As Latina Republican assemblymembers, Leticia Castillo and Kate Sanchez are in an exclusive club.
There’s another members-only group with the word “Latino” in its name.
But because they’re Republicans, Castillo and Sanchez — who represent close to 1 million people in the Inland Empire and Orange County — said they’re not allowed to join the California Latino Legislative Caucus, which advocates in Sacramento for Latinos’ interests.
“If you don’t conform to progressive orthodoxy, you’re not welcome,” Sanchez, whose district includes Wildomar, Murrieta, Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita and Temecula, said via email.
“That’s not how representation should work, and it’s not how the Latino community should be treated,” Sanchez wrote. “Hispanic Californians are diverse in their beliefs, and their representation should be as well.”
A spokesperson for the 38-member caucus did not respond to requests for comment. But in a February TV interview, the caucus’ chair, state Sen. Lena Gonzalez, D-Long Beach, defended excluding Republicans.
“It’s not about letting them or not letting them in,” Gonzalez said. “It’s a Democratic caucus … I wouldn’t ask as a Democrat, even though I’m Latina, to be a part of the Republican caucus.”
The Latino caucus, which was formed by five Latino Democrats in 1973, is one of many officially recognized state lawmaker caucuses in Sacramento.
Some, like the Legislative Black Caucus, cater to members of a certain ethnic group, while others — the Legislative Outdoor Sporting Caucus and the Legislative Rural Caucus, for example — are focused on particular interests or regions.
Latino assemblymembers and state senators are mostly Democrats. But the November election saw Republicans such as Castillo and Jeff Gonzalez of Indio flip blue seats. Today, the 120-member legislature has eight GOP Latino and Latina lawmakers.
Castillo’s and Gonzalez’s wins came as the GOP made inroads with Latino voters last election. While a majority of Latinos nationwide voted for Kamala Harris, President Donald Trump made historic gains with Latinos in the 2024 election.
The issue of Latino Republicans wanting to join the Latino caucus is not new.
Mike Madrid, a GOP consultant and expert in Latino voting behavior, remembers when then-Inland Republican Assemblymember and Rod Pacheco, who served as Riverside County’s district attorney from 2007 to 2011, was shut out of the caucus in the late 1990s.
Republicans Abel Maldonado, Charlene Gonzales Zettel and Rocky Chávez also tried to join the caucus during their time in the legislature, Madrid added.
Castillo, whose district includes Jurupa Valley, Grand Terrace, and parts of Corona, Eastvale and Riverside, thinks she should be able to join because her predecessor — caucus member and newly elected state Sen. Sabrina Cervantes, D-Riverside — belonged to it when she represented much of Castillo’s district in the Assembly.
Castillo said she hasn’t been officially told she can’t join the caucus. She sent a letter to the caucus about joining, but the caucus didn’t respond by a deadline she set, Castillo said.
Being in the caucus, Castillo said, would give her constituents access to resources available to caucus members. She added that she’s a first-generation Mexican American and more than 60% of her constituents are Latino.
Democrats accounted for 43% of the voters in Castillo’s district — Republicans made up 28% — going into the November election.
“I was elected by Democrats to be in this seat, so (the caucus is) preventing them from being able to be represented in that aspect,” she said. “Regardless of whether you have the same beliefs or values, it’s not about that. This is about the constituents.”
Those beliefs and values are important, Gonzalez said.
“I would love it if a Republican Latino would stand up against mass deportations because it’s not just happening in urban coastal districts, it’s happening inland and it’s happening everywhere,” she told Sacramento’s KCRA-TV.
“And so we will always find places of alignment, but when words have been utilized from some Latino Republicans that we are invaders or aliens … it’s demeaning, it’s dehumanizing and the Latino Democratic caucus won’t stand for that.”
Castillo this week announced that she’s sponsoring a bill that would “stop taxpayer-funded Legal Aid for criminal illegal aliens.” The bill would prevent state taxpayer dollars from helping those “with serious criminal records” who face deportation.
Sanchez also has advanced conservative policies since she was first elected in 2022. She’s sponsoring legislation that would ban transgender athletes from girls’ sports in California.
At least one of the Latino caucus’ members — Cervantes — is LGBTQ.
Gonzalez said Republicans who want to join the Latino caucus “need to focus on constituents and not whether they should be allowed in a caucus that quite frankly (is a) Democratic caucus, not a Republican caucus.”
Latino Republicans “absolutely create their own caucus,” Gonzalez added. “Quite frankly, more Californians have more to worry about than just who’s going to be allowed in a caucus.”
This week, Sanchez and state Sen. Suzette Martinez Valladares, R-Santa Clarita, announced they’re forming the bipartisan California Hispanic Legislative Caucus.
The new caucus’ priorities, Sanchez said, include slashing burdensome regulations harming small businesses, expanding energy production to lower costs and giving law enforcement what it needs to protect the public.
“The California Hispanic Legislative Caucus is about real solutions, not partisan politics,” Sanchez said. “Our focus is on empowering — not burdening — Hispanic families, small businesses and workers.”
Castillo said she has no plans to join the new caucus and has her sights set on joining the existing Latino caucus.
“No matter what, I’m a fighter and I’m going to fight until I make some noise and maybe no one else has fought for it hard enough,” she said.
Given the ideological diversity among Latinos, having GOP and Democratic Latino caucuses is the best solution, Madrid said.
“The whole point of more Latinos moving to the Republican Party is because they do not share a common vision politically,” he said. “That’s healthy. That’s good. And having two caucuses is a healthy way to address this.”
The current Latino caucus should change its name to reflect the fact it’s a Democratic caucus, Madrid said.
“But in this environment, to somehow expect that (Latinos are) going to agree on something as simple and as basic and as all-consuming as immigration policy is just very — that’s a very elementary understanding of the political system,” he said.
“That’s not going to happen because they are different. Republicans and Democrats are not the same. So it’s ironic that Republicans are now pushing for Latinos to be the same. They’re not.”
