The Shelby Star ^
Mayor Rick Murphrey’s views on tax policy, the national debt and social issues like same-sex marriage have led the lifelong Democrat to switch his party affiliation to Republican.
Murphrey and his wife, Sandra, filed new voter registration forms on Wednesday, Cleveland County Deputy Elections Director Meloni Wray confirmed. The seven-term mayor said his conservative political views more closely match those of the Republican Party.
“As we look at both parties and focus on the upcoming election, we want to be in a party that is focused on reducing the national debt and that is lowering corporate taxes so industries can invest in machinery, expand and create new jobs,” Murphrey said.
Murphrey became a Democrat when he first registered to vote at age 18. He said he and his wife discussed their views and both decided to switch parties.
“It’s something we’ve been talking about for a long time, and we’ve made our decision,” Murphrey said. “It’s for life. It’s not just for one election.”
Murphrey said he supports a state constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, a measure most Democrats oppose. He said Wednesday that the amendment “is one of the things we evaluated in our decision.”
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