Women state lawmakers from Kansas explain why they quit the GOP and became Democrats

Last week, Kansas state senators Dinah Sykes and Barbara Bollier and state representative Stephanie Clayton announced they were no longer going to serve as Republicans and would instead serve as Democrats; they were joined by former state rep Joy Koesten who served as a Republican until getting primaried by a far-right candidate who will take her seat in 2019.

Despite the election of a Democratic governor, the GOP still dominates Kansas politics, which means that these women will be sitting with the weaker side in the legislature, making this hard to square with any accusations of raw power-seeking.

Instead, as the women explained to Slate, the choice came as a result of a number of factors: the party's hard-line, complete with "purity tests," that excludes input from anyone who identifies as moderate; the "overwhelming" influence of the "hardcore, fervent religious right" and "outside money"; and the decision to scrap a bipartisan education funding rule (badly needed in Kansas, where Republican leadership has starved the school system to the brink of failure) in order to punish the incoming Democratic governor.

Koesten: I had an amazing group of colleagues, all who identify as moderate Republicans. And I felt I was abandoning them. But there is a hard-right element in the party that is incredibly destructive. The hardcore, fervent religious rightand the outside moneyis so overpowering. You want to stay and fight the good fight, but I finally decided I cant fight from the inside.

Sykes: Kansans, I think in general, are common-sense [people].