(July 22, 2026 \/ JNS)\n <\/p>\n
Gloria Romero, a former California state Senate majority leader who spent decades as a Democrat before joining the Republican Party in 2024, told JNS that the explosion of Jew-hatred at the University of California, Los Angeles after Oct. 7 cemented her belief that the Democratic Party abandoned Jewish voters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I saw what had happened on Oct. 7, first of all, I was just horrified,\u201d Romero told JNS. \u201cThey could be my daughters, my sisters being raped and assaulted and murdered.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI still consider myself to be a feminist, and I thought, \u2018My God. Where are the women of the West,\u201d she said. \u201cStand up. These are women. They\u2019re girls. They are being raped.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Republican nominee for California lieutenant governor, Romero is running to replace Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, whose term ends this year. Romero wrote \u201cfight antisemitism on our campuses\u201d as one of her policy priorities in her official candidate statement, which she filed with California\u2019s statewide voter guide.<\/p>\n
The California Secretary of State released the statement on Tuesday for public examination before the voter guide is finalized.<\/p>\n
Romero spoke to JNS ahead of a joint Wednesday press conference with Republican gubernatorial nominee Steve Hilton in Los Angeles. Watching the anti-Israel encampment unfold at UCLA shocked her even more, because she completed two postdoctoral fellowships on the campus.<\/p>\n
\u201cI happened to turn on the news, and I saw this at UCLA, which is a publicly funded university,\u201d she told JNS. \u201cI studied in those libraries. I walked across those quads that were on television, and my life was never threatened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Romero told Hilton, \u201cSteve, this is outrageous. Where is the governor? Where is the lieutenant governor? Where are the regents? Where\u2019s the chancellor?\u201d she told JNS.<\/p>\n
California leaders remained silent while Jewish students were intimidated, according to Romero. \u201cIt\u2019s Jew-hate,\u201d she told JNS. \u201cThat\u2019s really what it is, and I have no qualms about calling it Jew-hate. But there was just silence from the elected officials.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lieutenant governor serves on the University of California Board of Regents, which is why Romero is making the issue central to her campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I am elected, this can never happen again. Never again. Never forget,\u201d she told JNS. \u201cThere was an absence of leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n
Romero\u2019s Catholic upbringing and faith helped shape her politics. Raised in what she described as a \u201cvery religious\u201d household, she attends Our Lady of Guadalupe in East Los Angeles and regularly reads from Jewish and Christian scripture, from beginning to end.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the Old Testament, there are so many passages about what we call today\u2019s sanctuary cities,\u201d she said. \u201cCities of refuge. You can go there for safety, but then you have to prove your case, and if you fail, then the people stone you to death.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought, OK, California. If you want a sanctuary city, fine,\u201d she told JNS. \u201cBut if there\u2019s evidence that this person has a DUI or they killed, they raped, they murdered, they strangled, then I don\u2019t necessarily want to stone them to death, but it should be enough to say, \u2018You can\u2019t harbor them here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
There is a \u201cstrong bond\u201d of faith between Mexican Americans and Jewish Americans, according to Romero. \u201cI think it would be fun to get together and read passages from Exodus or Genesis,\u201d she said. \u201cTo share and say, \u2018This is how we read the Bible.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018The party left me\u2019<\/p>\n
Romero was elected to the California state Assembly in 1998, served as a state senator from 2001 to 2010 and was the Democratic majority leader of the state Senate from 2005 to 2008. She told JNS that her values remain the same.<\/p>\n
As a Democrat, she was part of two delegations to Israel, spent years criticizing teachers unions and supporting school choice and even endorsed Republican candidates. Now, the Democratic Socialists of America is \u201ctaking over the Democrat Party,\u201d Romero told JNS. \u201cI really do believe there\u2019s no coming back for the Democrats.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have imploded, and Democrats stood by and didn\u2019t stop it. They created a monster that\u2019s devoured them,\u201d she said. \u201cI walked away from the Democrat Party.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we say, the party left me,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Republicans have welcomed Romero despite occasional skepticism over her Democratic past. \u201cIt\u2019s been overwhelmingly positive,\u201d she told JNS. The party endorsed her over other GOP candidates, she said.<\/p>\n
When she met U.S. President Donald Trump after speaking at one of his campaign rallies, the president told her, \u201cWelcome to the Republican Party,\u201d she told JNS.<\/p>\n
JNS asked what Romero would tell California Jews, who have traditionally voted Democrat. She urged them to try something new. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Democrat Party has abandoned you, has abandoned your heritage, your lives, your children, your daughters,\u201d she said. \u201cWalk away. It\u2019s not going to change. It\u2019s going to be worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the primary, Romero earned approximately 1.5 million votes. Her Democratic opponent, California state treasurer Fiona Ma, earned just over 1.6 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a change election,\u201d she told JNS. \u201cTurnout is key.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elizabeth Barcohana, chair of Jewish engagement for the California Republican Party, endorsed Hilton and Romero on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Barcohana told JNS that Romero\u2019s political journey mirrors conversations she is hearing from many Jewish voters. \u201cGloria Romero represents a huge swath of historically Democrat voters, who woke up one day and realized they don\u2019t recognize their party,\u201d she told JNS.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis experience is particularly relatable to Jewish voters, who historically voted Democrat and now find themselves in the crosshairs of open hostility to Jews and Israel,\u201d she said. \u201cRomero offers them an example of where to go from there, and that is to the Republican Party.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(July 22, 2026 \/ JNS) Gloria Romero, a former California state Senate majority leader who spent decades as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-409112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}