Former county Republican chairwoman registers as Democrat — to cast primary vote for Pete Buttigieg
By ANTHONY MAN SOUTH FLORIDA SUN SENTINEL |FEB 14, 2020
Cindy Guerra, a former chairwoman of the Broward Republican Party, changed her party registration this week to become a Democrat.
She said she did it so she could vote for Pete Buttigieg in Florida’s March 17 Democratic presidential primary.
There are two reasons. One, Guerra is impressed with Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., who finished a close second in this week’s New Hampshire primary. “I find him very impressive. I do think he’s qualified.”
The second reason: President Donald Trump.
“Here’s the thing: I am not going to vote for Donald Trump — ever. I think Pete Buttigieg is far more qualified than Donald Trump. I think he’s far more intelligent. I think he is far more humane,” Guerra said. “We need a change.”
After three years of the Trump presidency, Guerra said it wasn’t hard to register as a Democrat. “The moment that the party supported Donald Trump, that’s when I knew that I was not part of that party.”
Still, Guerra remained a Republican through the 2016 election, but later switched her registration to no party affiliation.
Even as a Republican, she was an outspoken voice for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who lost to Trump in 2016. Guerra approached the Clinton campaign and appeared in TV and radio ads for her.
“I knew this was not going to work out,” she said. “I supported Hillary Clinton because there was no way I was going to support Donald Trump because I knew that everything that is happening was going to happen. I didn’t really imagine it was going to be quite as bad, but here we are.”
Guerra said she views Trump as divisive, a bigot and misogynistic. “Anyone who thinks he knows more than the generals and mocks people with disabilities and mocks war heroes, I don’t want as a leader of our country.”
The booming stock market isn’t a sufficient reason to support Trump. “It’s bigger than our 401(k)s and it’s bigger than our investments and our stocks. Like everyone else, my stocks are doing better, but sometimes we have to rise up and put our country first.”
Guerra, who lives in Broward and works in Palm Beach County, was an assistant attorney general under former Attorney General Bill McCollum.
She was vice chairwoman of the Broward Republican Party and won a contentious election for the top job in 2010 when the previous chairman, Chip LaMarca, stepped down to run for Broward County Commission.
Guerra was seen as a moderate by many, and was opposed by conservatives and the tea party wing of the party, which was a growing force in Republican politics at the time. Guerra didn’t run for re-election as party chairwoman at the end of 2010.
In 2016, she supported former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for the Republican presidential nomination, but said she could have voted for any of the party’s presidential candidates — except Trump.
“I am sorry to see that,” said George Moraitis, the current Broward Republican chairman, who was an early 2016 supporter of Trump. In a text message, Moraitis said, “President Trump has done a great job with the economy, our national security and immigration and she unfortunately fails to appreciate the president’s accomplishments.”
Richard DeNapoli succeeded Guerra as Broward Republican chairman and is now the county’s state party committeeman. He was one of the area’s earliest Trump supporters in 2016, when many other South Florida party leaders were supporting Bush or U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., for president.
DeNapoli’s response to Guerra:
“President Trump has done a wonderful job on ALL fronts,” he said Friday by email. “There’s no pleasing the elitist attitudes of the ‘Never Trumpers’ out there, and they have ZERO credibility when they refuse to acknowledge President Trump’s many accomplishments beyond his wonderful work that has made our economy great again.”
Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com or on Twitter @browardpolitics