The Washington Examiner
Mass. Secretary of State William Glavin attributed the switches to the Trump phenomenon.
Thousands of Massachusetts Democrats have denounced their party affiliations since January 1 to jump across the aisle and join the ranks of Independent or Republicans.
Nearly 20000 Bay State Democrats or 1.3 percent of the partys Masachussetts population left to vote in the Republican primary Tuesday. More than 16300 of that group have unenrolled or become Independent voters while 3500 have joined the GOP.
Mass. Secretary of State William Glavin
attributed the switches to the Trump phenomenon. The billionaire candidate has a significant lead over fellow top contenders Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz in recent state polls.
The tenor of the Republican campaign has been completely different from what weve seen in prior Republican presidential campaigns Galvin said. You have to look no farther than the viewership for some of the televised debates.
If every Massachusetts Independent voted in the GOP primary on Super Tuesday as many as 700000 ballots could be cast with the unenrolled making up one-third of the total.
Although Donald Trump has convinced some Democrats to switch parties his candidacy has also had the opposite effect on some Republicans. A net 5911 GOP voters have denounced their Republican roots.
