Sacramento – A truck waving the big President Trump flag bypassed the California Republican Convention this weekend, with drivers occasionally dancing with the country people’s song “YMCA,” a favorite music at the presidential rally.
Inside, deputies were filled with huge cuts from Trump, wearing glittering gold jackets engraved with “Trump’s Golden Age” and snapped up the “Maga” rhinestone jewelry.
Republicans attended the Cagop Spring organization conference at the Security Credit Cooperation Social Convention Center in Sacramento on Sunday.
(Lezlie Sterling/TNS)
Once dominated by Reagan-era Republicans who favored traditional Conservative policies, including opposing Russian-led Soviet Union and favoring free trade, the California Republican Party is being reshaped by Trump’s populism.
“Just like Reagan is a change-maker in politics, Donald Trump is a transformational figure,” said former state Republican chairman Jim Brulte.
For a party that has long been insignificant in California politics — the last time he elected a statewide candidate nearly two decades ago — there were some highlights in the November general election. Republicans raised their representation in both houses of the state House, the first time the Republicans have done so in the presidential election since 1980.
Although Trump lost 20 points to the state in Democratic presidential candidate and former Californian Vice President Kamala Harris, the Republicans received more votes in November than he has won in the past two presidential elections.
According to the Associated Press, Trump also performed better across the country, winning 43% of the vote. In California, Republicans have also added support from the voting group, according to the political report of the nonpartisan chef and Republican officials.
“It’s a secret sauce. Are you ready?” Rep. Tony Gonzalez (R-Texas) told California Republicans at the party’s Saturday lunch. “You have to show up. Step one, show up. Show up early. Show up often. Don’t speak some broken Spanish. Don’t put on ads and call it two weeks at the end of the election.”
Gonzalez, whose area has the most border miles on any congressional district in the United States, said Latino voters care about the same issues as most voters—economy, security, and children’s education.
“Be true,” he added. “You don’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to tell them what you think they want to hear.”
Councilwoman Leticia Castillo, a Republican who was elected in November to represent a Democratic district including Riverside and San Bernardino counties, said she also contacted Latinos in an unconventional way, in addition to constant door knocks. She promoted her parents’ immigration roots and her priorities in popular Spanish-language magazines focusing on football and Quinciaras.
“We’re talking about value, we’re talking about your beliefs. It’s not hard to get people to join. They want this information, but they don’t know there’s a message until you bring it to them,” she said.
State Republican leaders say the legislative gains are caused by structural changes, including registering one million Republican voters over the past six years and focusing on early voting, voting harvests and other election day strategies that Democrats have long embraced. Compared to previous decades, the party has also launched a concerted effort to attract Latino voters more consistently and more actively.
“I don’t think it happened overnight,” state Republican chairman Jessica Millan Patterson told reporters on Saturday.
She described Latinos as a community that was previously “neglected” by the party, adding: “In 2019, we started going to the farm and talking to the farm workers, we were talking about things that are important to my community, which made sure your work was good. It was making sure your children were well educated so that they lived better than you. It was making sure you had a safe street.”
Although she believes Democrats have failed on such issues, she admits they have long been the Latino community. “Democrats come out and Democrats make them feel they care about the problem,” Millar Patterson said.
Trump also performed better among Latinos and Black voters than other recent Republican presidential nominees, so it is unclear whether the improved performance of California Republicans is part of a basic readjustment of party bases or whether Trump has been specific and evaporated after he left office.
Millan Patterson added that Trump voters can be challenging to participate in the election when Trump does not vote. This became obvious in the failed election to anti-recalling Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. In the 2020 presidential election, more than one million Californians voted for Trump rather than voted for recalling news in 2021.
During the three-day Sacramento conference, Trump’s influence and imprint on the current Republican Party of California was obvious.
During a three-day gathering at the Hyatt Regents and the Sacramento Convention Center, the panel discussed issues such as “law”, and one Trump’s practical supporter believes that weapons will violate his and his goals. Republicans also touted a potential 2026 California voting measure that requires voter ID cards and citizenship to prove anyone who votes, Trump asked the state to adopt the state in exchange for federal relief after a deadly Los Angeles-area wildfire earlier this year.
The most famous speaker is Riley Gaines, a former college swimmer who opposes trans athletes in women’s sports, the focus of Trump’s second election campaign.
“I do believe in the issue of allowing men to participate in women’s sports, it’s a sleeper issue for the election,” she told the Republican crowd. “I believe, of course, people have participated in the polls to embrace Donald Trump, embrace the first agenda of America…but more importantly, I believe people will participate in the polls to reject absurdity, and that’s what the Democrats have become.”
Republicans Robin Ellis, left, Sharie Abajian, Center and Barbara Moore took photos at the Kagup Spring Conference in Sacramento on Sunday.
(Lezlie Sterling/TNS)
The state’s dynamic changes in voting could have consequences in next year’s midterm elections, and Californians are expected to play a major role in deciding which party wins control over the House.
The midterm elections may be tough for Republicans, as the parties that won the White House are often beaten in congressional elections two years later. In 2024, the congressional game is a weakness for the Republican Party, despite the victory of the party in family competitions across much of the country.
Millar Patterson said three Republican congressional incumbents died in 2024 due to their region’s competitiveness and lack of resources. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) left the office in 2023, he is one of the greatest fundraisers in Congress and makes money on California Republicans.
This illustrates the broader fundraising problem facing the Party. Millan-Patterson is McCarthy’s protein. The last party chairman, former legislative leader Brulte, has a Rolodex with donors. The party’s future fundraising prospects are uncertain.
But the face of the party is clearly changing, as evidenced by the celebration of the party’s leadership on Friday night. Eight former chairs, all the older whites, took to the stage of Lizzy’s “Boy Back to Town”. They pay tribute to the party’s first Latino, female and millennial leader Millan-Patterson, who left Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl.”
On Sunday, the party elected its new leader, Corrin Rankin. She is the first black leader of a state party.
“California in the future. It’s time to end a party rule in the Democratic Party and make California great again,” she told deputies after winning the leadership position. “We’re on the offensive. We need to expand the battlefield and bring the battle to every corner of our state.”
