California Republicans energized by their opposition to Newsom’s redistricting special election

Generally speaking, this is a grand moment to become a Republican in the US capital.

President Trump is renovating the White House with a gilded image. The Republicans control both houses of Congress. Two-thirds of the Supreme Court are appointed by the Republican president.

In California, the Republican Party’s prospects are far behind. The party has not elected a statewide candidate in nearly two decades. Democrats have a nearly 2-1 voter registration advantage and have a huge share of both homes in the Legislature.

The story of a State party trapped in the shadows of a deep blue coastal state.

However, in a sea of ​​”Trump 2028″ T-shirts, red magazine hats and American-themed accessories, the California Republican Party suffered a brief suspended sentence of minority status at the fall convention in Orange County this weekend.

Members of the California Republican Party (usually a fragile tribe) are energetic and united by opposition to the Proposal 50, a vote measure laid out by Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democratic leaders Revise the state’s congressional district Struggle against the Republican-led state. Newsom accuses Republicans of trying to “drill” under Trump’s designation for the 2026 election to maintain control of Congress.

Voters will determine their fate Special elections on November 4 And receive mail ballots about four weeks ago.

“There is only one thing that really matters,” said Shawn Steel, one of three members of the Republican National Committee of California. “But at least the next 58 days, those days have passed.” …It’s not just unity. This is survival. ”

If approved, Proposal 50 could put Republicans in five closely divided seats in the U.S. House and set Congressional control in the last two years of Trump’s tenure.

More than $40 million has been invested in campaigns supporting and opposing the work, according to reports of massive donations made to the Secretary of State’s office on Saturday.

Spend is obvious because the glossy pamphlet opposes efforts in voters’ mailboxes before lawmakers vote to vote for Proposition 50. This weekend, ads support measures aired in the University of Michigan and University of Oklahoma football games.

At the state Republican Convention, the convention attracted 1,143 registered delegates, alternatives and guests to the Hyatt Regency in Garden Grove, a priority that was clear.

Republican candidates running for governor next year will often focus on building support between donors and activists less than a year before junior year. But they objected to the 50 proposal during the General Assembly.

“I should say that every time I start talking about it, the first thing we can talk about right now is ‘No on 50’,” Republican gubernatorial candidate Riverside County Cheriff Chad Bianco said Saturday at his training cabin Republican meeting. “So every conversation you have with people has to start with ‘No on 50’. So you say, ‘No 50. Oh, how are you? ”

Bianco and conservative commentator Steve Hilton are two of the most prominent Republican candidates News about success in crowded raceshe will be called in 2026.

The walls of the conference hotel are lined with posters against the redistricting of voting measures, as well as typical campaign flyers, rhinestone magazine buroaches and pro-Trump merchandise, such as T-shirts with “Dad’s Back!” And called on him to be elected to the unconstitutional third term in 2028.

Although the California Republicans last elected statewide candidates in 2006, they have achieved even greater success in voting measures. According to data compiled by the state Republican Party, the party has been on more than 60% of its position since 2010.

“We need you to be involved. It’s a horrible situation,” State Representative David Tangipa (R-Fresno) told the party activist’s ballroom.

Tangipa urges the crowd to connect with their friends and neighbors and center on simple information, which is redistributed, an esoteric process of redrawing the congressional area, which usually happens every decade after the U.S. census to explain population transfers.

“It’s hard to talk about re-division. You know, most people want to have beer, hang out with their family, go to work, take their time,” he said. “You need to talk to Republicans.” [and ask] One question: Should Sacramento’s news agencies and legislature have more power? ”

“No!” the crowd roared.

Attorneys and former Republican candidate Mark Meuser said in a separate re-division panel that attorneys would challenge the new route in federal court the next day if the measures passed by the attorneys were passed.

However, panelists wanted to beat the measure at the ballot box, rather than relying on the court, outlining various messaging strategies for attendees to adopt. Voter advocacy training was conducted during the conference, with similar virtual lesson plans starting Monday.

Even with a focus on the redistributive voting measures, the governor candidates skip around the conference, greet various pre-elect meetings, greet representatives in the corridors and hold private meetings.

More than 80 people have expressed their intention to run for governor next year, although some have since dropped out of school.

While competitors all hope to win one of the top two titles in the June early election and enter the November 2026 election, Bianco and Hilton chat friendly, a performance of the two-person performance throughout the conference.

After Hilton worked with Bianco at a California magazine party on Friday, he argued that the number of Californians who supported Trump in the 2024 election shows that there is a way for Republicans to be elected governor next year.

He pointed to the shiny gold letters spelling Maga, and he said he wanted to exchange the first A for U, so the acronym stands for “Gavin Newsom, America’s most useless governor.”

“The worst record in any state, the highest unemployment rate, the highest poverty, the highest taxes, the highest gas price,” Hilton said. “If we can’t tear these people apart, then we shouldn’t be here. They’re going to ask for another four years. They shouldn’t be four more minutes.”

At a party of about 60 delegates on Saturday, Bianco said he would never speak bad things to his Republican rivals. However, he believes that he is the only candidate who can win the election because he has the ability to succumb to democratic votes due to his goodwill in enforcement.

“Democrats want their kids to be safe. They want their business to be safe. They want their neighbors to be safe. They can say, ‘I will vote for public safety.’ They won’t even say I vote for Republicans,” Bianco promised.

As he smiled and raised his hands to the crowd, Bianco tightly cut his tall and handled beard, even though his badge and leather holster’s pistol were hidden outside the gray suit, his enforcement background immediately reached his enforcement background.

Later, after Bianco spoke to a group of representatives on the Central Coast, wearing more cowboy hats and fewer button-down shirts, Hilton walked to the front of the room and spoke in his cut British accent about how another attendee promised to take him to hunt pigs.

“We’re not talking about the police, I think that’s clear!” a man shouted from the crowd.

“To be precise,” Hilton continued, explaining how his family started a salami business in Hungary, who had stained his hands in the past, “doing all he could to make sausages, including killing pigs.”