Transphobic Texas Democrat finds home for bigotry in state Republican Party

Texas state Rep. Shawn Thierry, a Democrat from Houston who lost her primary in May, announced on Friday that she would switch to the Republican Party.

Thierry, who served four terms in the Texas House of Representatives, faced a challenging primary race earlier this year against Lauren Ashley Simmons, a queer Black woman who campaigned on progressive values. Simmons decisively defeated Thierry in a runoff election, securing 65 percent of the vote to Thierry’s 35 percent, and is now the Democratic nominee for Texas House District 146, a heavily Democratic area in Houston.

Related: Texas Democrat who supported gender-affirming care ban loses to queer progressive candidate

Voters saw the primary contest as a referendum on Thierry’s controversial decision to break ranks with the Democratic Party on key LGBTQ+ issues. In the previous legislative session, Thierry voted in favor of a Republican-backed bill that bans gender-affirming care for transgender minors — a move that drew significant criticism from her Democratic colleagues and LGBTQ+ advocacy groups. She also supported legislation that targeted LGBTQ+ books in school libraries and required transgender college athletes to compete based on their sex assigned at birth.

In a statement explaining her party switch, Thierry said she believes the Democratic Party has moved too far to the left and no longer represents her values. “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,” she said.

Thierry added that she felt “betrayed by a party that has lost its way, lost its commitment to hardworking families.”

She wrote, “Mothers around our country from all backgrounds, races, and communities understand that it’s our sacred duty to preserve the innocence of our children, protect them from being sexualized, and sterilized. To respect universal truths, and to uphold the rights of biological women as defined by science, nature, and common sense.” Republicans falsely claim that Democrats are “indoctrinating” children into becoming trans and peddle anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry that claims they are “sexualizing” kids.

Texas Democratic Party chair Gilberto Hinojosa condemned Thierry’s decision, accusing her of having “compromised her Democratic values” and “betrayed the constituents of House District 146.” He added, “We hope that Switch-Up Shawn finds solace within a party that demonizes Black, Latino, and LGBTQ+ communities given her long recorded history of berating these very communities in her district, staff office, and on the Texas House floor.”

Odus E. Evbagharu, the Texas Democratic Party treasurer, also criticized Thierry’s move, referencing a quote by Maya Angelou: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” Evbagharu said in a statement. “If this rejected State Representative truly understood ‘When you know better, you do better,’ she would recognize knowing better means standing up against those who strip away our voting rights, dismantle educational opportunities for our children, and refuse to allow true equity in our communities, not joining them.”

Thierry’s decision to join the GOP follows her appointment earlier this month as the director of political strategy for the U.S. wing of Genspect, an international organization that opposes gender-affirming care for minors, according to the Texas Tribune. The group, founded in 2021, is part of a broader network advocating against policies that support transgender youth.

With Thierry’s switch, the partisan balance in the Texas House now stands at 87 Republicans and 63 Democrats. However, her term will end before the legislature reconvenes in January, and Simmons is favored to retain the district for the Democrats in the upcoming general election.