Katherine Welch in Oakland last January.

STATE SENATE | 9TH DISTRICT | Some voters in the Ninth State Senate District, one of the most progressive areas in the entire state, might be skeptical about candidate Katherine Welch following a new story last year that revealed she only recently switched her party affiliation from Republican to Democrat.

“I’ve always been a Democrat,” Welch told the East Bay Citizen. Apparently, she just never got around to switching her party allegiance. But, despite her past registration, Welch’s checkbook has indeed skewed toward lefty candidates

Public records show that despite her registration, Welch has contributed exclusively to Democratic candidates over the last 12 years, including nearly $30,000 combined to Obama’s two presidential campaigns.

Welch also donated $2,950 last year to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and Kamala Harris’s U.S. Senate campaign. Two years ago, she also contributed $10,000 to the Democratic National Committee.

She says the registration oversight points to her outsider status in a race that includes two former assemblymembers who represented portions of the district over the past decade. “I was never plotting out my political future back then because she had no intention of ever running for office,” she said.

In fact, Welch made another large contribution to another Democrat last Monday–herself. According to campaign finance reports, Welch contributed $50,000 to her own state senate campaign. On Wednesday, she tweeted along with a happy face emoji, “FYI it’s not a loan – just supporting my favorite candidate.”

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