The View’s Ana Navarro is a Republican?

Ana Navarro is pushing back at conservatives who question why she still calls herself a Republican after years of opposing President Donald Trump and supporting Democratic presidential candidates.

The View co-host and longtime political commentator defended her party registration in a new interview, arguing that Trump — not her — represents a departure from the Republican Party she once knew.

“I’d argue that anybody who espouses the same views as Donald Trump isn’t much of a traditional Republican,” Navarro said. “I’m not going to be lectured to about what a Republican is or isn’t.”

It is a declaration likely to raise eyebrows among today’s Republican voters, particularly considering Navarro’s political choices over the past decade.

Navarro was once deeply involved in Republican politics. She served as national Hispanic co-chair of John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, briefly held a similar role for Jon Huntsman in 2012 and advised Republican campaigns in Florida and across the country.

But her relationship with the modern GOP dramatically changed after Trump emerged as the party’s dominant political force.

Navarro became one of Trump’s most outspoken Republican critics during the 2016 presidential race and ultimately voted for Hillary Clinton.

She has continued voting against Trump whenever he has appeared on the presidential ballot.

“Ten years ago it never would’ve occurred to me that I’d vote for Democrats,” Navarro acknowledged.

She later publicly supported Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, including appearing at the 2024 Democratic National Convention.

Those decisions have made Navarro’s continued Republican label a frequent source of criticism from conservatives, some of whom argue that regularly supporting Democratic presidential nominees makes the description increasingly difficult to defend.

Navarro sees it differently.

She said she still believes in what she considers traditional Republican principles, including fiscal restraint and what she described as common-sense foreign policy.

She also criticized Republicans over the growing national debt, saying the party no longer practices the fiscal responsibility it once championed.

That issue has become increasingly difficult for either political party to ignore. The federal debt has now climbed above $40 trillion, while annual federal interest costs have approached $1 trillion, placing renewed pressure on Washington over spending and borrowing.

Navarro nevertheless placed much of the blame on today’s GOP.

She said she continues to hold out hope that the Republican Party will someday return to the version she remembers.

That party, Navarro conceded, may no longer exist outside her own memories.

She described herself as belonging to a Republican Party that “only exists in my mind, in my memory, and in the history books.”

Her political positions have also increasingly separated her from much of the Republican base.

Navarro supports abortion rights and LGBTQ rights and has advocated for tighter gun laws. She has also sharply criticized Trump administration immigration policies, including aggressive deportation efforts.

Navarro acknowledged that she might not even remain registered as a Republican if Florida operated its elections differently.

Florida uses closed partisan primaries, meaning voters generally must belong to a political party to participate in that party’s primary elections.

Navarro said that if she lived somewhere with open primaries, she would probably register as an independent.

She insisted her votes are now determined by individual candidates, political strategy and specific issues rather than loyalty to a party label.

The outspoken TV personality also made a striking admission about her earlier years as a Republican television surrogate.

Navarro described her younger political self as a “Republican hack,” saying she regularly received talking points from the Republican National Committee, campaigns and political operatives before appearing on television.

“It was my job to go out there and regurgitate the same party lines that everybody else regurgitated on TV,” she recalled.

Navarro said she believes she now has significantly more freedom to express her personal beliefs on The View and on her Bleep! podcast.

Whether Republican voters accept her explanation is another matter.

Trump has transformed the GOP since Navarro first became involved in Republican politics, winning the presidency in 2016, reclaiming the White House in 2024 and remaining the central figure in the party.

Navarro, meanwhile, has spent much of that same period moving in the opposite political direction while refusing to surrender the Republican label.

For Navarro, the distinction is simple: she believes the party changed around her.

For many Trump-era Republicans, her voting record may make the case look very different.