“The View” host Ana Navarro was a lifelong Republican, and still generally identifies as one today. But, she did vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016, and according to the ABC host, it “liberated her.”
Navarro explained her thought process during Friday’s Hot Topics, as she and her colleagues discussed how podcast host Joe Rogan recently admitted that his views on President Trump have changed since helping him get elected. The question at hand was whether the ladies themselves have ever experienced a shift like that, prompting Navarro to use herself as a prime example.
“I think this idea that if you’re born a Republican, you have to die a Republican, or if you’re born a Democrat, you have to die a Democrat, is intellectually lazy, because that means that when you’re looking at candidates and when you’re looking at races, the only thing that matters is whether it’s an R or a D behind the name,” she said. “So I was like that. I would vote down the ballot Republican my entire life since I became a citizen.”
She noted that 2016 was the first time she didn’t do that, voting for Clinton over Trump.
“It was a hard thing to do, but it liberated me, because I no longer feel chained to one party or another,” Navarro continued. “And it’s forced me to look at what candidates stand for, what their policies are, what they are proposing, what I want.”
Navarro then noted that her cousin’s son was one of those killed in the horrific shooting at Pulse Nightclub in 2016, which prompted her to pay extra attention to candidates’ stances on gun reform and control. Previously, gun rights weren’t an issue Navarro factored into her votes.
“So I do think that evolving means living, and living means evolving,” she finished.
“The View” airs weekdays at 11 a.m. ET on ABC.
