California State Senator Marie Alvarado-Gil has switched her party affiliation to Republican.
Alvarado-Gil made the announcement during an interview with “The Issue Is” host Elex Michaelson.
According to the senator, the Democratic Party has become too extreme.
She explained that switching her party was the “right thing to do.”
“I’ve been a Democrat my whole adult life. My first vote as an 18-year-old new voter was as a Democrat,” Alvarado-Gil said. “The Democratic Party of today is not the Democratic Party that I signed up with as a new voter. It has changed. The pendulum has swung so far to the left that it has disengaged from what true Californians value—our middle-class values, our families, our diversity in California. And frankly, I just could not support an ideology over the will of the people.”
When asked what motivated her decision to switch her political affiliation, the senator described California’s crime rates, homelessness, and public education.
“The reality is this: In California, we have seen the pendulum swing so far in the areas of crime, homelessness, and for so long in public education,” the senator explained. “Before coming into office, I was an educator in charter schools, and I selected that path because I knew that we were leaving too many kids behind here in California.”
She added that California has “succumbed to a public education system where it is okay for kids not to read and write by third grade, where we have to actually have statewide goals. We have not made even a dent in public education to say that we can even be in the top 10 in the U.S.”
Discussing the Democrat supermajority in California, Alvarado-Gil said, “You would think with the supermajority, there would be more ideas and more impact and more influence on the decisions that were being made. But the reality is, there is a select few within that supermajority that make those decisions.”
The senator added that she will “stay a Republican” until she is “put in the ground.”
Alvarado-Gil did not indicate whether she will vote for Trump or Harris in the 2024 Presidential Election.
Some remain doubtful of Alvarado-Gil’s political shift.
California State Representative Bill Essayli (R) called Alvarado-Gil an “opportunistic liberal.”
“Make no mistake [Alvarado-Gil] is an opportunistic liberal State Senator who endorsed Kamala Harris and only switched Republican for political purposes. Alvarado-Gil knows she is out of touch with her district and she knows [Police Chief Jeramy Young] will beat her in 2026,” he wrote on X.
“We do not need or want fake Republicans in our Party. We need fighters like [Young], a decorated Police Chief who shares our conservative values to fix California.”
Alvarado-Gil said her statement about the Harris campaign was not an endorsement, but a “CALL TO ACTION for Republicans to unite over the next weeks to protect American values.”
