(Headline USA) A California state senator announced this week that she was leaving the Democratic Party for the GOP because of her party’s failed governance of the Golden State.
Marie Alvarado–Gill won the red-leaning 4th Senate District in 2022 and has been vocally critical of Democrats’ soft-on-crime policies throughout California.
The last straw for her was when her fellow Democrats shut down a series of bills she introduced to prevent the state from downgrading the punishment for certain criminal offenses, including property crimes.
Unilateral Democratic control in Sacramento is “simply not working for this state,” she told Politico.
“The Democratic Party is unrecognizable to what I once knew and lacks the will to fix the problems plaguing this state,” she said. “I cannot stand by a party that ignores the will of the people and disregards the core American values that my very community supports and believes in.”
In a separate interview, Alvarado–Gill told the Sacramento Bee that she is tired of her colleagues expecting her to blindly follow the party agenda.
“I would get asked, ‘How can you side with [tough-on-crime policies]? This is going to put more black and brown people in jail.’ I don’t tend to follow the race train. I’m looking at society as a whole.”
Alvarado–Gill argued Democrats’ refusal to change course has led to a mass exodus of people from California.
“If we don’t hold people accountable for their actions, there is a domino effect,” she said. “Not only in our prisons system, our education system, our economic system, our housing system and whether or not Californians see themselves as part of communities or they are packing their bags and leaving.”
Part of Alvarado–Gill’s calculation is likely also tied to her upcoming reelection race in 2026, which could be difficult to win as a Democrat. Though she flipped the district once, the majority of residents are registered as Republicans.
