Brutal Mississippi Primary Prompts College GOP Chair To Switch Parties

NICOLE LAFOND – JUNE 30, 2014, 3:16 PM EDT

The chairman of the Mississippi Federation of College Republicans’ (MFCR) announced on Monday he was resigning and planned to become a Democrat following a brutal U.S. Senate primary.

"The Republican Party has shifted too far to the right in my opinion,” Evan Alvarez wrote in a resignation statement sent out by MFCR, according to The Clarion-Ledger newspaper. “When I ran for Chairman in the spring, I ran to be Chairman of the Mississippi Federation of College REPUBLICANS, not the Mississippi Federation of College 'Tea Partiers,'" Alvarez said.

The resignation came after the MFCR board decided to not impeach the organization’s executive director, Kolby Busby, for publicly endorsing state Sen. Chris McDaniel in the GOP primary against U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran. McDaniel eventually lost the race in a runoff.

Busby came under fire for the endorsement because he affiliated himself with the MFCR in the McDaniel endorsement, which was against the organization’s rules. The MFCR policy is to stay neutral during primaries.

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