California Rep. Kevin Kiley announces he will leave the GOP this week to become an independent

Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., formally announced Monday that he will be leaving the Republican Party this week to instead become an independent. 

He announced last week that he will be running for reelection this year, but this time as an independent, according to The Hill. 

“I will be the sole independent member of the House of Representatives,” Kiley told reporters Monday during a virtual press conference. “We’re going to be submitting the letter to the clerk today.”

He plans to continue caucusing with Republicans, which would allow him to keep his positions on committees, with the approval of the party’s leadership. 

His decision, he said, was based on his disgust with all of the gerrymandering going on across the country. Governors and legislators in a number of states are working to redraw their maps to give their party an advantage in the midterm and future elections. 

“I reached the decision that, since gerrymandering seeks to elevate partisanship above everything else in our politics and governance — seeks to make it the sum and substance of our politics — then the best way to counter gerrymandering and its insidious impacts on democracy is simply to take partisanship out of the equation,” Kiley said.

He will be running this year in the newly redrawn 6th district that the Cook Political Report rates as “solid Democrat.”

Kiley left open the door that if he wins, he may caucus with the Democrats. “The appropriate posture as an independent is to say I’m going to do whatever serves my constituents,” Kiley said. “That’s a decision I’ll make at the time.”