Tom Tancredo. (AP)
Tom Tancredo, the outspoken former GOP congressman from Colorado, said he is calling it quits with the Republican Party.
In a column posted Friday on the conservative website Breitbart.com, he would switch his voter registration to “unaffiliated” because the Republican Party no longer fights for its values and principles of “smaller government, individual rights, fiscal responsibility, and free enterprise.”
“By insulting the grassroots, the GOP leadership has set upon a suicide mission,” wrote Tancredo. “The problem is that failed leadership is allowing Obama to destroy the Constitution and take the whole country down the drain. Well, count me out.
“The Boehner budget deal is the last straw, and enough is enough. I cannot any longer defend this transparently dishonest charade called the Republican Party.”
Whether the GOP actually misses Tancredo — one-time presidential candidate, a 10-year congressman, former state lawmaker and veteran of two Republican presidential administrations — is a different question.
In 2010, he abandoned his party and launched an American Constitution Party — a move that split the conservative vote with GOP candidate Don Maes and gave Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper an .
He registered as a Republican again Jan. 18, 2011, according to voter records, and ran for the party’s nomination for governor in 2014, , Bob Beauprez. More recently, he was to force the resignation of the Colorado Republican Party chairman.
Known for his sharp-edged talk on immigration, Tancredo expressed support for earlier in the 2016 campaign when the presidential candidate drew fire for his anti-immigrant stances. But the first thing Tancredo said he would do as an unaffiliated voter is organize independent voters for Ted Cruz.
“Cruz is the only candidate who both understands the left’s agenda and has demonstrated the courage to fight for our liberties, our sovereignty, and the survival of constitutional government,” he wrote.
Reached Friday by e-mail, Tancredo said he was traveling in western Iowa, headed to an annual pheasant hunt that Cruz planned to attend.
In his column, he wrote that he came to his decision after this week’s presidential debate in Boulder. But in the e-mail interview, he said he had been “thinking about it for a long time.” But it’s “hard to do when I had been an Republican for over 50 years,” he added.
He doesn’t expect his move to spur others to do the same, but he said many “beat me to it!”
And he isn’t coy about the reaction his decision will elicit from GOP leaders. “Actually, many Republicans will be jumping for joy — as will (The Denver Post) editorial board,” he said.
