Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan announced on Tuesday that he's leaving the Republican Party and becoming a Democrat.
Duncan, a lifelong Republican, faced major backlash from the GOP after he endorsed Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, saying at the time he was committed to beating Donald Trump.
The switch to becoming a Democrat, Duncan said, has been expected for quite some time.
His journey started well before Trump said the 2020 election was rigged in Georgia, Duncan wrote in the editorial.
His decision was centered around his daily struggle to "love my neighbor" as a Republican figure.
"My time in elected office has taught me the most effective way to love your neighbor on a mass scale is through prudent public policy," he wrote.
In outlining his reasons for leaving the Republican Party, Duncan said Georgians will be negatively affected by Trump's Big Beautiful Bill.
According to the former lieutenant governor, Republican lawmakers have argued for decades that the solution to not having health insurance is to get a job. However, most uninsured Georgians living in working households don’t have insurance because of issues with affordability or eligibility, Duncan argued.
“So, the reality is they have a job, just the wrong job,” Duncan wrote. “One that doesn’t offer health insurance or generate enough spare money each month to afford their own health insurance plan.”
Duncan also said Trump's immigration policies "have turned into a lesson on how not to love your neighbor.”
Democrats have largely opposed Trump's sweeping immigration policies and have argued that the deportation of thousands of illegal immigrants is unconstitutional. The president campaigned in the 2024 election on a hardline immigration agenda, vowing to carry out mass deportations in the interest of national security.
This isn't the first time Duncan has written an anti-GOP opinion piece in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
In May 2024, he penned an editorial revealing that he would be voting for Joe Biden in the presidential election, urging other Republicans to follow his lead in rejecting Trump.
Duncan served as Georgia's lieutenant governor from 2019–2023. He previously served as a Georgia state representative from 2013 to 2017.
In his latest article for the media outlet, Duncan claimed, "loving my neighbor is easier now" as a Democrat.
"There's more work to be done in pursuit of loving our neighbors here in Georgia," he wrote in Tuesday's editorial.