Senate Minority Leader Jones welcomes former Senate Democrat Majority Leader to the Republican Party

SACRAMENTO – On Sept. 4, Senate Minority Leader Brian W. Jones (R-San Diego) issued the following statement welcoming former California State Senate Democratic Majority Leader Gloria Romero to the Republican Party after she announced she is changing her voter registration:

“As former Senate Democrat Majority Leader, Gloria Romero’s decision to join the Republican Party shows her dedication to doing what’s best for California,” said Jones. “For years, Gloria urged her now former Party to ‘wake up’ and start standing up for everyday families again. Her leadership and experience have always been about serving the people, not partisan politics. It takes real courage to step away from the Party you've led and stand for what is right. We are honored to have Gloria on our side as we fight to fix California.”

“The pendulum is swinging in California. Sky-high prices, increasing crime, and record homelessness are the direct results of a broken government under the Democrat supermajority. Californians are increasingly rejecting these radical policies that have failed to deliver the solutions we desperately need. For anyone else who is tired of witnessing the Democrat supermajority run this state into the ground, we have a seat at our table for you, too,” continued Jones.

From 2005 through 2008, Romero was the first woman to ever serve as the California State Senate Democratic Majority Leader. Despite her strong ties to the Democratic Party, Romero began rejecting the direction of the Party and advocating for a more commonsense approach to the many issues in California.

In a 2021 memo, Romero urged the Democratic Party to “wake up, reverse course, and get back to standing up for ‘the little guy’ and everyday families once again.” After watching the Party continue to run further left and fail to offer real solutions to fix California, Romero announced she is switching her voter registration to Republican.

“I am now another near life-long Democrat who is joining the growing number of people, including key groups like Latinos, who are leaving the Democratic Party,” said Romero in front of the State Capitol this morning. “This is not the Democratic Party that I once championed. I do not recognize it anymore and I cannot continue. I changed my voting registration…to Republican, which has…become the champion of working people.”

Romero’s Party switch comes less than a month after current State Senator Marie Alvarado-Gil (R-Jackson) switched from Democrat to Republican. Much like Romero, Alvarado-Gil explained that the “Democratic Party is unrecognizable to what [she] once knew and lacks the will to fix the problems plaguing this state.”