Former Florida Rep. Ana Rivas Logan announced her plans to leave the GOP and register as a Democrat, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
“The GOP of today is not the party I joined,” she said. “It’s not the party of my parents. It’s a party that has been radicalized and held hostage by a group of extremists.”
Charlie Crist, who served a term as Florida’s governor as a Republican and is now running again as a Democrat, welcomed Logan to the party.
Bienvenida @anarivaslogan to the Democratic Party! Glad you are here my friend. http://t.co/Jm62kCFOMf
— Charlie Crist (@CharlieCrist) February 10, 2014
Carlos Curbelo, a Republican candidate for Congress, quickly speculated that Logan switched parties for political reasons.
“If Charlie Crist wanted to choose a Hispanic female to run with him, there is no one else,” he said. “I get the sense that this is a very calculated move, and that it is highly likely that she would be chosen.”
Logan explained her reasons for leaving the GOP, calling it “a party that attacks women and minorities — and one that asked me, and my former Hispanic Republican colleagues in the Florida legislature, to turn on their own people by supporting extreme anti-immigrant policies.”
Pablo Pantoja, former State Director of Florida Hispanic Outreach for the Republican National Committee, also joined the Democratic Party in May.
Citing similar issues, Former Nevada Lt. Gov. Sue Wagner announced that she would leave the “tea-party orientated” Republican party in January.
