Once a rising GOP star, Geoff Duncan charts his course to the Democratic Party

Duncan hit the campaign trail to back Harris in the weeks leading up the 2024 election, trying to convince fellow Republicans that President Donald Trump should not be sent back to the White House.

It wasn’t the first time Duncan pushed back against Trump. While serving as lieutenant governor, Duncan found himself in the bad graces of Trump and other Republican officials because he pushed back on the president’s false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 Georgia election.

Duncan ultimately did not seek a second term as lieutenant governor, but in 2024, he flirted with the idea of running for president as the third-party “No Labels” candidate.

Duncan said he’s made no decisions about running for office as a Democrat in next year’s statewide elections, but has spoken with people across the political spectrum who’ve encouraged him to run.

“I certainly haven’t made any decisions yet, but I’ll certainly continue to field those calls,” Duncan said.

His disillusionment with the Republican Party started well before the 2020 election, Duncan wrote in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Duncan is an opinion columnist with the AJC.

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

In a separate AJC interview, Duncan said his ideological evolution began while he was serving in the Georgia House. He said he watched Republican lawmakers block gun control legislation, instead passing laws that expand access to weapons.

“It just seemed like such a disingenuous approach to solving the problem of violent crimes being committed with guns,” he said. “Republicans are scared of their own shadow on the issue of guns, because they were afraid the NRA was going to send a little orange postcard around primary time against them, and it just made no sense.”

He also cited his colleagues’ decision not to expand Medicaid to low-income Georgians who don’t have health insurance. Georgia is one of just 10 states not to expand Medicaid coverage.

Duncan said he felt the need to announce his changed political affiliation, instead of just changing the way he votes, because of what he says has become of the Republican Party. Georgia voters are not required to register by party.

“There is a continual deluge of poor decisions that continue to show up,” he said. “I’ve gotten in the spot where I don’t want to be associated with the Republican Party.”

The announcement comes seven months after members of the Republican state executive committee formally expelled Duncan from the party at the beginning of the year, demanding he cease referring to himself as a Republican and banned him from attending any state GOP events.

Although Duncan’s political future is uncertain, state Sen. Josh McLaurin, a Sandy Springs Democrat and 2026 candidate for lieutenant governor, said Duncan’s record of pushing conservative policies could hurt his trust with voters if he were to again run for office.

“If he is just doing this because he wants to run for governor or run for some kind of higher office as a Democrat because he’s put his finger up to the wind and decided that this is the only or the best way he can do it, then I think it casts a lot of doubt on the sincerity of what he’s saying,” McLaurin said.

Likewise University of Georgia political scientist Charles Bullock said Duncan’s support for Harris in last year’s presidential race is one thing, but if he were to run for office in a primary battle against other Democrats, he would face a lot of headwinds from voters suspicious of his credentials.

Staff writer Caleb Groves contributed to this report.