I'm just curious if anyone has either had a drastic change of heart after taking office or if anyone has ever pulled a bait and switch? I have a hard time imagining the latter has happened, but maybe? And IF this has happened, what were the repercussions?
It's certainly happened (Jim Jeffords, Arlen Specter), but in both cases, it was a moderate Senator switching parties. Jeffords choosing to caucus with the Democrats gave them control of the Senate while Specter switching parties gave the Dems a 60-vote supermajority.
Here are a couple incomplete lists of party switchers:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Senators_who_changed_parties
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Representatives_who_switched_parties
Maybe the most interesting/dramatic party switcher was President John Tyler, who didn't so much change parties as he was kicked out of the Whig Party for vetoing bills from the Whig-controlled Congress. The result was a Democratic landslide that ended the only complete control of government that the Whigs ever had. The Whigs had terrible, terrible luck.
i've been mulling over how to ask a question about Tyler and Johnson attempting to create a new 2 party system while in office but haven't really been able to get the wording down. Those those 2 especially tyler might possibly count (and he was essentially kicked out of the party Whig party) though neither really switched parties though they might count as bait and switches under a broad definition.