Florida lawmaker abruptly switches to GOP shortly after winning election as Democrat
SalonFlorida state Rep. Susan Valdes switched her party registration from Democrat to Republican on Monday, bolstering the GOP’s largest-ever majority in the House, The Tampa Bay Times reported. “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.” A former Hillsborough County School Board member, Valdes first ran for House as a Democrat in 2018 and was elected to represent District 64, outside of Tampa. I have done so as a Democrat partly out of habit- and partly because I believed Democrats were the party most concerned with the families I represent,” Valdes wrote in the statement. Valdes was elected by her constituents as a Democrat to fight for our shared values here in Tallahassee and has consistently and publicly shared that she feels the Republican Party does not adequately represent her constituents or her beliefs,” House Democratic leader Fentrice Driksell wrote in a statement on X.
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Florida lawmaker's party switch increases Republican supermajority in the House
The Independent
'Egregious': Dem leader slams lawmaker who immediately defected to GOP after reelection
Raw Story
Democratic lawmaker immediately defects to GOP after winning re-election
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