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Susan Valdes

A Florida State Representative has become the latest disaffected Democrat to join the Republican Party.

Susan Valdes, a Cuban-American who recently won re-election in her constituency in West Tampa, wrote in a post on the X platform that she felt ignored by the Democratic caucus and that only by joining the Republican Party could she get her ideas across.

She explained:

I have spent my adult life fighting to give a voice to the people of my West Tampa home. I have done so as a Democrat partly out of habit – I come from a family of Democrats – and partly because I believed the Democrats were the party most concerned with the working families I represent.

In the House, I have long known that no one has a monopoly on good ideas. I will not waste my final two years in the Florida Legislature being ignored in a caucus whose leadership expects me to ignore the needs of my community.

Effective immediately, I will change my registration from a Democrat to Republican and will join the Republican Conference in the Florida House of Representatives. Our Speaker, Rep. Daniel Perez, has laid out a vision for the House that focuses on empowering House members to work on real problems facing our communities.

That’s what I want to be a part of. I want to roll up my sleeves and work. I want to be a part of solving problems for West Tampa. I’m tired of being the party of protesting when I got into politics to be part of the party of progress. I know that I won’t agree with my fellow Republican House members on every issue, but I know that in their caucus, I will be welcomed and treated with respect.

I love my community, and I will continue to fight every day to benefit the people of West Tampa, Hillsborough County, and the state of Florida. And in my heart, I know the best way to do that is to stand with Speaker Perez and join the Republican supermajority in the Florida House of Representatives.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, Valdes’s defection is all the more surprising given that she recently ran for a position within the local party:

Democrats have trouble at times keeping their members from voting with the Republican majority in Tallahassee. Because Republican leaders control the budget, there’s a strong incentive for individual members to toe the Republican line to bring money back to their districts.

But there was little indication Valdés was contemplating such a move until Monday. She ran to be the Hillsborough County Democratic Executive Committee chairperson earlier this month. She attended a Kamala Harris debate watch party in September at a meeting of Hillsborough County Democrats, and she’s posted numerous times to X about the dangers of Donald Trump’s policy platform — particularly when it comes to immigration.

As well as holding the governorship and both Senate seats, Valdes’s switch expands the GOP supermajority that already exists across both legislative chambers.

Her defections means that Republicans now 86 of the 120 avaliable seats within the Florida House of Representatives. They hold 28 out of the 40 avaliable seats in the State Senate, which also surpasses the supermajority threshold.