{"id":1847331,"date":"2023-02-14T17:50:08","date_gmt":"2023-02-14T22:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1847331"},"modified":"2023-02-14T17:50:30","modified_gmt":"2023-02-14T22:50:30","slug":"87-year-old-new-jersey-state-senator-says-he-is-leaving-gop-to-become-a-democrat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/87-year-old-new-jersey-state-senator-says-he-is-leaving-gop-to-become-a-democrat\/","title":{"rendered":"87-Year-Old New Jersey State Senator Says He Is Leaving GOP To Become A Democrat"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2F87-year-old-new-jersey-state-senator-says-he-is-leaving-gop-to-become-a-democrat%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1847331&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47-->\n<p>New Jersey senator John Conyers has announced that he will be leaving the Republican Party in order to become a Democrat, as he seeks reelection.<\/p>\n<p>Samuel Thompson (87 years old) claims that he took the decision to run for state senator because GOP leaders made it difficult. \u201cabandoned\u201d him. He believes that ageism was to blame.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo I want to stay with people that want to cut my throat like that?\u201d Reporters heard him say that. <a href=\"https:\/\/newjerseyglobe.com\/legislature\/how-is-trenton-reacting-to-sam-thompsons-party-switch-cautiously\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">According to The New Jersey Globe<\/a>, which described the senator as being a conservative who is\u00a0pro-life, pro-gun, and a supporter of former President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Thompson said the GOP chairman in Middlesex County, which takes up part of the state senator\u2019s legislative district, suggested he was \u201ctoo old and might die in office.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rob Bengivenga (chairman) denied that he made those remarks. <a href=\"https:\/\/newjerseymonitor.com\/2023\/02\/14\/senators-party-switch-is-a-naked-move-to-cling-to-power\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">According to the New Jersey Monitor<\/a>. Bengivenga did however indicate that the party was interested getting a new face into the state Senate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was hoping the Senator would embrace it and work together as a mentor and advisor for the years to come,\u201d He said it in an emailed statement <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/politics-news\/new-jersey-state-senator-says-leaving-gop-join-democrats-rcna70525\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Associated Press reported the story<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Old Bridge Mayor Owen Henry, aged 63, was present earlier in the month. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mycentraljersey.com\/story\/news\/politics\/2023\/02\/02\/nj-senate-12th-distrcit-owen-henry-sam-thompson\/69860352007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Announced that he would participate<\/a> against Thompson in the June GOP primary for New Jersey\u2019s 12th legislative district.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s unclear what the Democrats\u2019 primary field will look like, but members of the party celebrated the prospect of adding to their majority in the state Senate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Democratic Party has always been a big tent party, and I welcome Senator Thompson to our ranks,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/newjerseyglobe.com\/governor\/murphy-welcomes-thompson-to-the-democratic-party-but-doesnt-endorse-him\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Phil Murphy, Governor<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the party swap, Thompson insists that he won\u2019t change his voting habits.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am not a liberal; I\u2019d put myself as a moderate conservative,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/newjerseyglobe.com\/legislature\/how-is-trenton-reacting-to-sam-thompsons-party-switch-cautiously\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Thompson stated<\/a>. \u201cI will continue to vote the way that I vote \u2013 that is to say, from a moderate conservative position \u2026 I just got done meeting with the Democrats, and we didn\u2019t seem to have any problems.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A New Jersey state senator says he is leaving the Republican Party to become a Democrat as he seeks re-election this year. Samuel Thompson, an 87-year-old who has been a state senator for more than a decade, claims he made the decision because GOP leaders \u201cabandoned\u201d him. He says ageism is to blame. \u201cDo I &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1588,"featured_media":1847334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[18665,4912,6203,10340,7502,4012],"class_list":["post-1847331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire","tag-87-year-old","tag-democrat","tag-gop","tag-jersey","tag-leaving","tag-senator"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1847331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1588"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1847331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1847331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1847334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1847331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1847331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1847331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}