‘What am I doing in the Democratic Party?’: NY Councilman announces exit from Democratic Party to join GOP

Ari Kagan, a council member from Brooklyn, officially announced his exit from the Democratic Party for the GOP.

“Every month I found myself, like, ‘What am I doing in the Democratic Party?’” Kagan said during a Monday news conference announcing his switch. “It’s not about numbers or an election. It’s about [sending] a message.”

“The Democratic Party in New York was moving to [the] left at such a speed I couldn’t keep up,” Kagan urged. “It’s not me leaving the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party very quickly started to leave me.”

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Kagan cited surging New York crime as one of the primary reasons he decided to make the party switch.

“I believe right now, the Democratic Party is doing everything possible in New York City to make everybody less safe,” the councilman said. 

Kagan currently represents parts of Coney Island, Gravesend and Sea Gate.

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Along with the party switch, Kagan is also planning to compete in the 2023 general for Democrat Council Member Justin Brannan’s seat in the newly redrawn 47th council district, according to the New York Daily News, which first reported on the change in affiliation.

Brannan posted a photo of the two council members together in an apparent dig after the reports of Kagan leaving the Democratic Party emerged. Brannan previously endorsed Kagan before the 2021 election, but now the two will reportedly go head-to-head next fall.

Kagan did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment regarding the switch.

The councilman’s exit comes just days after West Virginia State Senator Glenn Jeffries decided to leave the Democratic Party for the GOP.

Former Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard also made a sudden departure from the party, claiming in a Twitter post the Democratic Party “is now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue & stoke anti-white racism.”