Rep. Kevin Kiley Leaves Republican Party and Becomes an Independent

Rep. Kevin Kiley of California said Monday he is leaving the Republican Party immediately and becoming an independent, a move that complicates House Speaker Mike Johnson’s narrow majority, CBS News reported. “I’m also today asking the clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives to have that reflected in the official roster,” Kiley said on a call with reporters.

Kiley said he plans to caucus with Republicans “for the remainder of this term,” but he would not say whether he would be a reliable vote on procedural questions, according to CBS News. Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, can afford to lose only one vote if all members are present and voting, CBS News reported. With Kiley’s switch Republicans hold 217 seats to Democrats’ 214, with three vacancies, and Kiley is the only independent in the House. Kiley said he had a brief discussion with Johnson over the weekend. Asked whether the move was a falling out with the party, he said he would “characterize it as my frustration with partisanship itself.”

The decision followed an announcement on Friday that Kiley would run in California’s newly drawn 6th Congressional District as an independent, filing for reelection as “No Party Preference,” NBC News reported. At that point a spokesperson told NBC News that he would go independent only if voters sent him back in November; on Monday he moved sooner. “It is no secret I’ve been frustrated, at times disgusted, by the hyper-partisanship in Congress,” Kiley said in a Friday statement, blaming partisanship for the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, a rise in health care costs and what he called a pointless redistricting war.

Kiley faulted both parties. “The epidemic of gerrymandering has spread from Texas to California to states all across the country. Both parties are complicit,” he said, per CBS News. NBC News reported that Gov. Gavin Newsom has said California’s redistricting was a direct response to Texas, which was the first to redraw its map mid-decade with President Donald Trump’s backing. California’s new map drew Kiley out of his current district, where he won in 2024 with 55.5% of the vote, NBC News said. In a dig at Newsom, Kiley said removing partisanship from the equation is a way to “protect our democracy from his partisan games.”

He has recently broken with Republican leaders on several votes. CBS News said he criticized Johnson’s handling of the 43-day shutdown that ran from October to November, broke with his party to help force a vote on the now-expired enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits at the end of last year and, more recently, helped sink a procedural vote that would have barred lawmakers from overturning Trump’s global tariffs. NBC News added that he voted with Democrats to terminate the Canada tariffs.

The party switch comes as Republicans defend a slim House majority in November, which NBC News put at 218-214 before the change. The National Republican Congressional Committee, the House GOP’s campaign arm, did not immediately respond to NBC News’s request for comment on the Friday announcement. The Senate has two independents, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine, who caucus with Democrats, NBC News noted. NBC News also reported that on the same day Kiley announced his run, another California Republican, Rep. Darrell Issa, who is also in a redrawn district, said he would not seek another term.