Fmr. LA sheriff ditches ‘utterly incompetent if not corrupt’ Democrat Party after 44 years

The end of a “44-year journey” for a former California official meant a departure from the “party of paid protests, purple hair, and pronouns,” in favor of “faith, family, and freedom.”

(Video Credit: Fox News)

Beyond the obvious partisan differences, Trump Derangement Syndrome and the advancement of draconian policies had been just part of the widening divide advanced by the Democratic Party. Now, more than two years after losing re-election amid coordinated opposition from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, former Sheriff Alex Villanueva announced he is a Republican.

Following his party departure, the former law enforcement official appeared with Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Tuesday’s installment of “The Ingraham Angle” where he said, “I’ll tell ya’ this — a 44-year journey and as [President Ronald] Reagan said way back in the day, I didn’t leave the party, the party left me. And not just me. The party has abandoned the entire state of California — every single person in it.”

“You look at the policies, everything they’ve proposed and implemented with a supermajority has been an utter disaster: be it crime, be it immigration, be it homelessness, be it taxation, regulatory — they have nothing that they can say, ‘Hey, we did that and it worked,’” he continued. “So, it’s time to leave them behind. It’s time to join the future.”

Earlier this year, as wildfires raged across the L.A. area, Villanueva pointed to the record of failures by leadership that had left the community “3,000 sworn officers in the hole” as just part of the inability to properly respond to the threat.

Tuesday, he went on to suggest that the fires would prove a tipping point for Californians after 30 people died, with “no effort to prevent the fires, there was no effort to evacuate residents in time, and these things were preventable.”

The people in charge are “utterly incompetent if not corrupt,” he told Ingraham.

Known for opposing the draconian policies implemented by the Board of Supervisors during the response to COVID, Villanueva had also slammed the officials for what he called an “illegal motion” when they’d voted to grant themselves authority to remove the duly-elected sitting sheriff “for cause” with a four-fifths vote. As it happened, the entire board had also endorsed the sheriff’s opponent in the election that year, then-Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna, who went on to become LASD Sheriff in 2022.

In his Saturday announcement shared on X, Villanueva said, “As of today, I’m leaving the party of paid protests, purple hair, and pronouns, and joining the party of faith, family, and freedom — the Republican Party,” and captioned the video in part, “Time to make #California purple again!”

The California Republican Party had welcomed the former sheriff and shared his announcement, stating, “Chairwoman @corrinrankin and the entire @CAGOP welcome you to the Republican Party, @AlexVilanueva33! Californians are realizing that the @CA_Dem left them and sanity behind. You’re not alone. Choosing law and order, freedom, and common sense is the right move!”

Chairwoman @corrinrankin and the entire @CAGOP welcome you to the Republican Party, @AlexVilanueva33!
Californians are realizing that the @CA_Dem left them and sanity behind.
You’re not alone. Choosing law and order, freedom, and common sense is the right move! https://t.co/ZqqZ1ab8Ts

— California Republican Party (@CAGOP) May 4, 2025

Staff Writer

Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn’t researching current events and their impacts, you’ll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.

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