Rep. David Nagel has been a Republican since the day he could vote. Most of his family identifies with the GOP, and for many years, he agreed with what he thought were the party’s ideals.
After significant deliberation, he has changed his mind: The Gilmanton representative announced this week that he is switching his party affiliation to Democrat.
“It was quite clear that I spoke their language and they spoke mine,” Nagel said of his new peers on the other side of the aisle.
He said he had been weighing the decision for over a year. His conversations with people across the political spectrum led him to believe that House Republicans aligned more with their party than with their own beliefs, and he began to look to the other side for respite.
Rep. Gary Woods, a Democrat from Concord, was one of the people Nagel consulted. They’ve known one another since Nagel’s first year of medical school, and they worked together at Concord Orthopedic until Woods’s retirement 12 years ago.
“He has always been very open, and that sometimes gets you in trouble if people don’t agree with you,” the Concord representative said. “But nevertheless, he was, I think in my own perspective, very measured in developing his positions. They were thoughtful, well grounded, and he was able to articulate that position and the benefits of that position.”
Nagel has practiced orthopedic medicine for over 30 years and said he takes racial and gender disparities into consideration in his practice. He was removed from the Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee last February because of his disagreements with Republican-backed legislation.
Rep. Mike Bordes, a House Republican who is also the mayor of Laconia, said he has consulted Nagel on health bills before casting his own votes and maintains the utmost respect for him.
He saw Nagel, before his removal, as the most qualified Republican on the committee.
“He didn’t go along to get along,” Bordes said. “He got removed from that committee, and I think that left a sour taste in his mouth.”
Several representatives in the State House have reported alienation from their party after refusing to vote in certain ways. When it comes to Nagel, he said voting along party lines instead of with his personal beliefs and values is “very foreign to me.”
“If I don’t stand up for what I think is right, then I don’t belong in the legislature at all,” he said. “If I’m going to support stuff I don’t agree with, and nobody in the community agrees with, I shouldn’t be here.”
Rep. Matt Coker was in a similar position as Nagel two years ago — only his switch happened in the opposite direction, from the Democratic party to the Republican party. Although he leans more moderate, the representative from Meredith said he ultimately felt more aligned with Republican norms.
“I know how hard it is to make that decision,” he said.
Coker said he and Nagel are friends who share the same mindset: Both act in accordance with their principles and don’t always follow party priorities. He said that sentiment is missing from most of the State House.
“I don’t look at the other party as my opposition,” he said. “I look at them as somebody who I might have differences with, but if I can come to an agreement that both of us find acceptable for the problems that we face in the state, I’m more than happy to work with them. I think that that’s dead nowadays because they’re just locked in constant wrangling for power.”
Both Bordes and Coker said their advice for Nagel is to continue being true to himself, that his change in party affiliation does not change him as an individual.
That’s exactly how Nagel said he intends to operate — and he said he feels happier now that he’s made the switch.
“I ran for office to be in the game, and they put me on the sideline,” he said. “I know that they [Democrats] will include me, and I know they will listen to me. I’m the guy with a clipboard, not the guy on the bench.”