'The View' Star Ana Navarro Says Voting for Hillary Clinton Over Donald Trump Was 'Liberating': 'I No Longer Feel Chained'

Ana Navarro is opening up about the political decision that changed how she approaches elections.

During the Friday, October 16, episode of The View, the longtime Republican strategist revealed that voting for Hillary Clinton instead of Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election was a turning point in her life.

"It was a hard thing to do, but it liberated me, because I no longer feel chained to one party or another," Navarro said. “And it’s forced me to look at what candidates stand for, what their policies are, what they are proposing, what I want.”

The candid admission came as the ABC daytime talk show discussed whether its co-hosts had ever experienced significant changes in their political beliefs.

The conversation began after the panel discussed podcaster Joe Rogan, who recently expressed disappointment with some of Trump's decisions despite previously supporting him.

When the hosts were asked whether they had ever reconsidered their political views, Navarro immediately identified with the question.

"Uh, hello?!" she exclaimed.

Navarro, who has long identified as a Republican, explained that she once voted almost exclusively for candidates belonging to her party.

However, she eventually began questioning whether political affiliation should determine her decisions at the ballot box.

"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," she said.

The political commentator argued that voters should consider more than the letter appearing next to a candidate's name.

"So I was like that. I would vote down the ballot Republican my entire life since I became a citizen," she shared.

Navarro also revealed that a devastating family tragedy influenced how she evaluates political candidates.

The television personality explained that her cousin's son was killed during the 2016 mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla.

The attack, which left 49 people dead, prompted Navarro to reconsider how much importance she placed on gun-related policies.

"My cousin's son was killed at Pulse [nightclub], and now you better believe that I look at what the candidates' gun policies are," she shared.

Navarro said the tragedy made her more attentive to issues she hadn't previously prioritized when deciding whom to support.

"So I do think that evolving means living, and living means evolving," she concluded.