California lawmaker switches party to join GOP, criticizes Democratic leadership

A moderate California Democratic state lawmaker announced Thursday that she is switching to the Republican Party while criticizing her former party’s leadership and policies.

State Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil of Jackson said she had long been a Democrat, but she and the Democratic Party no longer have the same values since she was elected in 2022.

“In the past two years that I’ve been working in the Senate, I have not recognized the party that I belong to,” Alvarado-Gil said in an announcement on “The Steve Hilton Show,” a YouTube series hosted by a former Fox News host and policy advisor to British ex-Prime Minister David Cameron. “The Democratic Party is not the party that I signed up for decades ago.”

Alvarado-Gil represents a largely rural district northeast of the Central Valley. She said the Democratic Party’s policies are hurting middle class and children in California and pushing the state in a wrong direction.

“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.

She adds: “But this is a decision that is right for the constituents that voted me into office.”

Alvarado-Gil is known for her support of a tough-on-crime approach and fiscally conservative outlook. She also has voted with Republicans on labor legislation.

“It takes courage to stand up to the supermajority in California and Marie has what it takes,” Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones (R-Santee) said in a statement. “Her record on tackling crime, protecting communities from sexually violent predators, and prioritizing her constituents speaks for itself.”

Her switch gives Republicans nine votes in the 40-member Senate, still well under the majority they need to control the chamber. Democrats hold supermajorities in the Assembly and Senate at the Capitol.

Democratic state Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire said her decision “is disappointing for voters” who elected her in 2022.

“They trusted her to represent them, and she’s betrayed that trust,” he said in a statement.

He added: “One silver lining is MAGA Republicans are gaining a pro-choice, pro-LGBTQ+ rights, anti-Trump colleague. We wish her the best of luck.”

Alvarado-Gil, who represents a conservative-leaning district, won her 2022 election against a progressive Democrat by more than five points after the duo beat out six Republican candidates in the primary. Her district has become slightly more Republican since 2022, with Republicans having nearly 39% of registered voters to Democrats’ 34% in 2024.

Alvarado-Gil is up for reelection in 2026.

There have been 273 lawmakers who switched parties during their time in office throughout California history, and it’s even less common for a member of the majority party to switch to another party, said California State Library legislative historian Alex Vassar. The most recent example was when former Assemblymember Dominic Cortese left the Democratic Party in 1995 to become a member of Ross Perot’s Reform Party.

In 2019, San Diego Assemblyman Brian Maienschein left the GOP to become a Democrat and former Republican Assembly leader Chad Mayes left the party to become an independent.

Nguyễn writes for the Associated Press.