West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said at a Thursday campaign rally for President Donald Trump he had become disillusioned with the Democratic Party and was planning to join the GOP.
"I can't help you anymore being a Democratic governor," Justice said at the rally in Huntington, West Virginia.
Justice, a billionaire who made his fortune from the coal industry, became governor in November.
Justice's announcement makes him the 34th Republican governor in the country, NPR reported, "tying a record set nearly a century ago in 1922."
Democrats "can continue their obsession with the Russian hoax or they can serve the interests of the American people," Trump said after Justice's announcement. "Try winning at the voting booth."