A recently elected California state lawmaker has announced she is leaving the Democratic Party to become a Republican.
California State Senator Marie Alvarado-Gil said she no longer identifies with the Democrats.
She argues that the party has moved radically to the Left in recent years.
“In the past two years that I’ve been working in the Senate, I have not recognized the party that I belong to,” she told The Steve Hilton Show.
“The Democratic Party is not the party that I signed up for decades ago.”
She now joins the outgunned Republican opposition in California, which is dominated by liberal Democrats.
“It’s not a very popular decision to leave a supermajority party where perhaps, you know, you have a lot more power and ability,” she said.
“But this is a decision that is right for the constituents that voted me into office.”
Alvarado-Gil represents a rural, Republican-leaning district in the state Senate that covers a swath of Central California, including Modesto and Turlock.
She faced a progressive Democrat in the general election, and won, after advancing from a non-partisan primary crowded with Republican candidates.
During her time in Sacramento, she has become known for an independent streak, especially on crime.
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