Footnotes From the Texas Primary  | Election 2008 | Advocate.com

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Footnotes From the Texas Primary
One gay voter's change of heart leads him to a change of party.
An Advocate.com exclusive posted March 7, 2008
Footnotes From the Texas Primary

To Houston voters, Noel Freeman was just one of hundreds of volunteers who flooded the streets of Harris County, Texas, to turn people out for Sen. Barack Obama on Tuesday night. 

“It’s been a whirlwind tour here this week,” said Freeman, who also served as an official for the caucus.

What people likely didn’t realize is that Freeman also wears another hat -- president of the Log Cabin Republicans chapter in Houston. 

Freeman had told LCR national that he would be stepping down from his position following the Texas primary. “I’m working on my letter of resignation, and I’m going to submit it to national within the next couple of days,” he said Thursday afternoon.

Freeman represents a much-talked-about class of crossover and independent voters that are attracted to Obama. A recent Pew poll found that Obama edges out McCain among independents by 49% to 43% in a general election match-up -- a figure that does not account for Republicans who might also vote for the Illinois senator. The Clinton camp argues that GOP voters will back away from Obama once they are more familiar with his voting record and progressive stances on issues such as gun control.

As president of LCR since the August of 2006, Freeman had been struggling with the idea of changing parties.

“I’ve thought long and hard about becoming a Democrat,” Freeman said, “I believe that of all the candidates out there, Barack Obama is the one candidate who is most sincerely interested in healing some of the partisan damage that has been caused to our nation over the past 12 to 16 years.”

And if Clinton is the nominee? “I haven’t decided (what I will do), but I won’t vote for Hillary Clinton,” said Freeman, adding that he doesn’t believe Clinton is interested in bridging partisan divides.

Freeman’s unique military history also factored into his decision. He spent four years on active duty as an intel analyst in the Air Force and was a ROTC cadet at Texas A&M University before being discharged in 2000 under “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

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Kerry Eleveld contributed reporting to this article.

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