California Rep. Kevin Kiley has officially ditched the Republican Party, becoming the first Independent in the lower chamber since 2019 amid his frustrations with GOP leadership and redistricting.
While Kiley (I-Calif.) will continue caucusing with Republicans for “administrative purposes,” his party affiliation switch complicates the GOP’s already razor-thin grip on the House.
“Since gerrymandering seeks to elevate partisanship above everything else in our politics … the best way to counter gerrymandering and its insidious impacts on democracy is simply to take partisanship out of the equation,” Kiley told reporters, per Axios.
The newly minted Independent rep noted that he won’t necessarily be a reliable vote for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) despite his plans to caucus with the GOP for committee assignments.
“I don’t know if he would tell you I have been so far,” he said.
Now, there are 217 Republicans, 214 Democrats, and one Independent in the lower chamber. The last independent lawmaker in the House was former Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan.
Kiley’s switch comes against the backdrop of redistricting in California that has enabled the Democratic-led state to reconfigure its congressional maps to counter redistricting in Texas.
The mid-decade redistricting effort has forced Kiley, who currently represents California’s 3rd Congressional District, into the 6th District, which he filed for just last week.
The newly redrawn 6th District is expected to be competitive with Democrats such as Richard Pan and Thien Ho vying for it. Kiley has decried “gerrymandering” as “a plague on democracy.”
Prior to his decision to ditch the GOP, Kiley had bucked party leadership on key votes.
Last fall, he was fiercely critical of GOP leadership’s decision to keep the House out of session during the record-breaking 43-day-long government shutdown.
Kiley had publicly pushed for Republicans to explore an Obamacare deal with Democrats to end the shutdown.
Last month, he joined Reps. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) in helping to defeat a measure aimed at preventing lawmakers from furnishing resolutions to undermine President Trump’s tariffs.
Kiley did not give Johnson a heads-up before his Friday announcement that he planned to leave the Republican Party, but he did have a call with the speaker over the weekend.
Johnson has faced headaches over his majority, which is already historically slim, following the retirement of former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and the death of Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.).
In January, Rep. Jim Baird (R-Ind.) suffered injuries from a car accident that ultimately killed his wife. Republicans also had heartburn over Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), who has been mired in a cheating scandal and recently passed on seeking reelection after surviving his primary.
