A sheriff in Texas announced last week that he officially switched parties and is now Republican.
Karnes County Sheriff Dwayne Villanueva becomes the second high-profile elected official to reject the Democrat Party under Republican Party of Texas Chairman Matt Rinaldi.
“I look forward to continuing the strong tradition of excellent law enforcement in Karnes County, which requires us to come together for a common cause and seek out leaders of integrity and merit,” Villanueva said in a press release.
Republican Party of Texas Chairman Matt Rinaldi said “I am proud to welcome Sheriff Villanueva to the Republican Party. As Democrats increasingly abandon and cripple law enforcement, it is no wonder more people are turning to the Republican party.”
Sheriff Dwayne Villanueva is the second high profile elected official to switch parties under Chairman Rinaldi’s term. State Representative Ryan Guillen changed parties to a Republican last year.
Sheriff Dwayne Villanueva started his law enforcement Career in 1993 as a jailer for the Karnes County Sheriff Office and the GEO Corporation. In 2009 was elected Constable for Precinct 3 in Karnes County before running for Sheriff in 2013. Sheriff Villanueva is in his third term as Sheriff.
Sheriff Villanueva’s has a strong track record of arrests in high-profile cases, including a serial arsonist that was responsible for over 50 fires, an escaped inmate from the private GEO jail, a drug dealer with over 7 pounds of Methamphetamine, multiple murders, including an attempted murder of a police officer, burglars in a serious home invasion case, and he arrested a local police officer who was selling narcotics on duty.
Top Texas Sheriff Leaves Democrats, Switches to Republican Party https://t.co/a7NwrEauXE via @news_ntd
— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) December 24, 2022
A sheriff in #Texas announced this week that he officially switched parties and is now a Republican, becoming the second high-profile elected official to reject the Democrat Party under Republican Party of Texas Chairman Matt Rinaldi. https://t.co/KAbEPjOOok
— The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) December 25, 2022
NTD reported:
The move was hailed by Rinaldi, who stated that he is “proud to welcome” Villanueva to the Republican Party.
The chairman said that Democrats’ soft-on-crime policies and defunding of the police are the main contributors to high-profile officials switching parties under his term.
Last year, in one of Texas’s highest-profile switches in nearly a decade, longtime Democrat Rep. Ryan Guillen announced that he was leaving the Democrat Party to join the GOP after determining that Democrats’ policies “are not the values of most Texans” and “certainly not the values of South Texans.”
“Many of us are waking up to the fact that the values of those in Washington, D.C., are not our values, are not the values of most Texans, certainly not the values of South Texans,” Guillen said during a news conference in Floresville in November 2021.
“The ideology of defunding the police, of destroying the oil and gas industry, and the chaos at our border is disastrous for those of us who live here in South Texas,” he added.
Guillen, a strong supporter of the Second Amendment who has long been against tax increases and an insecure U.S.-Mexico border, won the Nov. 8 midterm elections as a Republican.
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