On Wednesday, former California Democratic Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero followed the recent example of Sen. Maria Alvarado-Gil and changed her party affiliation to Republican.
In a press conference hosted by conservative pundit, and rumored gubernatorial candidate, Steve Hilton, Romero on Wednesday fully embraced party leader Donald Trump, as well as anti-vaxxer and former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom she called a “personal hero” and whom she claimed Democratic establishment elites kept from seeking the party nomination.
“Today I say goodbye, adios, I’ve had enough,” Romero said in prepared remarks.
She wasn’t kidding.
The newly minted Republican hit all the popular GOP talking points as she detailed why she left the state’s ruling party: Crime, gender identity, COVID-19 lockdowns, gas stoves, school choice — the latter of which she cited as a moment she began to see the “writing on the wall” in 2009 and 2010.
Romero, who was a California delegate for Rev. Jesse Jackson and Barack Obama and who listed Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy as household heroes, told assembled media that “this is not the Democratic Party that I once championed. I do not recognize it anymore and I cannot continue.”
Romero said she will vote for Trump in November and that she would happily work for his campaign if asked.
That might not sit well with voters in the Golden State, where the Republican nominee remains unpopular.
In the latest Public Policy Institute of California survey, which came out before President Joe Biden stepped aside so Vice President Kamala Harris could be the party nominee, just 30% of likely voters supported Trump.
Romero’s alignment with the GOP didn’t happen out of the blue.
In 2021, she prominently endorsed conservative talk show host Larry Elder’s campaign to replace California Gov. Gavin Newsom in the failed recall election.
Romero served as California state senator from 2001 to 2010, and she spent three of those years (2005 to 2008) as the Senate majority leader. She was the first woman ever to hold that position.
HUNTINGTON BEACH CITY COUNCIL WADES INTO ‘PARENTS RIGHTS’ DEBATE
In the latest salvo in the battle between the City of Huntington Beach and the State of California, the Huntington Beach City Council this week voted 4-3 to officially declare the city a “Parents’ Right To Know City.”
The ordinance seeks to ban school employees from withholding information about students’ gender identity or sexual orientation from their parents, and also empowers the city to sue the state to block AB 1955, the newly passed state law which prohibits school districts from disclosing a child’s gender identity against their will.
It’s unclear what authority the city government has to set policy for school district employees; according to the Orange County Tribune, there are three school districts in the city, each with their own governing board.
The decision will likely lead to further legal entanglements between Huntington Beach and the state. It was hailed by the Liberty Justice Center, which has been representing various California school districts in their legal challenge of AB 1955, which said in a statement, “We are encouraged by the leadership of Huntington Beach City Council in enacting an ordinance that declares Huntington Beach a ‘Parents’ Right to Know City.’”
