A former top California Democrat said she is switching to the Republican Party and voting for former President Donald Trump.
Gloria Romero, who led the Democratic majority in California’s state Senate for three years until 2008, announced her decision Wednesday during a press conference at the California State Capitol.
“Today, I am leaving the Democratic Party,” Romero said. “I stayed for as long as I could. I tried reforms, I spoke out, I voted.”
Thank you Steve
Let’s make California Golden Again! https://t.co/tYfIqOFyWO— GloriaRomero (@GloriaJRomero) September 5, 2024
“Today, I say goodbye, adios, I’ve had enough,” she said. “I am now another near lifelong Democrat who is joining the growing number of people — including key groups, Latinos — who are leaving the Democratic Party.”
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Romero said she has changed her voter registration from Democrat to Republican, saying the Republican Party has become the “champion of working people” under Trump.
“I will vote for Donald Trump this fall,” she said.
Romero cited several issues that drove her to abandon the Democratic Party, including what she called “rigged” primaries.
Democrats “eradicated” 14 million votes to install their “preferred candidate,” Vice President Kamala Harris as presidential nominee, Romero said, comparing the party’s tactics to Latin American dictatorships.
She also cited gender ideology, saying it is “terrifying” that she, as a feminist, “would be condemned for saying that I can define a woman.”
“This is the so-called party of women which has eradicated Title IX protections for sports equity for women,” Romero said, adding that, “while I am pro-choice, I will not support a party that advocates for abortion to full term. I am a mother and refuse to call myself a ‘birthing person.’”
Romero, who is Mexican American, also criticized Democrats on immigration, saying that while she has long embraced pathways to citizenship, she rejects the “mockery of citizenship and the throwing open of our southern border by the ineffective Border Czar and the inept Biden.”
She also cited “rampant inflation” and censorship, saying Democrats have become the party of “locking people up for free speech.”
Romero also criticized Democrats’ lackluster response to the terror group Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, as well as the Biden administration’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“The Republican Party has become the party of peace while the Democrats have marched towards endless war,” she said.
“Perhaps my biggest disconnect with my old Democratic Party has been over school choice, education freedom and the right to have quality schools for all — especially for poor and minority children trapped in chronically failing schools,” she said.
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As chairwoman of the education committee, Romero helped pass a controversial “parent trigger” bill that allowed a majority of parents of a “failing school” to restructure it.
“This is not the Democratic Party that I once championed, I don’t recognize it anymore and I cannot continue,” she said.
Romero was also the California co-chair for the re-election of former President Barack Obama. She was the first woman to serve as state Senate majority leader in California.
She was joined at the Capitol on Wednesday by Republican Congressman Kevin Kiley, Assembly Minority Leader James Gallagher, California Republican Party Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson, and Fox News contributor Steve Hilton, who is weighing a run for governor.
