Anti-Trump Republicans have carved out a huge niche on the political left since President Donald Trump’s first campaign — generating large fundraising hauls, seemingly endless cable news bookings and persistent, public sniping from the president himself.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Some of these one-time Republicans have taken their political journey one step further: running for office as full-fledged Democrats.
But so far in 2026, their new party’s primary voters haven’t shown much appetite for their candidacies.Last month, former Georgia Lt.Gov Geoff Duncan, who broke with Trump over his claims of a stolen election in that state in 2020 and campaigned with Democrats in 2024, finished a distant fourth in the Democratic primary for governor — nearly 50 points behind the winner, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.
In Pennsylvania, Ryan Crosswell, a Marine veteran and former federal prosecutor who left the Justice Department last year over an order to drop a corruption case against then-New York City Mayor Eric Adams, fell by 20 points in a battleground House primary to state firefighters union head Bob Brooks, who coalesced support from national Democrats and Gov.Josh Shapiro.Former Georgia Lt.
Gov.Geoff Duncan at the Capitol on Jan.
6.Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images fileMore tests of anti-Trump GOP-turned-Democratic candidacies are coming.This month, George Conway, the now ex-husband of Trump adviser and ally Kellyanne Conway, is seeking to continue his transformation from longtime conservative lawyer to one of Trump’s most prominent critics as part of a deep field of Democratic candidates for an open House seat in Manhattan.
“Welcome to the tent, absolutely,” said Andrew Mamo, a spokesperson for The Bench, a group that worked with Brooks and is seeking to boost Democrats in contested primaries.“Every former Republican is fantastic to have, but...