BREAKING: California Republican Congressman Officially Quits the GOP

(Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)

Congressman Kevin Kiley (R-CA) has announced he is ditching the GOP, instead becoming an independent, effective immediately.

“Today, I’m asking the clerk of the US House of Representatives to have that reflected in the official roster,” Axios congressional correspondent Kate Santaliz reported on Monday. Kiley will still caucus with the GOP, meaning the House majority will not change.

Kiley announced on Friday that he was filing for reelection as “No Party Preference,” calling gerrymandering “a plague on democracy, one that Gavin Newsom has brought back to California.”

Back in December, Kiley lamented on Fox News that he doesn’t know where he’ll vote after a redistricting plan in the Golden State “chopped my district into six different pieces.” Kiley is now running in California’s 6th Congressional District, which heavily favors Democrats.

This is a developing story and has been updated.

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