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 University of California, Los Angeles after Oct. 7 cemented her belief that the Democratic Party abandoned Jewish voters.

“When I saw what had happened on Oct. 7, first of all, I was just horrified,” Romero told JNS. “They could be my daughters, my sisters being raped and assaulted and murdered.”

“I still consider myself to be a feminist, and I thought, ‘My God. Where are the women of the West,” she said. “Stand up. These are women. They’re girls. They are being raped.”

The Republican nominee for California lieutenant governor, Romero is running to replace Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, whose term ends this year. Romero wrote “fight antisemitism on our campuses” as one of her policy priorities in her official candidate statement, which she filed with California’s statewide voter guide.

The California Secretary of State released the statement on Tuesday for public examination before the voter guide is finalized.

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.

“I happened to turn on the news, and I saw this at UCLA, which is a publicly funded university,” she told JNS. “I studied in those libraries. I walked across those quads that were on television, and my life was never threatened.”

Romero told Hilton, “Steve, this is outrageous. Where is the governor? Where is the lieutenant governor? Where are the regents? Where’s the chancellor?” she told JNS.

California leaders remained silent while Jewish students were intimidated, according to Romero. “It’s Jew-hate,” she told JNS. “That’s really what it is, and I have no qualms about calling it Jew-hate. But there was just silence from the elected officials.”

The lieutenant governor serves on the University of California Board of Regents, which is why Romero is making the issue central to her campaign.

“When I am elected, this can never happen again. Never again. Never forget,” she told JNS. “There was an absence of leadership.”

Romero’s Catholic upbringing and faith helped shape her politics. Raised in what she described as a “very religious” household, she attends Our Lady of Guadalupe in East Los Angeles and regularly reads from Jewish and Christian scripture, from beginning to end.

“In the Old Testament, there are so many passages about what we call today’s sanctuary cities,” she said. “Cities 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.”

“I thought, OK California. If you want a sanctuary city, fine,” she told JNS. “But if there’s evidence that this person has a DUI or they killed, they raped, they murdered, they strangled, then I don’t necessarily want to stone them to death, but it should be enough to say, ‘You can’t harbor them here.'”

There is a “strong bond” of faith between Mexican Americans and Jewish Americans, according to Romero. “I think it would be fun to get together and read passages from Exodus or Genesis,” she said. “To share and say, ‘This is how we read the Bible.'”

‘The party left me’

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.

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 “taking over the Democrat Party,” Romero told JNS. “I really do believe there’s no coming back for the Democrats.”

“They have imploded, and Democrats stood by and didn’t stop it. They created a monster that’s devoured them,” she said. “I walked away from the Democrat Party.”

“As we say, the party left me,” she added.

Republicans have welcomed Romero despite occasional skepticism over her Democratic past. “It’s been overwhelmingly positive,” she told JNS. The party endorsed her over other GOP candidates, she said.

When she met U.S. President Donald Trump after speaking at one of his campaign rallies, the president told her, “Welcome to the Republican Party,” she told JNS.

JNS asked what Romero would tell California Jews, who have traditionally voted Democrat. She urged them to try something new.

“The Democrat Party has abandoned you, has abandoned your heritage, your lives, your children, your daughters,” she said. “Walk away. It’s not going to change. It’s going to be worse.”

In the primary, Romero earned approximately 1.5 million votes. Her Democratic opponent, California state treasurer Fiona Ma, earned just over 1.6 million.

“This is a change election,” she told JNS. “Turnout is key.”

Elizabeth Barcohana, chair of Jewish engagement for the California Republican Party, endorsed Hilton and Romero on Tuesday.

Barcohana told JNS that Romero’s political journey mirrors conversations she is hearing from many Jewish voters. “Gloria Romero represents a huge swath of historically Democrat voters, who woke up one day and realized they don’t recognize their party,” she told JNS.

“This 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,” she said. “Romero offers them an example of where to go from there, and that is to the Republican Party.”