Former President Ronald Reagan’s quip “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me” resonates with many longtime Democrats who no longer recognize their party. For me, a lifelong Democrat now running for Manhattan district attorney as a Republican, this shift reflects the party’s leftward lurch, its embrace of extremism, and its alienation of working-class voters. Polls reflect this discontent, with Democrats’ approval ratings hitting historic lows of 27%.

I was stunned in 2016 when I learned that some of my fellow Bernie Sanders supporters voted for Donald Trump after the bruising primary with Hillary Clinton. To me, a pro-choice feminist and Manhattanite, Trump was unthinkable. I voted for Clinton. Yet eight years later, I cast my first Republican presidential vote, drawn by policies such as securing the southern border, protecting female athletes by acknowledging biological sex, and the promise (now fulfilled) of appointing credible figures such as Jay Bhattacharya to the National Institutes of Health. Bhattacharya, like the “open schools moms” I campaigned with, was right about the harms and futility of COVID-19 school closures.

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Now, I am relieved by the federal government’s push to dismantle entrenched diversity, equity, and inclusion frameworks, which have replaced American ideals of equality with a system of racial preferences and identity grievances. As a public defender for over two decades and a mother of four in New York City’s public schools, I’ve seen the damage of policies rooted in the narrative that America is inherently racist and more worthy of blame and dissolution than praise and emulation. This view, embraced by today’s Democrats, is not just false; it’s dangerous.

As an elected school board member, I witnessed the fallout of “anti-racism” efforts inspired by Ibram X. Kendi. Consultants were hired, admissions and curricula changed, and families fled; NYC public schools have lost 136,000 students since 2020. Standardized-test scores stagnated or fell, while per-capita spending soared to $38,000. Race-focused reforms enriched grifters but left students worse off.

Similarly, New York’s criminal justice reforms, inspired by tenets of the Black Lives Matter movement, prioritized narrow interests over public safety. BLM raised $90 million in 2020, yet when its preferred policies became our laws, crime rose. Harvard economist Roland Fryer’s research shows that reduced police engagement, driven by political activism, increases homicide rates by up to 10% — disproportionately harming young black men. The proactive policing decried by the Democratic Party’s left wing is what actually saves black lives.

Self-styled socialists on the city council push composting mandates, endless bike lanes, and the pricey plan to close Rikers Island, while decrying the policing of past NYPD Commissioners Ray Kelly and Bill Bratton as racist. But the data tell a different story. In the 1990s, gun homicides disproportionately affected black New Yorkers. After former Mayor David Dinkins’s “Safe Streets, Safe City” program added 6,000 officers and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s broken-windows policing targeted low-level crimes such as fare evasion, crime plummeted. By 2010, homicides had dropped 80%, with black communities seeing the greatest benefits.

That’s why Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s day one memo, which bars prosecuting fare evasion, resisting arrest, and other misdemeanors, is indefensible. Quality-of-life policing deters petty crime and catches serious offenders. We know how to reduce crime effectively. What’s lacking is political courage.

There is some good news on the horizon. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch knows, and is willing to say out loud, that “without a course correction” we cannot lower crime. To do that, we need to replace Albany’s so-called “criminal justice reforms” (which Bragg not only supports, but expanded by fiat in his day one memo) and prosecute more cases. 

We also need a functioning Rikers Island, without which the efforts of any NYPD commissioner and the city’s five district attorney offices become irrelevant. There are currently over 7,000 inmates on Rikers, and the proposed alternative “borough-based” jails would house a maximum of 3,300 inmates. 

Former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “Close Rikers Island” plan and Bragg’s “day one memo” are the products of the same peak-woke racial-justice movement. Both made false promises about lowering crime by addressing “systemic racism” and both cost our fellow citizens dearly in blood and treasure. Crime went up as a result of bail reform and Bragg’s so-called progressive prosecution policies while the initial $8.7 billion estimate to close Rikers is now over $16 billion, and all we have are more crime victims and piles of rubble where the Manhattan and Brooklyn Houses of Detention used to stand.

Large majorities of New Yorkers now agree that the radical progressive policies don’t work to fight crime. Fifty-five percent think NYC is less safe than before 2020, 70% want more police, and 59% want involuntary confinement to be easier, while public opinion on the signature progressive policies is sharply negative: bail reform is -24, discovery reform is -30, and closing Rikers is -13. 

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These are the sentiments of New Yorkers who want a return to proven methods of crime-fighting. That’s why I’m running as a Republican — and why so many others are reconsidering their political home. More new voters are choosing to register as independents rather than join either party. 

My political journey wasn’t driven by a change in core beliefs but by the Democratic Party’s abandonment of reason and results. It’s now a party that too often prioritizes ideology over evidence, alienating those who value safety, fairness, and opportunity. 

Maud Maron is the Republican candidate for district attorney of New York County (Manhattan).