Politicians Who Dumped Their Own Political Party

America has been a two-party system for a long time, but that hasn't stopped politicians from abandoning their loyalties to one of those parties over a variety of issues. For example, Senator Strom Thurmond, who was pro-segregation, left the Democrats in 1964 over civil rights, and Wendell Willkie switched parties three times thanks to his changing views on Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Even some of America's most famous presidents have abandoned their own allegiances.

Teddy Roosevelt, who had already been president for two terms, was so disappointed by how his successor William Taft was running the Republican party that he started his own party and ran for office in 1912. "The old parties are husks, with no real soul within either," he told voters, promoting his new Progressive party and claiming that the main parties were "divided on artificial lines ... neither daring to speak out wisely and fearlessly." The Progressives were also nicknamed the "Bull Moose party," which was popularized by a dramatic attempted assassination. When a lone gunman shot Roosevelt before a campaign speech, the former president reassured his audience that "it takes more than that to kill a bull moose," and continued to speak for 90 minutes while bleeding from his chest. Although Roosevelt was eventually beaten by Democrat Woodrow Wilson, he did get more votes than Taft.

Keep reading to find out which other prominent politicians have turned their back on the parties that first got them interested in changing the landscape of America.

Elizabeth Warren might be famous as a progressive Massachusetts senator who spends her time fighting with billionaires, but she started out on the other side of the political spectrum. She was a registered Republican for five years, but left in 1996 over the party's pandering approach to Wall Street. "I was with the GOP for a while because I really thought that it was a party that was principled in its conservative approach to economics and to markets," the senator explained to ABC News (via the New York Post).

Warren, who made a name for herself by talking about bankruptcy and predatory financial institutions, observed that the party had abandoned the average worker. "I feel like the GOP party just left that," she stated, insisting that there was no such thing as a level playing field anymore economically. "And they really stood up for the big financial institutions when the big financial institutions are just hammering middle-class American families. I just feel like that's a party that moved way, way away."

When Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign in 2016, there was some confusion about whether he had always been a Republican. Political opponents like Jeb Bush accused him of having spent more time in left-wing spaces, per NBC News, declaring: "Mr. Trump doesn't have a proven conservative record." As Politifact discovered, the former reality show star had switched between parties several times over the years and was in fact affiliated with the Democrats for eight years, starting in 2001.

"I was from an area that was all Democrat," Trump told Face the Nation, defending himself against his Republican opponents. "And, frankly, over the years, I have — and especially as I have gotten more and more involved — I have evolved." He also compared himself to Ronald Reagan by pointing out how the former president changed his views over the years. And even while he was campaigning, he admitted to having beliefs across the party lines. "I identify with some things as a Democrat," he stated on MSNBC (via The Hill).

During his acrimonious final days as president, Trump also reportedly threatened to start his own party and break up the GOP voter base.

Omarosa Manigault Newman was once a registered Democrat and Hillary Clinton supporter who previously worked for Al Gore. In a 2015 interview with The Washington Post, she wasn't exactly supportive of her former "The Apprentice" boss when he first launched a campaign. "I'm not going to touch that with a 100-foot pole," Manigault Newman stated in response to Donald Trump's comments about Mexicans, insisting that she would pray on his behalf. "I wouldn't even know how to respond to that — I mean, who would?"

But she became a member of Donald Trump's Republican inner circle when he appointed her as a political aide in 2016. "I've been very vocal about the fact that I had been a Democrat my entire life. As an African American, that's what we tend to do," Manigault Newman told The New York Times. "African-Americans are loyal to the Democratic party, but unfortunately, the Democratic party is not loyal to them." Her position with Trump didn't last, however, and the former reality show contestant wrote a tell-all book after she left the administration, accusing him of racism and misogyny.

Condoleezza Rice made history when President George W. Bush, a Republican, made her his national security advisor and then the secretary of state. But she wasn't always tied to the Republican party, as The Washington Post reported. Rice went from being a registered Democrat to a Ronald Reagan supporter in her twenties due to Jimmy Carter's handling of foreign affairs after the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. And she quickly became one of the most recognizable faces in Bush's administration. "I think that for African Americans in particular, what I've been saying is just take another look," the diplomat stated, reflecting on how she had taken on the role of representing the Republicans.

In a speech at the Republican National Convention in 2000, she also spoke about her father's political beliefs and how he influenced her. "My father joined our party because the Democrats in Jim Crow Alabama of 1952 would not register him to vote. The Republicans did," Rice claimed, observing how deeply that situation impacted both of them. "I joined the party for different reasons. I found a party that sees me as an individual, not as part of a group." She also praised the Republicans for their family values and approach to diplomacy.

Although Colin Powell was suggested as a potential Democratic vice president in 1992, thanks to the top soldier's popularity, he later declared himself a Republican. "I think the Republican Party needs me more than the Democratic Party needs me," he later mused in an interview with MSNBC (via Politico). "And you can be a Republican and still feel strongly about issues such as immigration, and improving our education system, and doing something about some of the social problems that exist in our society and our country," he added, criticizing his own party's approach to immigration. 

Powell later endorsed Barack Obama and Joe Biden, declaring after the 2020 Capitol Building invasion that he could no longer call himself a Republican. "I'm not a fellow of anything right now. I'm just a citizen who has voted Republican, voted Democrat throughout my entire career, and right now I'm just watching my country and not concerned with parties," he told CNN, calling for Trump's resignation and insisting that Republican politicians had enabled him in order to win votes. "They should have known better, but they were so taken by their political standing and how none of them wanted to put themselves at political risk. They would not stand up and tell the truth or stand up and criticize him, or criticize others."