![\"Bondi](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/gettyimages-2260572829.jpg#.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nWashington \u2014 Rep. Kevin Kiley of California said Monday he was immediately leaving the Republican Party to become an independent. \u00a0<\/p>\n
“I’m also today asking the clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives to have that reflected in the official roster,” Kiley said in a call with reporters.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The move complicates House Speaker Mike Johnson’s narrow majority, though Kiley said he plans to caucus with the Republican Party “for the remainder of this term.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
“That is how I was elected to begin this term,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Kiley would not say whether he would be a reliable vote for Johnson during procedural votes. Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, can afford to lose one vote, if all members are present and voting.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rep. Kevin Kiley questions Attorney General Pam Bondi during the House Judiciary Committee hearing on Feb. 11, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tom Williams\/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Kiley’s switch means Republicans now hold 217 seats compared with Democrats’ 214, with three vacancies. Kiley is the only independent in the lower chamber.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kiley said he had a brief discussion with Johnson over the weekend about his plans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Asked whether his move could be framed as a falling out with the Republican Party, Kiley said he would “characterize it as my frustration with partisanship itself.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kiley announced Friday he would run in California’s newly drawn 6th Congressional District as an independent, saying “political division has become a serious problem for our country.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It is no secret I’ve been frustrated, at times disgusted, by the hyper-partisanship in Congress. In the last year it’s led to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, a massive increase in healthcare costs, and of course, a pointless redistricting war. The epidemic of gerrymandering has spread from Texas to California to states all across the country. Both parties are complicit,” he said<\/a> Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n The two-term congressman was critical of Johnson’s handling of the 43-day government shutdown that stretched from October to November. He also broke with his party to help force a vote on the now-expired Affordable Care Act enhanced premium tax credits at the end of last year. More recently, he helped sink<\/a> a key procedural vote that would have barred lawmakers from overturning President Trump’s\u00a0sweeping global tariffs<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n \n Go deeper with The Free Press\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Washington \u2014 Rep. Kevin Kiley of California said Monday he was immediately leaving the Republican Party to become…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-513707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}