COVINA, Calif. — Community is something Jesse Holguín has been looking for his whole life.

“I always grew up looking up to the gang lifestyle,” he said. “Because every single male in my family was a gang member.”

So before entering high school, he joined La Puente 13 gang, became known for his drive-by shootings, and soon prison was his second home. Then one night, the bullets came flying at him. He lost movement in his legs but survived. After that near-death experience, he committed to the Bible and started a new community, LEXIT.

“LEXIT is the Latino exit from the Democratic Party. We are Latino conservatives,” Holguín said.

The nonprofit organization encourages Latinos to vote along lines that he calls biblical conservatism. He says that in just six years, his Instagram has grown to 125,000 followers.

“We got hundreds of thousands of us. I travel all around the country. I went to the White House six times,” Holguín said. And he is a regular in the media.

During an interview with Spectrum News, he was on his way to record an interview with the “Street Scholars Podcast.” The show’s hosts and audience are mostly Latino and young, the right setting “to get our message out,” he said.

One of Holguín’s main reasons for leaving the Democratic Party is what he calls the party's “wokeness” on LGBT issues.

“We can’t even turn on Disney Channel, Sesame Street, there’s a gay character. You can’t even watch TV. There’s commercials. They’re just bombarding us every month, I mean Pride month and all that. They’re just ramming it down our throats,” Holguín said.

Four out of 10 Latino voters say the Democratic Party has taken it too far on race and gender issues, according to a September poll from the New York Times.

Amris Carrillo, co-host of the “Street Scholars Podcast,” came from a loyal Democratic upbringing.

“The bathroom issue, with like men or the opposite gender being able to walk into a women’s restroom or a female’s restroom… I disagree with that,” Carrillo said.

But the economy is the most important issue for Latinos this November and according to the New York Times poll, while traditionally Latinos supported Democrats on this issue, now it’s nearly evenly split.

Although Democrats are still expected to win the majority of the Latino vote this November, according to the New York Times, Latinos’ support for Democrats has eroded by as much as 5% since the 2020 election, according to voter tracking sites.

“They’re so far to the left that I’m ashamed to say that I was ever a Democrat,” Holguín said.