-Calif.) will continue caucusing<\/a> with Republicans for \u201cadministrative purposes,\u201d his party affiliation switch complicates the GOP\u2019s already razor-thin grip on the House.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince gerrymandering seeks to elevate partisanship above everything else in our politics \u2026 the best way to counter gerrymandering and its insidious impacts on democracy is simply to take partisanship out of the equation,\u201d Kiley told reporters, per Axios<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The newly minted Independent rep noted that he won\u2019t necessarily be a reliable vote for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) despite his plans to caucus with the GOP for committee assignments.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if he would tell you I have been so far,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The California rep framed his party affiliation switch as a means of moving away from partisanship. CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Rep. Kevin Kiley had bucked GOP leadership in the past. AP<\/p>\n

Now, there are 217 Republicans, 214 Democrats, and one Independent in the lower chamber. The last independent lawmaker in the House was former Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan.<\/p>\n

Kiley\u2019s switch comes against the backdrop of redistricting in California that has enabled the Democratic-led state to reconfigure its congressional maps to counter redistricting in Texas.<\/p>\n

The mid-decade redistricting effort<\/a> has forced Kiley, who currently represents California\u2019s 3rd Congressional District, into the 6th District, which he filed for just last week.<\/p>\n

The newly redrawn 6th District is expected to be competitive with Democrats such as Richard Pan and Thien Ho vying for it. Kiley has decried \u201cgerrymandering\u201d as \u201ca plague on democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prior to his decision to ditch the GOP, Kiley had bucked party leadership on key votes.<\/p>\n

Last fall, he was fiercely critical<\/a> of GOP leadership\u2019s decision to keep the House out of session during the record-breaking 43-day-long government shutdown.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

California has reconfigured its congressional districts to undermine a similar effort by Republicans in Texas. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Kiley had publicly pushed for Republicans to explore an Obamacare deal with Democrats to end the shutdown.<\/p>\n

Last month, he joined Reps. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) in helping to defeat a measure aimed at preventing lawmakers from furnishing resolutions to undermine President Trump\u2019s tariffs.<\/p>\n

Kiley did not give Johnson a heads-up before his Friday announcement that he planned to leave the Republican Party, but he did have a call with the speaker over the weekend.<\/p>\n

Johnson has faced headaches over his majority, which is already historically slim, following the retirement of former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene<\/a> (R-Ga.) and the death of Rep. Doug LaMalfa<\/a> (R-Calif.).<\/p>\n

In January, Rep. Jim Baird (R-Ind.) suffered injuries from a car accident that ultimately killed his wife<\/a>. Republicans also had heartburn over Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), who has been mired in a cheating scandal and recently passed on seeking reelection<\/a> after surviving his primary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California Rep. Kevin Kiley has officially ditched the Republican Party, becoming the first Independent in the lower chamber…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[143],"tags":[544,35801,13099,4746,478,35800,3945],"class_list":["post-59897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mike-johnson","tag-california","tag-first-independent","tag-gerrymandering","tag-kevin-kiley","tag-mike-johnson","tag-party-affiliation","tag-republican-party"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116529322128172979","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}