Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota has become the latest Senate Democrat to announce his support for same-sex marriage, saying his “views have evolved sufficiently to support marriage equality legislation.â€
He continued, in a statement, “This position doesn’t require any religious denomination to alter any of its tenets; it simply forbids government from discrimination regarding who can marry whom.â€
Mr. Johnson’s spokesman, Perry Plumart, declined to provide more background about what led to his boss’s change of heart.
The senator announced last month that he did not plan to run for re-election in 2014. But a movement is afoot to draft his son, Brendan Johnson, to run for the seat.
As a United States attorney in South Dakota, the younger Mr. Johnson has not had cause to express many political views. But his silence appears to have made him the preferred candidate of more liberal Democrats in the state, especially relative to another potential candidate, Stephanie Herseth Sandlin. As a congresswoman, Ms. Herseth Sandlin was a co-chairwoman of Blue Dog Coalition of moderate Democrats until her defeat in 2010.
Mr. Johnson’s announcement leaves three Senate Democrats diverging from their party with their opposition to legalizing same-sex marriage: Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana. The latter two are up for re-election in 2014. Two others â€" Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota â€" officially reversed their positions on Friday.
