Former GOP Rep. Kevin Kiley doubles down on exiting Republican Party

Rep. Kevin Kiley, a former Republican who is facing an uphill reelection battle after losing most of his district due to redistricting, said he won’t caucus with his former party if he wins in November.

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The announcement came Wednesday during a forum hosted by Semafor, where Kiley doubled down on his move to abandon his party if reelected. He said that would include him losing access to agenda-setting decisions with the Republican Party and mean he would lose his seat on key committees. Kiley said he’s trying to change those rules so independents aren’t automatically blocked. Sen. Bernie Sanders from Vermont, for instance, is an independent but caucuses with the Democratic Party on policy issues.

“The committee seats should belong to the American people, and you shouldn’t be denied a seat on committees just because you’re an independent member,” Kiley said during Semafor’s Youth Wellbeing Forum on Wednesday. 

Kiley, who is 41 and has served two House terms, captured national attention in March when he announced that he was leaving the Republican Party and was instead running as an independent,after Californians overwhelmingly passed Proposition 50. 

“I’m working on changing the rules of the House to get rid of this crazy policy where you have to be formally affiliated with one caucus or the other simply to get committee seats,” Kiley said.  

Kiley’s district currently includes a large swath of public lands all the way from Lake Tahoe down to Death Valley. But he is running in the newly drawn 6th Congressional District which includes more of urban Sacramento as well as the suburbs Rocklin and Roseville. The district is considered a critical Democratic battleground. He is running against Democratic State Sen. Richard Pan.

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While Kiley’s switch might be more of a strategic move to help his reelection campaign, his rejection of the Republican Party fits with the widespread discontent Americans have towards their elected leaders. A September poll from the Public Policy Institute of California found that only 41% of likely voters believe the Democratic Party has “a lot” or “some” good ideas and 29% of voters feel the same about the Republican Party. 

Kiley was nominated the chairman of a House Education & Workforce Subcommittee while he was still a Republican, but he said that the House Rules Committee requires that in order to keep his seat he must caucus with his party. 

Those limitations to the two-party caucuses prevent anyone who isn’t on a party line from participating “in the heart of policy-making,” he said during a Sept. 2 testimony before the rules committee. In that testimony, he proposed changes to the rules to allow any member of Congress to still serve on standing committees. 

Alex McDonald, the campaign manager for Kiley, told SFGATE in an email that Kiley will carry out his responsibility as chairman of the education committee and will continue to caucus with Republicans until his current term is up.