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SACROMENTO – A caravan of a pickup truck waving the President’s flag of President Trump made its round the California Republican convention this weekend.
Inside, the representative, posing with a giant card cutout, wore a sparkly golden jacket featuring adorned the “Golden Era” and photographing “Maga” rhinestone jewelry.
Republicans will be attending the Cagop Spring Organisational Convention held at Safe Credit Union Convention Center in Sacramento on Sunday.
(Lezlie Sterling/TNS)
Once dominated by Reagan-era Republicans who opposed the Russian-led Soviet Union and supported traditional conservative policies, including supporting free trade, the California GOP is being reconstructed by Trump’s populism.
“Just like Reagan was a transformative figure in the political world, so Donald Trump is a transformative figure,” said Jim Burlto, former state GOP president.
For the party, which has long been irrelevant in California politics, the last candidates from the statewide were elected nearly 20 years ago – the November election had some bright spots. Republicans increased their representation in both houses of state legislature when the GOP first took place in the year of presidential elections since 1980.
Trump lost 20 points to former Democratic presidential candidate, California, former Vice President Kamala Harris, but Republicans have won more votes than they’ve had in their last two presidential elections last November.
Trump has done better for Latinos across the country, earning 43% of the vote, according to the Associated Press. In California, Republicans also increased their support from the voting block, according to nonpartisan cook political reports and GOP officials.
“This is the secret sauce. Are you ready for that?” Rep. Tony Gonzalez (R-Texas) told California Republicans at the party’s Saturday luncheon. “You have to show up. Step 1, show up. It will appear early. It will appear frequently. Don’t speak a bit of broken Spanish. Don’t cast ads and call it two weeks at the tail of the election.”
Gonzalez, whose district is the most transnational district in the country, said Latinx voters care about the same issues as most voters: the economy, safety and education of their children.
“It’s real,” he added. “You don’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to tell them what they want to hear.”
Rep. Leticia Castillo, a Republican elected to represent the Democratic district, including the Riverside and San Bernardino counties in November, said in addition to her constant door knock, she reached out to Latinos in an unconventional way. She touted her parents’ immigrant roots and her priorities in a popular local Spanish magazine focusing on soccer and Kinseana.
“We’re talking about values, we’re talking about what your beliefs are, and it wasn’t that difficult to get people on board. They want a message, but they don’t know there’s a message they need until you take it to them,” she said.
The state’s GOP leader said such legislative benefits were driven by structural changes, including registering 1 million additional Republican voters over the past six years and focusing on long-standing acceptance of Democrats in early voting, voting harvesting and other election day tactics. The party has also launched a coordinated effort to appeal to Latino voters more consistently and aggressively than in the past decades.
“I don’t think it happened overnight,” state Republican Chairman Jessica Milan Patterson told reporters on Saturday, as his tenure was just over.
Describing Latinos as a community that had previously been “ignored” by the party, she added: “I started going to the farm in 2019 and started talking to farm workers. It made sure your kids got a great education so that they could live a better life than you. It made sure there were safe streets.”
She argued that Democrats had failed such issues, but she admitted that they had been in the Latino community for a long time. “The Democrats came in and the Democrats made them feel like they care about their problems,” Miller Patterson said.
Trump has also been better among Latino and black voters than other Republican presidential candidates, so it is unclear whether California Republicans have improved their performances as part of a fundamental restructuring of political party foundations or whether it is inherent to Trump.
Having Trump voters vote in the election when he’s not on the ballot could be challenging, Milan Patterson added. That was revealed in a failed recall election against Democrats’ government against Gavin Newsom, she said. More than a million Californians voted for Trump in the 2020 presidential election than they voted to remember Newsom in 2021.
Trump’s influence and imprint on the current California Republican Party was evident throughout the three-day convention in Sacramento.
The panel at the three-day gathering at the Hyatt Regency and Convention Center in Sacramento focused on issues such as “law.” Republicans also promoted a potential 2026 California voting law that requires voters to vote.
The most notable speaker was former college swimmer Riley Gaines, who played against the focused and focused trans athletes during Trump’s second election campaign.
“I believe the issue of putting men in women’s sports was an election sleeper issue,” she told the Republican crowd. “Of course, I believe people came to polls to embrace Donald Trump and embrace America’s first agenda… but I believe that if they did, people would have appeared in polls to reject absurdity.
Republican Robin Ellis, left, center Barbara Moore will take a selfie at the Cagop Spring Convention in Sacramento on Sunday.
(Lezlie Sterling/TNS)
The state’s changing voting dynamics could have an impact in next year’s midterm elections, and Californians are expected to play a major role in determining which party will win control of the House.
Medium-term elections are likely rocky for Republicans as the party that won the White House is frequently assaulted in Congressional elections two years later. And in 2024, Congressional race was a weakness for the GOP, despite the party winning house races in most of the country.
Miller Patterson said the loss of three Republican Congressional incumbents in 2024 was driven by the district’s lack of competitiveness and resources. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R. Bakersfield) is one of the most incredible fundraisers in Congress and one of the laved money for California Republicans, resigned in 2023.
This speaks to the broader funding problems facing the party. Milan Patterson was McCarthy’s pupil. The last party chair, former legislative leader Brult, was full of Rorodex along with his donor. The party’s future funding outlook is uncertain.
However, as evidenced by the party’s celebrations on Friday evening, the party’s face is clearly changing. Eight former chairs, all older white men, took to the stage in Thin Lizzy’s “The Boy Returns to Town.” They left the stage in Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl” in honor of Milan Patterson, the party’s first Latina, female and millennial leader.
On Sunday, the party elected a new leader, Corrin Rankin. She is the party’s first black leader.
“Change is coming to California. She told the delegation after winning the leadership post. “We’re attacking. We need to expand the battlefield and fight every corner of the state.”
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