This week, a West Virginia congressman announced his defection to the GOP, dealing another significant blow to the Democratic Party.
Elliot Pritt, a rookie delegate from West Virginia who is also a teacher, wrote a letter to the House Democratic Caucus on Monday stating that he was no longer able to support the party.
Pritt wrote: “I am writing to let you know that I have decided to leave the Democratic Party.”
Pritt added, “We are being driven out. It has become increasingly clear that traditional values or differences in political opinion have very little room in the party.”
Pritt stated that he didn’t arrive at his choice hurriedly, but rather that “after weeks of personal thought, soul searching, and discussions with my family,” he came to the decision that quitting the party would be the best course of action to continue serving the people in his area.
“I can not any longer in good conscience, continue to be a Democrat,” he continued. “If I am genuinely representing my constituents, my people, and my own conscience, I simply can’t keep going down the path that the Democratic Party is taking.”
His conventional principles and beliefs, he said, “are not any longer compatible with the current state of the Democratic Party.”
In closing the letter, Pritt thanked his former party colleagues and vowed to keep fighting for the interests of the working class, public schools, and clean water. He continued by saying that he would no longer support causes that did not benefit his constituency.
Elgine McArdle, the chairperson of the West Virginia Republican Party, released a statement in response to Pritt’s announcement.
“I’d like to welcome Elliott Pritt, a delegate, to the Republican Party. Delegate Pritt, like so many West Virginians, has realized that the Democratic Party currently isn’t the Democratic Party of our parent’s generation,” according to McArdle.
The “radical, woke left,” she said, is in charge of the party and supports policies that “defy logic as well as conflict with traditional values.”
“The Democratic Party of today is a party of crime and anarchy, mobs, unfettered illegal immigration, out-of-control government spending, late-term abortion, and excessive government power,” according to McArdle. “The Democratic Party is unaccountable, yet it abuses its position of power to repress people who dared to hold views that differ from its own.”
With 89 seats, the Republican Party has a supermajority in the West Virginia House. Democrats only possess 11 seats as a result of Pritt’s party change.
