List of former liberals

This list of former liberals includes notable individuals who have left behind their liberal and/or progressive beliefs, even if they did not become full-on conservatives.

Deceased

• Saul Bellow, a former liberal, now typically identified with neoconservativism
• Ray Bradbury, author
• Sandra Cano, pseudonymous plaintiff in Doe v. Bolton
• Peter Collier, cofounder of Center for the Study of Popular Culture & co-organizer of the Second Thoughts conferences for former liberals who have become conservatives.
• Anthony Flew, former atheist and anti-theist who later supported the teaching of intelligent design in schools.
• John T. Flynn, socialist who turned against the New Deal
• Milton Friedman, an active supporter of the New Deal who turned libertarian in the late 1940s
• William Randolph Hearst, powerful publisher in the 1900–1940 era
• Sidney Hook, philosopher
• David Horowitz, author & cofounder of Center for the Study of Popular Culture
• Willmoore Kendall, political scientist
• Joseph Lieberman, became independent after losing the Democratic renomination to his U.S. Senate seat in 2006; strong supporter in 2008 of John McCain.
• Seymour Martin Lipset, leading sociologist and political scientist
• Norma McCorvey, plaintiff in Roe v. Wade
• Zell Miller
• Raymond Moley, was a "Brains trust" top adviser to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933
• Bernard Nathanson
• George Orwell
• Ronald Reagan, a leading liberal of the 1940s; turned right about 1960
• Alfred Sherman
• Ron Silver
• Al Smith, Democratic nominee for president in 1928
• Burton K. Wheeler

Living

• Stephen Baldwin, the only actor in the family known to be conservative.
• Steve Beren, Tea Party activist
• Tammy Bruce, former head of the L.A. chapter of N.O.W., currently a State Department spokesman in the second Trump Administration
• Kirk Cameron, actor and former child star. Used to be an atheist, now runs the "Way of the Master" ministry.
• Nick Cohen, British journalist and political commentator
• Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Irving Kristol, founder of neoconservativism
• Michael Medved, film critic
• Dennis Miller, comedian
• Lisa Miller, former lesbian, now a born-again Christian, who has been ordered by the state to hand over custody of her biological daughter Isabella to her former partner
• Melanie Phillips
• Norman Podhoretz, neoconservative writer
• Dennis Prager, founder of PragerU
• Evan Sayet
• Michael Savage, commentator
• Laura Schlessinger, commentator
• Stephen Schwartz
• David Stockman, Reagan's budget director
• Ivanka Trump, a former liberal Democrat; became more strongly conservative and officially switched to Republican following her father Donald Trump's election to US President in 2016.
• Jon Voight, actor
• James Woods, actor
• David Zucker, director and co-writer of An American Carol, a conservative film mocking popular leftist figures like Michael Moore.