Voters ditch GOP since D.C. chaos
Biden briefed on inauguration threats
Independent-minded voters across the country are jumping ship from the GOP since a pro-Trump mob storming the U.S. Capitol last week during the Electoral College tally.
From Pennsylvania to California, hundreds of Republican voters have switched their party affiliation since the Jan. 6 deadly riot, election officials report. But Massachusetts officials said Wednesday there are “no clear trends” indicating a Republican diaspora in the state where GOP voters make up less than 10% of the electorate.
“We in Massachusetts have just had a general trend toward unenrolled voters,” said Debra O’Malley, spokeswoman for Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin.
Unenrolled voters account for 57% of Massachusetts voters.
“It’s likely Republicans just had further to fall in other states,” O’Malley said, noting the party has very small numbers in the Democrat stronghold of Massachusetts.
Following the deadly insurrection, a significant number of Republicans across the country have left the GOP. More than 200 Republicans in Lancaster County, Pa., have changed their party registration, while about 50 voters in Linn County, Iowa, dropped their Republican Party affiliations in the 48 hours after the Capitol attack.
In Orange County, Calif., the Republican party lost eight times more voters than it gained after the violence in D.C., with 600 GOP voters lost from Wednesday to Friday after the Capitol riots.
Meanwhile, as the threat of armed protests loom in Washington, D.C., and across the country ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, the incoming president on Wednesday received a briefing from the FBI and Secret Service about inaugural security concerns.
“In the week since the attack on Congress by a mob that included domestic terrorists and violent extremists, the nation has continued to learn more about the threat to our democracy and about the potential for additional violence in the coming days, both in the National Capital Region and in cities across the country,” the Biden transition team said in a statement. “This is a challenge that the President-elect and his team take incredibly seriously.
“Today, President-elect Biden received a briefing from senior officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Secret Service, and key members of his national security team,” the team added. “The team is engaging with the current administration to gain as much information as possible on the threat picture, and on the preparations being put in place to deter and defend against violent disruptions or attacks.”