2nd Florida State Lawmaker Leaves Democratic Party to Join Republicans

Rep. Hillary Cassel turns into the second Florida lawmaker to take action in latest weeks.

Florida state Rep. Hillary Cassel on Friday turned the second Florida consultant on this legislative session to change events from Democrat to Republican, in keeping with an announcement she made on social media.

In an announcement posted on social media platform X, Cassel mentioned: “I’m saying my determination to alter my social gathering affiliation from Democrat to Republican.

“This determination was not made flippantly however comes from a deep sense of accountability to my constituents and my dedication to the values that information my service. I shall be becoming a member of the Republican Convention of the Florida Home of Representatives as a result of I consider of their imaginative and prescient for a greater, extra affluent Florida. As a mom, I wish to assist construct a world the place our youngsters are judged on their character and their actions, not on their labels.”

Cassel, partially, cited what she described because the Democratic Occasion’s “failure to unequivocally assist Israel and its willingness to tolerate excessive progressive voices that justify or condone acts of terrorism” within the Israel–Hamas battle, additionally noting that she is a “proud Jewish girl.”

“I’m continuously troubled by the shortcoming of the present Democratic Occasion to narrate to on a regular basis Floridians,” she mentioned. “I can not stay in a celebration that doesn’t symbolize my values.”

Cassel, who took workplace in November 2022, represents Florida’s one hundred and first district within the state Legislature. The district in Florida’s Broward County encompasses elements of Fort Lauderdale, Dania Seaside, and elements of Hollywood.

In response, Florida Home Speaker Daniel Perez, a Republican, mentioned he’s “proud to share” that Cassel has joined the Home Republican Convention.

“Welcome to the group,” he wrote on X.

A number of weeks in the past, Florida state Democratic Rep. Susan Valdes introduced she would swap to being a Republican.

“I like my group, and I’ll proceed to struggle day-after-day to profit the folks of West Tampa, Hillsborough County, and the state of Florida,” she mentioned in a Dec. 9 assertion. “And in my coronary heart, I do know one of the best ways to do this is to face with Speaker Perez and be a part of the Republican supermajority within the Florida Home of Representatives.”

Perez additionally re-posted Valdes’s assertion on X and welcomed her into the Home. On the time, Home Democratic Chief Fentrice Driskell mentioned she was stunned and upset by Valdes’s announcement.

Valdes and Cassel’s swap to the Republican Occasion will increase the GOP’s supermajority within the state Home of Representatives. Republicans have managed the governor’s workplace and each branches of the Legislature since 1999.

Home Democratic Chief Fentrice Driskell has not but commented on Cassel’s swap to the GOP, however she lamented Valdes’s determination in an announcement to information retailers earlier this month.

She claimed on the time that Valdes had “elevated her personal aspirations above the wants of her district” and was “elected by her constituents as a Democrat to struggle for our shared values right here in Tallahassee and has persistently and publicly shared that she feels the Republican Occasion doesn’t adequately symbolize her constituents or her beliefs.”

The Epoch Instances contacted Driskell’s workplace for remark however acquired no reply by publication time.

The Related Press contributed to this report.