The longest-serving Republican in Iowa's legislature explains why he became a Democrat

Andy McKean, once the longest-serving Republican in the Iowa legislature, is now the state's newest Democrat.

McKean announced in late April that he switched parties, 41 years after he was first elected to the Iowa legislature as a member of the GOP. Writing in The Atlantic on Sunday, McKean shared that during his early days in politics, his "emphasis was on bipartisan legislative undertakings," but he "was comfortable with my party's priorities, and felt at home in the Republican caucus."

In 2002, he decided it was important for him to be home more with his children, and became a county supervisor. Once his kids were grown, he wasn't ready to retire, and was elected once again to the state legislature. This time, things were different, McKean said, with the legislative body "considerably more partisan and regimented than it used to be." He found he was growing "more and more uncomfortable with the stance of my party on the majority of high-profile issues, such as gutting Iowa's collective-bargaining law and politicizing our method of selecting judges."

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McKean said he probably could have "limped along" as a Republican, but with the 2020 presidential election on the horizon, "I felt, as a Republican, that I needed to be able to support the standard-bearer of the party. Unfortunately, that is something I'm unable to do." He panned President Trump's "reckless spending," "erratic, destabilizing foreign policy," and "disdain and disregard for environmental concerns." It wasn't easy to turn his back on the Republican Party, he said, but "if this is the new normal, I want no part of it." Read more about McKean's big switch at The Atlantic.