Ana Violeta Navarro-Cárdenas (née Navarro Flores; born December 28, 1971) is a Nicaraguan-American political strategist and commentator. She appears on various television programs and news outlets, including CNN, CNN en Español, ABC News, and Telemundo. She is also a co-host of the daytime talk show The View, garnering Emmy Award nominations for her work. She is a member of the Republican Party.

Early life and education
Born in 1971 to a land-owning family in Nicaragua, Navarro is the daughter of Violeta Flores López and José Augusto Navarro Flores, a former Minister of Agriculture under the administration of Enrique Bolaños Geyer. She and her family moved to the United States in 1980 because of political turmoil, though her father stayed behind to continue to fight with the Contras against the Sandinista government. She later said that then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan's support of the Contras made her a lifelong Republican.

Navarro attended the Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart, a private Catholic college preparatory day school for girls in Coconut Grove, Miami. Navarro earned a Bachelor's degree in Latin American Studies and Political Science in 1993 from the University of Miami. In 1997, she earned her Juris Doctor from St. Thomas University School of Law.

During her first year in university, Navarro campaigned for aid to the Contras. As a law student, Navarro successfully fought to keep Nicaraguan refugees from being deported during the mid-nineties.

Career
Navarro has served in a number of Republican administrations, including the transition team for Florida Governor Jeb Bush in 1998, as well as his Director of Immigration Policy. She also served as ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, where she condemned human rights violations in Cuba. She later served as the National Co-Chair of the Hispanic Advisory Council for John McCain in 2008 and Jon Huntsman Jr. in 2012.

In February 2014, she became a political commentator for ABC News. In addition, she is also a political commentator on CNN and CNN en Español. Navarro became a contributor on the ABC daytime talk show The View from July 2013 to August 2018. She joined the series as a weekly guest co-host on November 2, 2018, and was named a permanent co-host of The View on August 4, 2022. She received Daytime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Informative Talk Show Host in 2020 and 2022.

Political positions
Navarro has described herself as a centrist.

Navarro supported Jeb Bush's 2016 presidential campaign. In October 2016, she made headlines when she strongly criticized Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on CNN after the Donald Trump and Billy Bush recording surfaced, and called for party leaders to disown Trump. She also harshly criticized Trump's comments about immigrants, labeling him a racist. Navarro has been labeled a "Never Trumper." She voted for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, stating that she decided to do so after seeing how close the race in Florida had become. 

Navarro was a vocal opponent of Roy Moore in the 2017 Alabama Senate election, due to the allegations of sexual assault and molestation against him. In the 2018 Florida gubernatorial election, Navarro voted for Democrat Andrew Gillum over Republican Ron DeSantis because of DeSantis' ties to Trump. On August 11, 2020, she stated that she would be voting for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in the 2020 United States presidential election. She and George Lopez hosted an online concert fundraiser for Biden on October 25, 2020.

She is a strong supporter of LGBTQ+ Rights, In February 2013, Navarro publicly supported the legalization of same-sex marriage in an amicus curiae brief submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2017 she spoke out against the Trump Administration's ban on Transgender Individuals serving in the Military, calling it "repugnant". In 2019 she was given the Ally Leadership Award by Equality California for her activism in support of the LGBTQ+ Community. In 2022 she criticized the passage of the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act calling it "completely unnecessary" and in 2023 spoke out against Drag Panic and anti-drag legislation saying "I hate how drag queens are being made into a political issue, into a manufactured, made-up cultural issue, because I tell you what: No drag queen ever killed a little kid … Guns kill little kids If you care about children and their safety, Go after the guns, and leave the f*cking drag queens alone!” 

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade - which had legalized abortion nationwide - while personally Pro-Life, she spoke out in support of abortion rights, citing family members who have difficulty caring for relatives with physical and developmental disabilities.

The day after the Robb Elementary School shooting in May 2022, Navarro declared strong support for increased gun control efforts, including an Assault Weapons Ban, and criticized the NRA, Gun Lobby, and officials in her own party and said 
"I would like Republicans to show the same energy that they do for banning books, and banning conversations about gays, and banning conversations about black history, and regulating my uterus, I want them to show the same energy for banning guns"

Personal life
Navarro resides in Miami. She married lawyer and lobbyist Al Cárdenas on March 2, 2019.

References

Further reading
Navarro on Trump win: One nightmare over, another begins
Panelist: Give Donald Trump 'his medication'
Navarro to Trump: Stop acting like a mean girl
Ana Navarro: Republicans need to grow a spine

External links

 
 

1971 births
ABC News personalities
American political commentators
Centrism in the United States
CNN people
Florida Republicans
Living people
Nicaraguan emigrants to the United States
People from Chinandega
People from Miami
St. Thomas University (Florida) alumni
Television personalities from Florida
University of Miami alumni
Never Trump movement