Former U.S. Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh has announced he is switching to the Democratic Party in a lengthy Substack post Tuesday.
“Three words I never thought I’d ever utter: I’m a Democrat. This former Republican Congressman, former Republican candidate for President, this former TEA Party champion is formally joining the Democratic Party. The stakes are simply too high to NOT become a Democrat,” Walsh wrote.
Walsh served one term in Congress from 2011 to 2013 and declared in 2019 that he was running against then-President Donald Trump in the Republican Primary for the presidential election in 2020. In his Substack, Walsh said there is a “tyrant” in the White House.
“Let’s start with the obvious—a tyrant sits in the White House,” Walsh wrote. “The very thing our Founders feared most is here. Throw in the fact that one of our two major political parties is a real and direct threat to democracy and the rule of law. These are unprecedented, dangerous times in America. I know it. You know it. There are even Republicans who know it.”
Walsh noted that anyone who values the U.S. Constitution, must not sit by and let American values be attacked.
“We’ve never been here before,” Walsh wrote. “Of course we’ve always fought about and debated policy—how best to pay for healthcare, whether taxes should be raised or cut, and how best to deal with immigration. But we’ve never before fought about actually remaining a democracy or abiding by the Constitution and the rule of law. Now we are.”
Walsh wrote that “we didn’t choose this fight” but added that it is happening nonetheless and both sides need to put aside differences for the “higher cause.”
“Without freedom, democracy, and the rule of law, America ceases to be,” Walsh wrote. “And currently, only the Democratic Party is on the side of all three of these core American values. There isn’t a third party coming to the rescue any time soon. Right now, the Democratic Party is democracy’s lone defender and best hope.”
Walsh ended his Republican primary challenge to President Donald Trump in 2020 and previously left the Republican Party.
