CONCORD, N.H. — State Rep. David Nagel, of Gilmanton, announced Wednesday that he’s switched his party affiliation from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party. The House Clerk’s Office registered the affiliation change.
“I’ve been a Republican since I was 18 years old,” the Lakes Region representative told reporters. “My dad has been a Republican since, I hate to say it, but since FDR abandoned Poland in 1948. It’s been part of our life, part of our family legacy, and to do this was really hard.”
Republicans still hold a 216-177 majority after Nagel’s party switch. It comes less than a week after Democratic Rep. Dylan Germana resigned from the House after the Attorney General’s Office reported “credible evidence” he moved out of his district and reduced the party’s numbers by one.
Nagel, a doctor who is known nationally for his work on pain management, said he began rethinking his membership in the Republican Party last year after party leadership booted him from the House Health, Human Services, and Elderly Affairs Committee over a series of votes he took out of line with the party platform.
“It was my opinion that those bills were harmful not just to the health care system but to the people that I advocate for, and there’s no way I could support them,” he said. “Virtually no stakeholder or constituent supported these bills, and that was troublesome to me, because rather than accept the will of the constituents, they chose to maintain these priorities.”
The bills — House Bills 392, 223, and 534 — would have, respectively: terminated the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Health Equity; exempted certain medical providers operating within 15 miles of a critical access hospital from licensing requirements; and eliminated the New Hampshire Vaccine Association. None of the three bills became law.
“The lesson that I think we really need to take home from what’s going on today and why we’re here today is, how does each political party decide to include or not include the people like me, the people that are in the middle of that bell shaped curve that really deserve to have a voice but really don’t. The concern for me is that in the Republican Party, their response was basically to silence me, and I really don’t think that that’s a good way to deal with these kinds of issues.”
Nagel also cited the Free State Project — a decadeslong initiative by a group of libertarians from across the United States to move to New Hampshire with the express goal of being elected to office and reforming state government — and its influence on the party.
Nagel said he initially planned to wait until the next election to make this decision.
“However, with everything that’s been going on of late, I just could no longer wait,” he said.
Nagel said prayer helped him come to the decision.
“In a weird way, God spoke to me and told me this is the right thing to do,” he said. “And so I chose to do it.”
Republican House Speaker Sherman Packard and Majority Leader Jason Osborne did not respond to the Bulletin’s request for comment.
Alexis Simpson, the House Democratic leader, said Wednesday: “When people ask why a very accomplished and effective leader, a Republican, is jumping ship, I think the answer is simple. Granite Staters are feeling the squeeze every single day, and New Hampshire Republicans have nothing to offer them, whether that’s on health care or education or housing, we just see excuses, infighting and more of the same failed policies. So our commitment grows by the size of our caucus today, by one member.”
Nagel has always called himself a centrist and, well before this announcement, he has often crossed the aisle to vote with Democrats.
“Rep. Nagel and I are just getting to know each other, and we may not end up agreeing on everything,” Simpson said, “but what we share is our core values and our common purpose.”
Nagel replied, “I don’t think we’re going to have a huge amount of disagreements.”