Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2022 November 10#Did the queen live in seclusion.3F

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= November 10 =

== Elections in the USA - Once elected by one political party, can an elected official change over to the other party? ==

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As a “regular citizen” / civilian, in the USA, I am free to change my voter registration’s party affiliation (Republican, Democrat, etc.) ... basically whenever I feel like doing so.

My question deals with elected representatives (Senators, House Rep’s, etc.). Do they have the same liberties that we (regular citizens) have ... or are there any limits? For example ... just as a hypothetical ... let’s say that Jon Ossoff runs as a Democrat and gets elected. At some point later ... a day? a week? a month? whatever ... can he simply change parties to Republican, with the same ease that any other citizen can? Or -- once in office (or, at least, elected) ... are they subject to any special rules?

Like, for example, can the National Democrat Party -- or the National Republican Party -- somehow have some standing to object? Thanks. 32.209.55.38 (talk) 03:39, 10 November 2022 (UTC)

:Sure they can. But there can be significant political consequences. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 04:36, 10 November 2022 (UTC)

:Your belief is correct. The U.S. has what political scientists call "weak parties", meaning political parties have less power over elected members. Article: party discipline. This is in contrast to systems such as the Westminster system which generally features "strong parties" that have more power to keep members with the "party line". In the U.S., anyone can throw one's hat into the ring, call themselves a member of X Party, and run for the party nomination for an office, though in the modern practice they have to win a primary election to get the nomination. Similarly it's up to an officeholder what party they want to belong to.

:Jim Justice, the current governor of West Virginia, pulled a fun little trick by switching parties to the Democrats, running as their candidate for governor and winning, then switching back to the Republicans after being elected. Arlen Specter is I believe the last person in Congress who switched parties while in office. The one big consequence is, of course, their former party won't support them if they run for re-election and will run a candidate opposing them. And if they're not particularly liked by their new party, they can even lose the party primary and therefore not be nominated by the party for re-election! This happened to Lisa Murkowski, who is one of Alaksa's U.S. Senators. She lost the Republican primary for her seat. However, she then mounted a write-in campaign for re-election as an independent, and actually won! --47.147.118.55 (talk) 04:50, 10 November 2022 (UTC)

::{{ping|47.147.118.55}} you forgot Justin Amash; see below. --Trovatore (talk) 05:00, 10 November 2022 (UTC)

:{{pb}} What it means for an elected legislature to hold a party affiliation is not quite the same as party registration. Party registration is a feature of the election codes of states that hold party primaries, particularly "closed" primaries, regarding who gets to vote in those primaries. That has no necessary relationship to what party a legislator affiliates with in the legislature, though I suppose it's usually the same. There is also no "national" version of this concept; it's entirely state or local.

:As for "national" party affiliation, parties generally have national committees, and you can join those if you like, though relatively few people do. Update: It looks like I was a little off here. You can join the Libertarian Party, and this used to be called joining the Libertarian National Committee, but apparently no longer is. At a quick search I don't see any way to "join" the national Democratic or Republican Party. Your membership in a party national committee has no necessary relationship to your state party registration (or to your party affiliation in a legislature, if you happen to be a legislator).

:If you are a legislator, you generally affiliate with one of the parties. Committee assignments are usually divided up by party, with the party in control of the house getting a majority in every committee, but with others also represented. From that quota (I'm a little shakier on this point, but I think it's true) your party divvies out committee assignments, and if you aren't in good graces with your party you might not get good ones.

:All that said, a legislator can "cross the floor" at any time, with no great formality. They just announce that they're now of a different party, or decline to affiliate with any party. Justin Amash was briefly a Libertarian congressman, just by saying so. Bernie Sanders and Angus King say they're independents (and therefore formally are independents) but in practice caucus with the Democrats and get committee assignments as though they were Democrats. How any of these are registered for the purposes of primary elections in their home states, I wouldn't know. --Trovatore (talk) 04:58, 10 November 2022 (UTC)

32.209.55.38 -- In the state of Texas, you are not entirely free to change your voter registration party affiliation whenever you want. You declare your affiliation by voting in a party's primary (there's no way to indicate your political party on a voter registration form) and for the rest of the political cycle (biennium) you're confined to voting in the primaries and primary run-offs of that party only... AnonMoos (talk) 05:20, 10 November 2022 (UTC)

• See List of American politicians who switched parties in office. WP:WHAAOE. --Jayron32 12:57, 10 November 2022 (UTC)

::We also have List of United States senators who switched parties and List of United States representatives who switched parties (not sure if these two duplicate the first one). Alansplodge (talk) 15:22, 10 November 2022 (UTC)

:::BTW, in the Westminster system (in which lie some of the roots of the US system), changing allegiance after being elected is called crossing the floor; the principle being that the people have elected a person (and their personal judgement), rather than a party. Alansplodge (talk) 15:16, 10 November 2022 (UTC)

::: As opposed to List of prime ministers who partied in office. Clarityfiend (talk) 12:25, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

Thanks, all. 32.209.55.38 (talk) 03:12, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

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