He’s not just any Democrat. This is a guy who gave a seconding speech for O’s nomination four years ago at the convention and was the southern regional co-chair for the DCCC. With those credentials, the PR value to the GOP of having him dump his old party to become a Republican would be huge under any circumstances. Factor in the symbolism of a young black Harvard-trained pol abandoning the Dems in the middle of Obama’s reelection campaign and you’ve got a GOP folk hero in the making. From his blog post announcing his party switch:
Remember these stories… well this trend has continued! For example:
7 local elected officials switch to GOP
A sheriff in central Mississippi said Wednesday he’s switching from Democrat to Republican because of President Barack Obama’s support of same-sex marriage.
During a news conference at the state Republican headquarters in Jackson, Leake County Sheriff Greg Waggoner said he has run as a Democrat since 1999 but voted for Republicans for president and governor. He said he has nothing against local Democrats, but he decided to switch parties after Obama and Vice President Joe Biden recently said, within days of each other, that they support same-sex marriage.
“In the past few years, as we have heard and as we know, the Democratic Party has taken an extreme left turn – and the things that have come out the last few weeks when our national Democratic leaders have endorsed same-sex marriage,” Waggoner said. “I’m Christian, and my first allegiance is to Jesus Christ. There comes a time when you have to stand on what you believe in. And I can no longer have any connection with the Democratic Party if that’s the route that they’re going to take.”
Several people at the news conference said “Amen” as Waggoner spoke. Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, House Speaker Philip Gunn and Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann were among those who applauded the sheriff’s statement.
Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, who’s seeking re-election this year, said after the news conference that he agreed with Waggoner’s criticism of Obama on same-sex marriage.
“I think that the sheriff today represented grass-roots America in what he said,” Wicker said.
State Republican Party chairman Joe Nosef announced during the news conference that Waggoner and Newton County Sheriff Jackie Knight are among seven local officials switching to the GOP. The others were a Justice Court judge and a constable from Jones County and the coroner, a supervisor and a Justice Court judge from Leake County.
The Daily Caller has this:
Penn. Democratic leader defects to GOP, cites Catholic faith as reason
The defection of a prominent Pennsylvania Democrat to the Republican Party is raising some eyebrows.
Jo Ann Nardelli, a state committeewoman and founding president of the Blair County Federation of Democratic Women, has switched her political affiliation to the GOP, citing her Catholic faith and President Obama’s embrace of gay marriage as reasons.
During a press conference last week, Nardelli cited President Obama’s recent announcement in support of gay marriage as a central reason for her defection, endorsed Mitt Romney for president and changed her party registration to Republican, The Altoona Mirror reported.
“As the Democratic Party has taken the stand for same-sex marriage, then I must make a stand on my faith that marriage is between a man and a woman. God’s principles for life never change. His guidelines, given in Scripture, produce fruitful lives when you follow them,” Nardelli, a pro-life Democrat for more than 40 years, said at the Blair County Courthouse.
[….]
In an interview with the National Catholic Register, Nardelli claimed to not know any Republicans. She asserted, like the party-switching Ronald Reagan in 1962, that the Democratic Party had strayed from values with which she could agree.
“I thought I could make a difference to change our party. It didn’t work,” she said. “I noticed that it’s been going more and more to the left. This is not my father’s party. I did not leave the party; the party left me.”