Longtime El Cajon City Councilman renounces Republican Party, becomes Democrat

Gary Kendrick is the longest-serving Republican in any San Diego County municipal government.

Rather, he was.

Monday morning, Kendrick made a show of changing his party registration while flanked by other East County Democrats and the chair of the San Diego County Democratic Party.

“I’ve been a Republican for 50 years, and I just can’t stand what the Republican Party has become,” Kendrick said. “I’m formally renouncing the Republican Party.”

According to San Diego Democrats, Kendrick is now the only Democrat on the El Cajon City Council. El Cajon remains a Republican stronghold in San Diego.

Kendrick, who has sat on the council for nearly a quarter century, said the impetus for his late-career shake-up is the fierce debate over whether El Cajon police should cooperate with ICE. He rejected that controversial policy, which flies in the face of state law, even as a Republican.

“We want all of our citizens to feel safe to call the police,” Kendrick said. “The police didn’t sign up to be immigration enforcers, and they’re not trained for that.”

El Cajon’s Republican mayor, Bill Wells, accused his colleague of being a fair-weather politician.

“I think now he is doing whatever he can to stay in office,” Wells said. “I think he’s had a long, very conservative history, and it’s hard to see somebody change so dramatically.”

Wells does not expect this to trigger a domino effect in his conservative city.

“I know it galls the Democrat party because it’s one of the few places they haven’t been able to flip, but I don’t see it happening,” Wells said.

Kendrick maintains this is a matter of morals. He won 85% of the vote in his most recent election, and plans to run again this November. He’s expected to face a GOP challenger, but he trusts his constituents to trust him and hopes other elected officials may follow his lead.

“I’m hoping that my coming over to the Democratic Party will make them feel safer from the slings and arrows that the Republican Party will hurl at them,” Kendrick said.