A Florida State Consultant has grow to be the newest disaffected Democrat to hitch the Republican Get together.
Susan Valdes, a Cuban-American who lately received re-election in her constituency in West Tampa, wrote in a put up on the X platform that she felt ignored by the Democratic caucus and that solely by becoming a member of the Republican Get together might she get her concepts throughout.
She defined:
I’ve spent my grownup life preventing to provide a voice to the folks of my West Tampa residence. I’ve accomplished in order a Democrat partly out of behavior – I come from a household of Democrats – and partly as a result of I believed the Democrats had been the social gathering most involved with the working households I signify.
Within the Home, I’ve lengthy recognized that nobody has a monopoly on good concepts. I cannot waste my remaining two years within the Florida Legislature being ignored in a caucus whose management expects me to disregard the wants of my group.
Efficient instantly, I’ll change my registration from a Democrat to Republican and can be part of the Republican Convention within the Florida Home of Representatives. Our Speaker, Rep. Daniel Perez, has laid out a imaginative and prescient for the Home that focuses on empowering Home members to work on actual issues dealing with our communities.
That’s what I need to be part of. I need to roll up my sleeves and work. I need to be part of fixing issues for West Tampa. I’m uninterested in being the social gathering of protesting once I acquired into politics to be a part of the social gathering of progress. I do know that I received’t agree with my fellow Republican Home members on each subject, however I do know that of their caucus, I shall be welcomed and handled with respect.
I like my group, and I’ll proceed to combat day-after-day to learn the folks of West Tampa, Hillsborough County, and the state of Florida. And in my coronary heart, I do know one of the simplest ways to try this is to face with Speaker Perez and be part of the Republican supermajority within the Florida Home of Representatives.
See assertion beneath… pic.twitter.com/JUVhsziSL7
— Susan L. Valdés (@SusanLValdesFL) December 9, 2024
In keeping with the Tampa Bay Times, Valdes’s defection is all of the extra shocking provided that she lately ran for a place throughout the native social gathering:
Democrats have hassle at instances preserving their members from voting with the Republican majority in Tallahassee. As a result of Republican leaders management the price range, there’s a powerful incentive for particular person members to toe the Republican line to convey a reimbursement to their districts.
However there was little indication Valdés was considering such a transfer till Monday. She ran to be the Hillsborough County Democratic Govt Committee chairperson earlier this month. She attended a Kamala Harris debate watch social gathering in September at a gathering of Hillsborough County Democrats, and she or he’s posted quite a few instances to X in regards to the risks of Donald Trump’s coverage platform — significantly in terms of immigration.
In addition to holding the governorship and each Senate seats, Valdes’s swap expands the GOP supermajority that already exists throughout each legislative chambers.
Her defections signifies that Republicans now 86 of the 120 avaliable seats throughout the Florida Home of Representatives. They maintain 28 out of the 40 avaliable seats within the State Senate, which additionally surpasses the supermajority threshold.
