In years past, some politicians in Georgia found a simple way to adjust to changing political tides: change parties.
Since 1994, at least 15 state lawmakers have switched parties, with most switching from Democrat to Republican. But party switchers haven’t fared well this election season, a sign that partisan divisions and voter skepticism may make it more difficult to cross party lines.
Republican-turned-Democrat Geoff Duncan lost his bid for governor in last month’s Democratic primary, collecting a mere 7% of the vote. Democrat-turned-Republicans Vernon Jones, who ran for secretary of state, and Doug McKillip, who ran for state Senate in Athens, lost in last week’s primary runoff.
Although they might not attribute these losses to trading one partisan label for another, party switchers running for office in today’s Georgia face much more resistance than those who made the switch decades ago.
“When you try to recast yourself and recloak yourself, I find that doesn’t really work that well,” state Rep. Alan Powell said. “The public is a lot smarter than politicians give them credit for.”
A history of party switchers
In 1994, Republicans were finding their footing nationally and gained control of the U.S. Congress for the first time in 40 years. Georgia caught on about 10 years later — Republicans gained control of the Governor’s Mansion in 2003 and the Legislature in 2005.
During this party shift, a number of high-profile Democrats switched to the Republican Party. Among those were former Democrats Sonny Perdue, who was elected governor in 2002 as a Republican, and Nathan Deal, who was elected as governor in 2010, also as a Republican.
Public Service Commissioner Lauren “Bubba” McDonald and Powell, both former Democrats who made the switch more than a decade ago, were widely accepted and even recruited by the Republican Party.
But does party switching work in today’s factious political climate?
Today’s party switchers
Duncan, as lieutenant governor, was one of Georgia’s highest-profile Republicans to reject President Donald Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen. After breaking with the party and leaving office in 2023, Duncan stayed in political no man’s land until 2025, when he officially announced his switch to the Democratic Party in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution op-ed. He announced his candidacy for governor a short time later.
Credit: Abbey Cutrer/AJC
Credit: Abbey Cutrer/AJC
Despite losing in the primary, Duncan views his switch as a success.
“I didn’t switch parties because I wanted to run for office. I switched parties because I wanted to be an honest broker on where I stand on the issues,” he said. “For me, that was the metric of success.”
In the end, Duncan didn’t have enough time to gain the trust of voters. The public didn’t see his gradual detachment from the Republican Party, which was brewing behind-the-scenes for years as lieutenant governor, he said.
“I think it just really boiled down to trust,” he said. “It takes time to trust people because so many people in politics have disappointed … on both sides of the aisle.”
Duncan had a hard time breaking into the party as a moderate former Republican, according to Reese McCranie, Democratic strategist and Duncan’s former campaign manager. But McCranie thinks moderation is exactly what Democrats need.
“To continue to govern and to continue to get elected, we have to broaden our tent even more, and that means talking to folks that used to be Republicans and embracing those folks,” he said.
McKillip is a unique case. He switched from Democrat to Republican in 2010, but his switch came just weeks after being reelected by his fellow Democrats to lead their caucus in the Georgia House. Democrats branded him a traitor, and he lost in the 2012 Republican primary.
Once a rising Democratic star, McKillip has not held elected office since. He reinvented himself as a pro-Trump, MAGA conservative and entered the race this year seeking a seat in the state Senate. But his comeback failed when he lost to Walton County GOP Chair Marc McMain in the Republican primary runoff.
Jones, former Democratic CEO of DeKalb County and state representative, switched from the Democratic to the Republican Party in 2021 after becoming a prominent Trump supporter and echoing Trump’s false claims of election fraud.
Jones said switching parties didn’t change his campaign for secretary of state this year. Regardless of party identification, Jones said he has been a conservative for over 60 years.
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Although he hasn’t been reelected since the switch, he has made it to runoffs in his last two primaries — something he told the AJC he considers a success.
Partisan problems
McKillip and Jones’ resurgence as MAGA loyalists failed. So did Duncan’s attempt as a Democratic “change agent.” But why?
Labels matter to voters. Until he switched from Democrat to Republican in 2010, Powell said, “I was probably one of the more dangerous people up here because I didn’t have any allegiance to either party.”
“We’ve got too many people that live by this partisanship on both sides,” he said.
Also, timing matters. Powell, McDonald, Deal and Perdue switched when party lines were blurry. Now, they are sharp, and party loyalty is resolute.
Put simply, times are different. As Georgia grows more divided, party labels mean more, and voters are suspicious when politicians abandon them.
It’s uncertain whether the state will see a return to leaders who govern from the political middle, but McCranie says that is just what party switchers like Duncan might need to survive.
“Georgians want a return to normalcy, and they are yearning for steady leadership which is not on either end of the extremes,” he said.
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