But less than a month removed from the riot, there’s a very troubling trend beginning to develop in states around the country: lots and lots of people are leaving the Republican Party.

Consider these numbers (as flagged by the invaluable and indefatigable Reid Wilson): 
* Almost 10,000 Pennsylvanians left the Republican Party in the first 25 days of January as compared with just over 3,200 Democrats, according to The Hill.
* In Colorado, more than 4,500 Republicans disaffiliated from the party between January 6 and the end of the month, 9NEWS reported
* In the week after the January 6 riot, 2,300 Marylanders left the GOP, according to The Baltimore Sun.
Of course it’s worth noting that if people are going to change their party affiliations, they do tend do so shortly after the election. And that not every state requires voters to register by party, so we are looking at a necessarily limited sample. (Nineteen states have no party registration at all.) And that correlation ≠ causation.

Those caveats aside, it would be insanity for the Republican Party to ignore these registration warning signs. 

The Point: The January riot has quite clearly tarnished the GOP brand in the eyes of at least a decent-sized chunk of those formerly aligned with the party. What remains to be seen is if this trend continues.

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