Nevada Mayor Leaves 'Elitist' and 'Socialist' Dems To Join GOP
The marquee and a sign at an entrance to the shuttered MGM Grand Hotel & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip display hopeful messages as a result of the statewide shutdown due to the continuing spread of the coronavirus across the United States on April 2, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak ordered a mandatory shutdown of most nonessential businesses in the state through April 30th to help combat the spread of the virus. Ethan Miller/Getty Images

John Lee, a Nevada Mayor, announced Tuesday that he is leaving the Democratic Party to switch allegiance with the Republican Party.

According to Fox News, the North Las Vegas Mayor noted that he could no longer stand the Democrats' elitist and socialist agenda.

"It's not the party that I grew up with 25 years ago in this environment, and it's not the party I can stand with anymore," Lee said in the report.

He noted that you are not really well known in the Democratic Party "when you're a pro-life Democrat, a pro-gun Democrat, and you're a very conservative person."

John Lee said he hanged on the party as long as he did, hoping the party would change. However, he noted that "it didn't, it got worse."

"Therefore, I found a new place that I can put my allegiance to and help. Once again, forget about the last eight years. It's the next four years that predict the future," Lee added.

The 65-year-old mayor, who has been a Democrat since his first state election victory in 1994, said the country's working class and small business owners are not a part of the conversation anymore.

When asked what the West thought of President Joe Biden, Lee said there had been issues in the West about COVID-19, tourism, hospitality, and gaming industry.

The Nevada mayor further noted that this what they want in the West, and they are not going to accept it anymore, Daily Mail reported.

John Lee's Change of Party Affiliations

John Lee, who has been mayor of the city since 2013, posted a video on social media about his change of party allegiance, saying that the Democratic Party is broken.

For her part, the Nevada State Democratic Party's new chair, Judith Whitmer, said that Lee has not been in tune with the party. Whitmer said that Lee has claimed to have voted for Donald Trump twice.

"(Lee) has an A+ rating from the National Rifle Association and has always opposed a woman's right to choose," Whitmer added as reported by Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Whitmer further noted that the mayor "has long been out of step with the core values of the Democratic Party, even as he has used our ballot line time and again to run for and win election to public office."

As a possible candidate for governor in Nevada in 2022, John Lee earlier said that different people in both parties had approached him to consider switching to GOP and run as a moderate.

If he decided to run for the governor position, he would face other potential candidates such as former Lt. Gov. Mark Hutchinson, Sheriff Joe Lombardo, and Rep. Mark Amodei, among others.

Lee has been considered a conservative Democrat while serving in the Nevada Assembly and state Senate. Progressive Democrat Patricia Spearman defeated him in a 2012 election before winning as mayor in North Las Vegas the following year.

Before dipping into his political career, John Lee owned a small business. During his stint as mayor of North Las Vegas, he inherited the city with a huge deficit, bad credit rating, and was in danger of state receivership.

He then implemented budget and personnel cuts and new development, bringing the city back to its good standing.

John Lee noted that North Las Vegas is set to become an economic powerhouse strategically. He added that the breadbasket for Southern Nevada is going to be North Las Vegas.

Before 1992, Nevada was a Republican stronghold. Since then, Democrats have won the state five out of seven Presidential elections, including the last three.

WATCH: This Mayor is Leaving 'Socialist' Dems to Join 'Working Class' GOP - From Fox News