A top former Bush administration official and longtime Republican has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, saying the GOP has abandoned the Hispanic community in support of Donald Trump.
“I have been a Republican since I became a US Citizen in 1984 and was proud to vote for Ronald Reagan’s reelection,” Rosario Marin, who was Treasurer of the United States from 2001 to 2003, wrote Wednesday in an op-ed for Univision. “Eventually, I was given the incredible honor to be the United States Treasurer, the first Mexican-born to hold this title.
“I have been a loyal, trusted and fiery fighter for every Republican presidential candidate,” she continued. “I have been a delegate to the previous five Republican conventions. But since July 2015, when a certain candidate, upon entering the political arena, showed his contempt for Mexican immigrants by stating they were drug dealers, rapists and murderers, I have voiced my disgust and have warned one and all of the perilous threat he was to our party, our nation and the world.
“I had hoped against hope that my party would listen,” she wrote. “Maybe I was naive, maybe it was just a strong desire to believe. But the party left me and my community all alone again. It has had plenty of time to stand up for my community, but it has chosen not to do so. I have come to the devastatingly painful realization that my party right now doesn’t want my vote nor that of my community.”
Ms. Marin said her decision to abandon the party and vote for a Democrat for the first time was a “profound soul searching process.” She said that even though she disagrees with many of Mrs. Clinton’s positions, she’s still better suited for the White House than her Republican rival.
“She understands that words spoken from the White House have consequences, that sarcasm is not a strategy when dealing with delicate world situations, that our friends and foes listen to every word spoken by our president and react accordingly,” Ms. Marin wrote.
“Leaders are tested time and time again and so, I will stand up for my community against the menace of a tyrannical presidency that does not value the countless contributions of immigrants across its beautiful and bountiful history,” she said. “There is too much at stake both domestically and abroad to have a thoughtless individual at the helm of the most important economy in the world.”
Ms. Marin joins a growing list touted by the Clinton campaign of Republicans and independents who have endorsed the Democratic nominee over Mr. Trump.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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