Elected four times to the state House as a Democrat, Tampa lawmaker Susan Valdes on Monday added to Republicans’ supermajority.
Valdes announced she had become a Republican, saying she expected to be “welcomed and treated with respect” by her new party. The move, which drew a rebuke from House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, came a week after Valdes lost a bid to become chairwoman of the Hillsborough County Democratic Executive Committee.
In a statement posted on X, Valdes said she didn’t want to “waste” her final two years in the Legislature “being ignored in a caucus whose leadership expects me to ignore the needs of my community.”
“I’m tired of being the party of protesting when I got into politics to be part of the party of progress,” Valdes said.
Valdes also pointed to a “vision” laid out by House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, that “focuses on empowering House members to work on real problems facing our communities.”
Valdes added that she didn’t expect to agree with “my fellow Republicans” on every issue, but “that in their caucus, I will be welcomed and treated with respect.”
Perez hailed the move, which expanded the GOP supermajority to 86 members in the 120-seat House. It was another blow to Democrats, whose hopes of cutting into the supermajority were dashed in the Nov. 5 elections.
“I so rarely get to send a communication solely in my role as Republican leader, but I am thrilled today to announce that Representative Susan Valdes has changed her voter registration from Democrat to Republican,” Perez said in an email. “We all know Susan as a fierce advocate for her community, and a person of uncommon common sense. She will be a great asset to our Republican team.”
Driskell, in a statement, called the move “especially egregious,” as Valdes ran last week for the county Democratic leadership post and “lost by a substantial margin.”
Last month, Valdes was re-elected in Hillsborough County’s House District 64, defeating Republican Maura Cruz Lanz by 4.8 percentage points. It was a rematch of a 2022 contest, when Valdes won by 6.6 percentage points.
“Susan should have trusted her constituents, not pulled a bait-and-switch after the fact,” Driskell said Monday.
Driskell said Valdes has “elevated her own aspirations” and “has consistently and publicly shared that she feels the Republican Party does not adequately represent her constituents or beliefs.”
Valdes, a former Hillsborough County School Board member, was first elected to the House in 2018 and was re-elected three times. She will be forced to leave the House in 2026 because of term limits.
–Jim Turner, News Service of Florida
