June 18, 2016

The Mayor of Charleston, West Virginia, Danny Jones, has been a registered Republican since 1971. He stayed a Republican through Watergate. He stayed a Republican after George W. Bush lied us into war. But now, after 45 years, Danny has changed his voter registration to "unaffiliated." Yeah.

“For the first time in my life, I cannot support the Republican nominee for president,” Jones said, although he described himself as “not a Trump hater.”

He also cited “the obsession of the West Virginia House of Delegates’ leadership with the so-called Religious Freedom Restoration Act.”

Republicans said that bill, which failed in the state Senate, was necessary to protect religious liberties, but opponents derided it as a thinly veiled rationale to discriminate against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

“The fact that the House speaker came down to the floor to talk, not about the budget which is in crisis, he came down to talk about RFRA,” Jones said. “I’m basically a city guy, and I believe [in] live and let live and stay out of each other’s bedroom.”

Jones said he had decided before his party switch to vote for Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party candidate, for president.

Mayor Jones was primaried last year because he's too darn liberal, but he survived that challenge.

This thing called "The Republican Party" is coming apart. Good riddance.

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