Texas House Democrat Switches to GOP: 'Many of Us Are Waking Up'

Texas State Rep. Ryan Guillen, a longtime Democrat, is switching over to the Republican Party, announcing that “many of us are waking up to the fact that the values of those in Washington, DC, are not our values, not the values of most Texans.”

Flanked by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and House Speaker Dade Phelan (R), Gullien made the announcement on Monday.

“Friends, something is happening in South Texas, and many of us are waking up to the fact that the values of those in Washington, D.C., are not our values, not the values of most Texans,” Guillen said.

“The ideology of defunding the police, of destroying the oil and gas industry and the chaos at our border is disastrous for those of us who live here in South Texas,” he continued.

While Guillen ran as a Democrat throughout the bulk of his political career, the Republican Party of Texas noted that he has spent his nearly two decades in the Texas Legislature as a “pro-Life advocate, including votes for the 2021 Heartbeat Law, the 2013 20-week abortion ban, and the 2011 sonogram law.” He had also been rated the “least liberal Democrat in the House,” as the Texas Tribune noted.

Per the Republican Party of Texas:

He also has a strong record of Second Amendment support, joint-authoring the landmark 2021 Constitutional Carry law. Rep. Guillen’s choice to join the GOP follows six weeks of discussion with RPT Chairman Matt Rinaldi, who served with Guillen in the Texas House from 2015 to 2019.

Chairman Matt Rinaldi added that he is “proud to welcome” Guillen to the Republican Party.

“I am confident Republicans in Austin and his constituents in the Rio Grande Valley will welcome him with open arms,” he said:

Following this month’s Republican victories in Virginia and in Texas HD118, this is yet another example of how the increasing extremism of the Democratic Party has alienated Texans who care about smaller government, strong families, safe communities and the protection of the unborn. Those people have a home in our party.

Republican State Leadership Committee’s Dee Duncan directly pointed to Republican John Lujan’s upset victory in the House District 118, a border district, this month “in a district with a majority Hispanic population.” That, he said, “already proved that Texans are fed up with the failures of Democratic leadership and Ryan Guillen’s party switch makes that fact all the more clear”:

Today’s Democrat leaders are so focused on appeasing their fringe-left base by putting teachers’ unions ahead of parents, pushing socialist tax and spending schemes, and fighting for open border policies, that even elected officials in their own party cannot support their radical agenda anymore. We welcome Representative Guillen to the Republican Party with open arms and look forward to working with him as he partners with the Republican majority to deliver solutions for the people of his district.