Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva revealed that he was leaving the Democrat Party, after being a registered Democrat for more than 40 years, and joining the Republican Party.

“As of today, I’m leaving the party of paid protests, purple hair, and pronouns, and joining the party of faith, family, and freedom,” Villanueva said in a video posted to X.

– News previously reported that Villanueva, a former Democrat who was elected to serve as the sheriff of Los Angeles County in 2018, lost his re-election campaign in November 2022 to Robert Luna, the former police chief of Long Beach.

Villanueva, a Democrat, was elected in 2018 on promises of reform. He became more conservative over time, standing up to the Black Lives Matter movement and adopting a tough stance against a rising tide of crime.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Villanueva refused to enforce a directive to close beaches over the Fourth of July weekend. In July 2021, Villanueva also stated that he would not use the department’s “limited resources” to enforce a mask mandate, noting that it was “not backed by science.”

“Forcing the vaccinated and those who already contracted COVID-19 to wear masks indoors is not backed by science and contradicts the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines,” Villanueva wrote at the time.

In response to Villanueva’s announcement that he was leaving the Democrat Party, several people took to social media to congratulate him on realizing that the California Democrat Party left residents and “sanity behind.” Other people noted that the Democrat Party had “lost touch with the every day American.”