Gloria Romero was the first woman in state history to serve as Senate Majority Leader and one of the most forceful Democrats in Sacramento. She authored the nation’s first Parent Trigger law, expanded open enrollment, and built a national profile as an education reformer willing to challenge unions and entrenched interests.
In 2024, she left the Democratic Party, arguing it had abandoned working-class families, merit in education, and parental rights. Today, she’s a Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor — seeking to use the office not as a stepping stone, but as a governing post with real authority over universities, public lands, and state oversight.
Romero says the Lieutenant Governor must sit on the boards that run our public universities and actually use that seat to defend academic rigor, campus safety, women’s sports, and equal treatment under Title IX. She frames education as the civil rights issue of our time and affordability as the key to restoring the California Dream.
From a railroad family in Barstow to a PhD from UC Riverside and leadership at the highest levels of state government, her story is upward mobility, and her campaign is a direct challenge to the status quo she once led.
Join us March 25 at the Italian Athletic Club for a candid evening with a statewide candidate who knows Sacramento from the inside — and has chosen a different path.
