Former Trump administration official Olivia Troye, originally from el Paso, Texas, is set to speak Wednesday at the Democratic National Convention, endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris.
Troye, a lifelong Republican, worked in the Trump Administration as homeland security and counterterrorism special advisor for former Vice President Mike Pence. She left the administration after realizing former President Donald Trump wasn’t doing enough to protect Americans from the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Donald Trump is a liar,” she told El Paso Matters. “He lies to people. He has no connection to the people that he pretends to actually stand for and represent. He can’t stand them.”
She will be speaking Wednesday night at the DNC, along other Republicans and Trump administration officials who are now supporting Harris.
“I am hoping to be part of the permission structure and encourage Republicans, independents, conservative voters to support Kamala Harris and Tim Walz for a better future, not only for the country, but for the (Republican) party in many ways, because we have to defeat Donald Trump,” she said.
Troye said she considers herself Republican, and that she doesn’t agree with Harris in every aspect, however, she expressed that Trump doesn’t represent her conservative views.
“I’m a person that believes in strong defense, strong foreign policy, limited government, which is why I think things like Project 2025 are the antithesis of what the Republican Party actually stands for, because it really advocates for government overreach,” she told El Paso Matters.
When she worked at the Trump administration, she heavily disagreed with Trump’s approaches to the pandemic and migration.
Troye said Trump’s rhetoric dehumanized migrants and even threatened her own family. She said her aunt was at the El Paso Walmart shooting on Aug. 3, 2019, when a white supremacist shot and killed 23 people intending to “stop the Hispanic invasion of Texas.”
“My aunt was in that Walmart,” she said. “The only reason she was thankfully saved was because of some other amazing good Samaritan El Pasoan who pulled her to safety. She saw the shooter firsthand.”
According to El Paso Matters, Troye is one of two El Pasoans with featured roles in the DNC. U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar from El Paso will be chairing Thursday’s final night of the convention, when Harris will formally accept the party’s nomination.
