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Longtime Democrat switches to the GOP because of a glaring reason

Story by Sarah Ewall-Wice, Senior U.S. Political Reporter For Dailymail.com In Washington, DC

 

A Florida state lawmaker who ran and won reelection as a Democrat in her Tampa district announced she is ditching the party and will move forward as a Republican barely a month after Election Day.

Representative Susan Valdes announced her party switch to the GOP in a statement posted on X on Monday where she said she would not waste her final two years in the Florida legislature 'being ignored.'

Republicans in Florida control both chambers in the state legislature and hold the governor's office.

Valdes' party switch came just over a month after she won reelection as a Democrat to represent Florida's State House District 64 as a Democrat.

The final vote in the November election had her beating her Republican challenger by just under 5 points or less than 3,000.

In her statement, Valdes said she was a Democrat 'partly out of habit' and partly because she believed Democrats were the party most concerned with working families. 

But then she argued 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,' she stated.

State Rep. Susan Valdes announced just over one month after winning reelection as a Democrat that she would be switching her party registration to Republican and joining the state's GOP House supermajority

Valdes argued by joining the GOP caucus she will be able to work on the problems facing her community. 

'I want to roll up my sleeves and work,' she said. 'I want to be 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.' 

Valdes said she would continue to fight for the people of West Tampa, but she argued the 'best way to do that is to stand with Speaker Perez and join the Republican supermajority.'

The Florida lawmaker first entered the state House after running unopposed as a Democrat in 2018. She then won reelection on the Democratic ticket in 2020, 2022 and 2024.

But earlier this month she ran to chair the Hillsborough County Democratic Party and lost. Just days later she announced her party switch.

Republicans celebrated Valdes' party change including the GOP House Speaker Daniel Perez who said in a post that he was 'thrilled' to welcome her to the GOP supermajority.

Governor Ron DeSantis noted her party affiliation change gave the Republicans its biggest majority in the history of the state House. 

But others online slammed the move as deceitful, questioned why she waited until after the election and called for her to return donations.

Florida State Rep. Valdes speaking in a post she shared on X

Vanessa Lester, who won the race for Hillsborough County Democratic Party chair blasted the move in a statement.

'While it remains disturbingly unclear whether she was entertaining the switch to become a Republican even as she was running to lead the local Party, ultimately it is her constituents in District 64 who have the most reason to be upset and betrayed,' Lester said.

'They voted for a Democrat to fight for them and ended up with a political opportunist who abandoned them,' she continued. 

In the November election, Valdes received more than 31,500 votes to secure her victory.

Florida state Rep. Valdes posing with her family outside the White House in a December 2023 post where she thanked President Biden for the 'unforgettable experience' and his leadership

In August, she joined fellow Democrats in Chicago for the Democratic National Convention where she wore a shirt in support of Kamala Harris for president and posted photos from the United Center featuring prominent Democrats.

She also retweeted a series of posts celebrating President Biden, touting her support of Harris and other Democrats and slammed President-elect Donald Trump leading up to Election Day. 

Her switch to the Republican party gives the Florida GOP 85 seats in the state House out of 120. 

While Valdes eked out a victory in her district as a Democrat, Trump won Hillsborough County as a whole and the state. 

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