InU.S. politics, anindependent Democrat is an individual who loosely identifies with the ideals of theDemocratic Party but chooses not to be a formal member of the party (chooses to be anindependent) or is denied the Democratic nomination in acaucus orprimary election. Independent Democrat is not a political party. Severalelected officials, including members ofCongress, have identified asindependent Democrats.
In the119th Congress, two politically independent U.S. Senators caucus with the Democrats:
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There are eight politically independent state legislators that caucus with the Democrats or consistently vote with the party:
The first member of theUnited States House of Representatives to identify as an independent Democrat wasZadok Casey ofIllinois, who served from 1833 to 1843. Casey was aJacksonian Democrat before becoming anindependent.[16]
In 1848, a candidate for Mayor of Chicago,James Hutchinson Woodworth, labelled himself an independent Democrat to distance himself from what was at the time a corrupt and disorganized Chicago Democratic party organization; he preferred being described as an independent Democrat rather than as a Whig as that party was itself experiencing a transition. Woodworth won the1848 Chicago mayoral election againstDemocratJames Curtiss with 59% of the vote. He won re-election with 80% of the vote in the1849 election. Woodworth later served one term in theU.S. House of Representatives as a member of theRepublican Party.[17][18]
Andrew Jackson Hamilton of Texas briefly served in theU.S. House of Representatives as an independent Democrat. He later served as the 11thGovernor of Texas and became a member of theRepublican party.[19]
Strom Thurmond ofSouth Carolina was elected to theUnited States Senate in 1954 and served as an independent Democrat in the84th Congress until his resignation on April 4, 1956. In November of that year he was elected as aDemocrat to fill the vacancy created by his resignation.[20] Thurmond later became a member of theRepublican Party in 1964.
Harry F. Byrd Jr., a senator fromVirginia, left the Democratic Party in 1970. He continued tocaucus with the Democrats and referred to himself as an independent Democrat.[21][22]
Patrick Lucey was a Democrat who ran as an independent as a vice-presidential candidate in 1980 withJohn B. Anderson.[23]
David Orr, who served asMayor of Chicago briefly in 1987, entered politics as an independent Democrat.[24]
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After failing to be re-nominated in the2006 Democratic primary, U.S. SenatorJoe Lieberman ofConnecticut created a new party called theConnecticut for Lieberman party. He had lost the nomination to his own seat toNed Lamont by a 52% to 48% margin. Lieberman won the general election with 49.7% of the vote to Lamont's 39.7%.[25] He had stated while campaigning that if elected he would continue tocaucus with the Democrats. Within the week following the election, Lieberman stated that he was "an Independent Democrat, capital I, capital D," and that he had specified as much to the secretary of the Senate.[26] He continued to caucus with theSenate Democrats who had a slim majority in the110th Congress. Lieberman remained a registered independent until he left Congress in 2013.[27][28]
Four members of theNew York State Senate–Jeffrey Klein,Diane Savino,David Valesky, andDavid Carlucci–indicated they would form a similarly designated caucus separate from the Democratic conference in 2011, known as theIndependent Democratic Conference (IDC). Following the2009 New York State Senate Leadership Crisis the IDC formed acoalition government with then New York Senate Republican leaderDean Skelos to giveRepublicans control of the New York State Senate.[29] In April 2018, the IDC announced they woulddissolve and following the primary defeat of six of the eight members in the2018 elections, returning the New York State Senate toDemocratic control in 2019.[30]
U.S. SenatorBernie Sanders of Vermont, the longest-servingindependent politician in congressional history, was initially denied caucus membership by the Democratic Party, however he eventually caucused with the party in both theU.S House of Representatives and theU.S. Senate.[31] He has criticized the Democratic Party from asocialist perspective, though sought the Democratic nomination for president in 2016 and 2020.[32]
U.S. SenatorAngus King served asGovernor of Maine from 1995 to 2003, and was the only Independent governor in the United States during that period. He positioned himself as acentrist during his tenure, and later ran for Senate in 2012 on the same premise. He has caucused withSenate Democrats since 2013, and briefly considered caucusing with Republicans after the2014 Senate elections.[33]
In the118th Congress, two senators elected with the Democratic Party switched their affiliations to independent.U.S. SenatorKyrsten Sinema of Arizona was elected as a Democrat in 2018, switching her affiliation to Independent in December 2022, effective upon commencement of the118th Congress. She opted to caucus with neither party, while maintaining her seniority and committee assignments through theSenate Democratic Caucus.[34] Sinema did not seek re-election in2024.[35]U.S. SenatorJoe Manchin ofWest Virginia was elected as aconservative Democrat in 2010, and re-elected to subsequent terms in 2012 and 2018. Prior to his retirement in 2024, he switched his afflilation from Democratic to Independent, while caucusing with Democrats for the remainder of the118th Congress.[36]
U.S. Congressional candidatesCara Mund,Evan McMullin, andAl Gross have all run as independents while receiving endorsements or support from their respective states' Democratic Parties in traditionally Republican states.[37][38][39]