Former Texas Democratic state representative flips parties and joins GOP

Former Democratic state Rep. Shawn Thierry announced Friday that she was leaving the Democratic Party and joining the GOP. 

"The Democratic Party has veered so far left, so deep into the progressive abyss, that it now champions policies that I cannot, in good conscience, support policies like promoting sex changes for children during a vulnerable stage of their lives, and dismantling Title IX protections for women in sports," Thierry wrote on the social media platform, X.

Thierry lost her seat in May during a runoff election. In the past, she had sided with the Republican Party on legislation such as banning transgender surgery for minors, according to The Daily Wire.

She explained in her post on X that she could no longer support the Democratic Party, even though she grew up voting for the party her whole life. 

"This is not the party I grew up with," she wrote. "I have witnessed firsthand how the so-called 'liberal' left now stifles thoughtful debate, silencing dissent with an iron fist—demanding blind allegiance to ideology, where one must 'comply or be cast out.' This is not the Democratic Party I once supported and represented."

She said that she would be joining the "party of [Abraham] Lincoln."

"I now stand with the party of Lincoln, the party that fought to preserve our Union and fought to end the atrocities of slavery," Thierry wrote.