San Diego County's longest-serving GOP city official seeks re-election as Democrat [View all]
Gary Kendrick, who has served on the El Cajon City Council since 2002, announced Monday he has formally left the Republican Party and will run for re-election as a Democrat.
According to the San Diego County Democratic Party, Kendrick, once a lifelong Republican who was elected with 85% of the vote in his last election
has come to recognize that todays Republican Party is no longer grounded in the economic or personal well-being of the people he swore an oath to serve.
The East County city is governed by a five-member city council, on which the mayor also sits.
Moments of consequence call for clarity and action, which is why I am formally renouncing the Republican Party and joining the Democratic Party, Kendrick said during a news conference outside city hall. Im in this fight to protect El Cajon from the far-right radicals who threaten our way of life.
https://timesofsandiego.com/politics/2026/02/09/san-diego-countys-longest-serving-gop-city-official-seeks-re-election-as-democrat/