Breaking news: Rep. David Nagel switches party affiliation to Democrat

GILMANTON — State Rep. David Nagel, who represents Belknap County’s District 6, publicly shared Wednesday he had switched his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat.  

Belknap 6 includes Gilford, Gilmanton and Laconia’s Ward 2. Nagel is now one of two Democrats on the Belknap County Delegation, along with Rep. Charlie St. Clair of Laconia. They’re scheduled to potentially vote on the county budget Wednesday at 6 p.m.

The delegation makes up Belknap's elected representatives to the Statehouse.

Nagel, a physician who specializes in physical medicine and rehabilitation, formerly served on the House Health and Human Services Committee until he was removed by Republican Party leadership in 2025. He cited that as one of his reasons for switching his party affiliation during a press call alongside House Democratic Leader Alexis Simpson on Wednesday.

“We are excited today in the House Democratic Caucus to welcome Rep. Nagel,” Simpson said on the call. 

“For years, Republicans in New Hampshire have embraced a toxic brand of politics, and it should come as a shock to no one that their own members are fleeing the party,” Simpson wrote in a release Wednesday. “The lies of the NHGOP precede them. Let’s not forget, they campaigned on making life less expensive for Granite Staters, and instead, Jason Osborne and his Republican followers have raised costs at every turn as they cut funding for health care, housing, and public education.”

Nagel said he’s advocated for the rights of people who are stigmatized throughout his life and career, particularly those with disabilities, and said he ran to serve in the Legislature in large part to represent them.

A national opioid policy fellow, Nagel said he recently attended a bipartisan meeting in New Orleans, where he noticed “party meant nothing.” He said he learned a strange lesson when he noticed Democrats at the meeting had thought issues through in great depth, whereas Republicans in attendance were “shooting from the hip.” 

“For years, I thought I could change the way Republicans look at these issues, and that was what I brought to Concord,” Nagel said. “I ran for office because I wanted to fight for those people that are being harmed by other people.”

The lesson to take home, in Nagel’s mind, is how each party does or doesn’t include people like him who find themselves in a moderate position politically. He said he’s concerned about the state GOP’s response, which he characterized as having silenced him when he was removed from the Health and Human Services Committee.

“I was kicked off of it,” he said. “I took a point of view that I was [opposed] to a couple priority bills from the party. I’ve been in public health and medical care for 40 years, and it was my opinion that those bills were harmful, not just to the health care system but to the people I advocate for, and there’s no way I could support them.” 

In an interview with The Laconia Daily Sun in February 2025, Nagel said HB 392, which sought to dissolve the state Department of Health and Human Services Office of Health Equity, and HB 524, which sought to repeal the New Hampshire Vaccine Association, contributed to the party leadership’s decision to remove him.

“The good news is, not one of these bills has passed as of date, but they are still listed as priorities, and that was concerning to me,” Nagel said. He added he’s had several meetings with party leaders since, and they declined to put him back on the committee. “They don’t accept my priorities or the priorities of my constituents, and that was problematic for me.”

Nagel said he’s been a Republican since he was 18 years old, and his dad before him, since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt “abandoned Poland in 1948,” calling party membership part of his family’s life and legacy. He said he hiked Mount Major in a blizzard, and “in a weird way, God spoke to me and told me this was the right thing to do, and so I chose to do it.

“I thought that I should wait until the next election to make this change, however, with everything that’s been going of late, I could no longer wait,” he said. 

When asked if he consulted his colleagues on the Belknap County Delegation or constituents he represents, Nagel said he’d spoken to as many as 60 people and received varied feedback, including a note of support from another Belknap representative on Wednesday morning. He said he’d not yet made a decision on running for reelection.

“I talked to a lot of people about this, and I’ve gotten a lot of different opinions,” Nagel said Wednesday. “I have talked to the people on our delegation, I never talked to Chairman [Harry] Bean about this. I’ve talked to some other people on it, in fact got a very nice email from one of them earlier today. I don’t personally think many of them are surprised I did this.

“As far as running again, that’s up to my wife,” he said. “I haven’t decided that yet.”

Simpson said she and Nagel may not agree on everything, but they share core values and a common purpose: to serve their communities with integrity.

“I’m really eager to work with him and to have the chance for us to work together in our caucus,” Simpson said Wednesday. “I want to open my remarks by reminding everybody that that is why we’re all here, to serve our constituents and the people of New Hampshire, and not to give in to the party extremism.”