“I asked myself what in the world would I tell my grandchildren if one day they asked what happened, and what did I do about it?” Hendren said in the video he posted on YouTube on Thursday.
His move underscores the dangers of the Republican Party’s continued loyalty to Trump: Although supported by the vast majority of the party’s base, he has also alienated some conservatives and unleashed fierce opposition that raises fundraisers and the elections in the 2018 midterm instruments and 2020 election.
“There’s a real danger that the Republican Party is going to be one that you can not win a by-election without being a Trump supporter, and that you can not win a general by being a Trump supporter,” he said. Hendren said in an interview Friday. “What would have happened then is that we take a party that is about the principle and the Conservative government to one that is about one man and a personality. And that is a race that does not end well for the IDP. . “
Hendren, 57, is a Arkansas native and former Air Force fighter pilot. He has been a state legislator since 1995 – first in the House and since 2013 in the Senate, where he served as a majority leader for four years. His father was also a legislator in the state of Arkansas, and his uncle, Hutchinson, is in his second term as governor.
In the video, Hendren, who said he is now an independent, said his departure from the GOP was years in the making.
He highlighted Trump’s characterization during the 2016 campaign of Mexican immigrants as rapists, his mockery of a Gold Star family, his mockery of late Senator John McCain in Arizona and his “encouragement of the worst voices of racism, nationalism and violence” . “
“I have seen the former president actively ignite the flame of racist rhetoric, mock those with disabilities, bully his enemies and talk about women in ways that would never be tolerated in my home or business,” he said, and the Republican leaders blame for failure to intervene.
Democrats said Hendren’s decision underscores the GOP’s pursuit of radicalism.
“He said what most of us already knew was that the Republican Party of Arkansas today does not focus on the needs of Arkansans, but rather on the divisive rhetoric and issues that divide our country,” said Michael John Gray, chairman of the Democratic Party, of Arkansas said in a statement. .
Hendren has already had setbacks from conservatives in Arkansas over his sponsorship of hate crime legislation. He would have been a long shot in a Republican gubernatorial election in which former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the daughter of former Gov. Mike Huckabee, is the overwhelming favorite.
Lt. Governor Tim Griffin dropped out of the governor’s race earlier this month, saying he would prefer him as attorney general. The current Attorney General, Leslie Rutledge, is also running for governor.
Hendren said Friday he has not decided whether he will elect himself as independent for the governor. He said he was starting a new organization called Common Ground Arkansas, which he said was “about building a place for people who are politically homeless.”
“I did not rule it out,” Hendren told PNN Poppy Harlow on CNN about “Erin Burnett OutFront” Friday night as governor. “But it’s about something much bigger and much wider than one race’s governor in Arkansas – if I wanted to be governor, I probably would not leave the dominant party in Arkansas. It’s about building a home for people. which does not ‘I do not have one.’
Asked whether the Republican Party should split and a new center-right party emerge, Hendren replied: “It’s going to be a decision the party has to make for itself.”
This story was updated with Hendren’s comments on CNN Friday night.