Washington Post columnist who's voted for Democrats for years announces he is again voting for Democrats

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Ex-Republican and Washington Post columnist Max Boot added to his long roster of pieces Monday announcing he would be supporting Democrats.

Boot, a former Republican who advised multiple 2016 GOP candidates on foreign policy, endorsed Hillary Clinton out of disgust with Donald Trump in 2016, announced he was voting straight-Democrat in 2018, endorsed Joe Biden in 2020, has called Republicans a party of White nationalists, has repeatedly said the GOP needs to be destroyed, and has written a book declaring conservatism is permeated by "racism, extremism [and] conspiracy-mongering."

Yet Boot again framed a piece this week as him making a bold move across party lines.

"I’m a single-issue voter," he wrote. "My issue is the fate of democracy in the United States. Simply put, I have no faith that we will remain a democracy if Republicans win power. Thus, although I’m not a Democrat, I will continue to vote exclusively for Democrats — as I have done in every election since 2016 — until the GOP ceases to pose an existential threat to our freedom."

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The piece is headlined, "I'm no Democrat — but I’m voting exclusively for Democrats to save our democracy."

Boot cited Trump's conduct since the 2020 election and efforts to mount a "coup" to retake the White House.

"To prevent a successful coup in 2024, it is imperative to elect Democrats at every level of government in 2021 and 2022 — to state legislatures and governorships, as well as the House and Senate. Democrats should break a Senate filibuster to pass voting rights legislation that would help ensure free elections," he wrote.

Washington Post columnist Max Boot. Photographer: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg via Getty Images

A look back at Boot's past work shows a pattern.

In a piece from April 7 headlined, "The GOP can’t be saved. Center-right voters need to become Biden Republicans," Boot wrote, "centrists have a binary choice: Support either an increasingly extremist and obstructionist Republican Party or a Democratic Party that, under President Biden, is working to solve our most pressing problems."

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"We have to destroy the Republican Party in order to save it," reads another headline from last October. 

"We have to destroy the party in order to save it," he wrote. "As a lifelong Republican until Nov. 9, 2016 — and as a foreign policy adviser to three Republican presidential candidates — it gives me no joy to write those words. It’s true that the party had long-standing problems — conspiracy-mongering, racism, hostility toward science — that Donald Trump was able to exploit."

A day earlier, in a piece headlined, "I’m not just voting against Trump — I’m voting for Biden. Here are eight reasons," Boot said he was "greatly impressed" by Biden after once fearing he was "too old" and "too undisciplined."

In 2019, Boot laid out "14 reasons I’ll vote for any Democrat over Trump." He added that same year another story entitled, "For aiding Trump’s abuse of power, the GOP deserves to be voted out of existence." 

In 2018, he wrote of the upcoming midterms, "Vote for Democrats on Tuesday. For every office. Regardless of who they are. And I say that as a former Republican." In a different piece earlier that year headlined, "I left the Republican Party. Now I want Democrats to take over," he again touted how he left the GOP the day after Trump's 2016 victory.

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"I am more convinced than ever that I made the right decision," he wrote. "I’ve thrown up my hands in despair at the debased state of the GOP. I don’t want to be identified with the party of the child-snatchers."

In his 2016 endorsement of Clinton, Boot noted his streak of voting for Republican candidates was over.

"A lot of my Republican friends are incredulous to learn that #ImWithHer. In truth, I’m more than a little surprised myself," he wrote.

Other Boot headlines include, "The GOP has become the stupid party — and proud of it," "How Republicans manage to be both anarchists and authoritarians," and "Think Republicans in Washington are bad? They’re far worse at the state level."

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Boot is one of numerous ex-Republican critics of their party who enjoy prominent perches in media, such as MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace, CNN commentator Ana Navarro, and former ABC News analyst Matthew Dowd, who have openly supported the Democratic Party for years.