A Nebraska state senator said Wednesday he is rejecting calls for him to leave the Republican Party after he complained it has been complicit in "enabling white supremacy in our country."
"They can't kick me out of the party," State Sen. John McCollister, R-Omaha, told MSNBC's "Morning Joe," explaining that it would be up to him to decide if he wants to leave the party
Sunday, after the deadly shootings in El Paso and Dayton, McCollister tweeted "it pains" him to say what he did about the party, "but it's the truth."
He told MSNBC on Wednesday he no longer believes the Republican Party backs its core values because President Donald Trump has "hijacked the Republican Party in Nebraska as well as the country."
"We have lost the traditional values that Republicans have had, free trade, legal immigration, and of course fiscal sanity, and I'm afraid we have left our moorings and we need to come back to what the Republican Party was in the past," McCollister said.
The lawmaker said he has not heard from other Republicans in his state, but he has gotten emails from other party members who have been supportive of his stance.
He also said he did not plan for his comments to become part of the national news cycle, but he is anxious for other GOP officeholders to come forward.
However, McCollister said he thinks many in his party, including Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., have been unwilling to come forward because they are afraid of losing their seats in primary elections.
"The risk to me is minimal and we don't have a caucus system in Nebraska," McCollister said. "I term out in three years, so I won't pay a big political price."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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