North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee left the Democratic Party this week and registered Republican in the first major party switch of the Biden era.
Lee announced his decision on “Fox and Friends” Tuesday morning.
“Here in Nevada, we’ve seen the full takeover of the Democratic Party by admitted socialists,” Lee said. “I will not let the America I love be hijacked by an extremist left-wing mob that blacklists, bans, shouts down, and cancels anyone who disagrees with them,” Lee said.
The change had been a long time coming as socialist progressives swept the Democratic Party and expelled conservative Democrats in the process. Leaders like Lee, a pro-life, A-rated NRA-endorsed politician who voted for President Donald Trump twice are now politically homeless.
Lee told The Federalist that in Nevada the Democratic Party recently elected devout socialists to four out of five board positions which served as a catalyst for his decision to finally make the switch.
“It’s gone. The cancel culture has wiped you out … Whatever Democratic Party I thought I was associated with was not the party that just came in,” Lee told The Federalist. “If it’s happening in Nevada, it’s happening everywhere.”
Lee said he watched the 2020 Democratic primary with little interest, as no candidates on stage convinced him the party would change course. Having voted for Trump in 2016, he maintained his support for the president through re-election.
“I never switched,” Lee said, emphasizing his business background similar to Trump’s helped him see the Republican long-game which had already brought the American economy to new heights before the pandemic. Now, Democrat-induced draconian lockdowns have wrecked Las Vegas’s service-based economy. Nevada has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, ranked 46th at 8.3 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In Las Vegas, Lee estimates it will take at minimum 5 years for its hospitality industry to recover, the backbone of the local economy. That comeback depends in large part on the direction Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak takes the state, and whether the governor who fined a church for operating in an open casino would ease restrictions.
The Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) for example, is scheduled to be held in Las Vegas in late May. With less than two months before the annual outdoor event, which was canceled last year, organizers say they plan to move forward pending approval from state officials.
It remains to be seen whether Sisolak will take his cues from California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom who led the Golden State to economic self-destruction and is now facing a recall effort, or from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who embraced freedom and personal responsibility.
“I would like to welcome it back but it all depends on how the governor makes his decisions,” Lee told The Federalist.
