On March 9, 2026, Kevin Kiley asked the clerk of the House to stop listing him as a Republican and start listing him as an independent. He is now the only independent in the U.S. House.

Three days later, NPR's Steve Inskeep put the obvious question to him on Morning Edition:

INSKEEP: "Are you changing your politics in any way, any of your positions?"

KILEY: "No."

That's the whole story, and he told it himself. What follows is just the details.

The timing

Kiley's district hugs the Nevada border in the Sierra foothills. Under Proposition 50, California's voter-approved redistricting, that district was sliced into six different districts. He told NPR his old seat "was actually kind of a toss-up district" while "this new one is bluer."

On a Friday, he announced he would not run again in the district he currently represents. The following Monday, he changed his party designation. Then he filed to run in a different district, on a "no party preference" ballot line.

Politico described the move as "part of his broader effort to win reelection by tacking toward the middle."

The month he lost his committees, and the month he got them back

Kiley told NPR he would keep caucusing with Republicans, and explained why in plain administrative terms:

"The way things are set up now is you basically have to — even if you're an independent, you essentially have to choose to associate yourself, for administrative purposes, with one party or the other. Otherwise, you can't serve on committees, and you can't really be a fully functioning member of the House."

Six days after that interview, the arrangement broke. On March 18, 2026, Republican Conference chairwoman Lisa McClain notified the House that Kiley had resigned from the Republican Conference — and Speaker Mike Johnson vacated his seats on Education and Workforce, Transportation and Infrastructure, and the Judiciary the same day.

A month later, Republicans gave all of it back. On April 16, Kiley announced he'd been reinstated to all three committees, including his gavel as chair of the Education and Workforce subcommittee on early childhood, elementary, and secondary education.

His statement:

"People want to see a Congress that works for the country, not one political party or the other. I'm grateful to my colleagues and committee chairs for recognizing my contributions by confirming my appointment as the only independent member of the House to serve on the Judiciary, Education and Transportation Committees."

Read that carefully. The sentence about not serving "one political party or the other" is followed immediately by thanks to the Republican chairs who handed him back his seats. The independence stops exactly where the Republican-granted power begins.

The bipartisanship he points to happened while he was a Republican

To be fair to Kiley, he does have a couple of real breaks with his party — the tariff votes he cited to NPR. They're worth putting on the record accurately, because they cut in an unexpected direction.

Both were cast weeks before he changed his registration, as a Republican.

On February 10, 2026, the House voted on a rule that would have blocked the floor from challenging Trump's tariffs. It failed — and Kiley was one of only three Republicans who voted no, alongside Don Bacon and Thomas Massie.

The next day, the House voted on a resolution to end the national emergency behind the Canada tariffs. It passed, with just six Republicans voting yes: Bacon, Brian Fitzpatrick, Jeff Hurd, Kiley, Massie, and Dan Newhouse.

Those are genuinely independent votes. They are also proof that nothing about the label changed anything. He was already voting that way with an R next to his name.

What the rest of the record looks like

Through August 2025, the Center for American Progress Action's tally of how members vote on the Trump administration's priority bills found Kiley had broken with the White House exactly once — on the Save SBA from Sanctuary Cities Act.

And the record he says has not changed is the one anybody can look up:

• A 0% score from the League of Conservation Voters in 2025, and a 9% lifetime score — despite being a listed member of the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus.
• A 0% 2025 score from Reproductive Freedom for All.
• A vote for Trump's budget bill.
• Public praise for DOGE while it tore through California's federal workforce: "The effort to modernize government and to eliminate waste, to root out fraud and to rightsize the federal government, I think it's a positive thing."

And when constituents wanted to talk to him about all of it in March 2025, more than 400 people lined the halls of Nevada County's administrative center just to speak to a staffer. What they got was a telephone town hall where his own office screened the questions.

Why it matters

Voters use party labels as shorthand. It's imperfect, but it tells you roughly what someone will do with power before you hand it to them.

Kiley has removed the shorthand and replaced it with nothing. He votes with the Republican conference, he sits on committees the Republican chairs control, and he told a national radio audience that none of his positions have changed.

A new line on the ballot is not a new record. The only thing that changed is the district he needs to win. We deserve better.

Source

"Rep. Kevin Kiley talks about why he switched his party affiliation," NPR Morning Edition, March 12, 2026, and "Rep. Kevin Kiley switches party affiliation to independent," Politico, March 9, 2026. Photo: Getty Images via CNN.