![]() ![]() Gonzalo Vergara is a two-time Trump voter, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who lives in El Dorado County and said he is backing DeSantis. And so I think in that sense, they’re both competing for the same voters.” But in terms of rhetoric and policy, he is not that different from Trump. “And so I think he’s a natural choice for somebody who is looking for the next generation of Republican leaders. People like not only his rhetoric, but also his results,” Dhillon told me about DeSantis. That’s high praise coming from Dhillon, an attorney who still represents Trump in some legal cases around the country. DeSantis boosted Dhillon’s RNC chair campaign by praising her on the eve of the vote, saying the party needed “new blood.” Dhillon returned the praise at the convention, saying voters like him because “he’s a very impressive governor.” That includes Harmeet Dhillon, the San Francisco attorney who ran for Republican National Committee chair this year, losing to the incumbent Ronna McDaniel. What’s telling is that even longtime California Trump supporters are not reflexively lining up behind a candidate just yet. ![]() “Governor DeSantis has that unique ability to marry the two distinct wings.” “So many of our voters who are aligned with President Trump are saying, ‘I don’t want a woke country,’ and they like somebody who’s willing to punch back,” Whitaker said. The Ivy League-educated DeSantis (undergraduate degree from Yale University and law degree from Harvard Law School) connects with the “intellectual conservative base” of the party, Whitaker said, “but he’s also a tough person” who is “going to push back.” “I’m reading the voters,” Whitaker said in assessing DeSantis’ rising strength, “And I’m reading the donors.” Michelle Steel, R-Seal Beach, and Young Kim, R-Fullerton, each got higher percentages of the vote (51%) than Trump did (44%). Look no further than the 2020 results in Orange County, arguably the toughest battleground region in California. “People are ready for something different,” Whitaker said. “And there’s a tremendous amount of interest in Governor DeSantis.” Whitaker, who is uncommitted in the presidential race, said DeSantis’ showing is even more impressive given that Whitaker only had one month to plan the annual fundraising event instead of the typical five. ![]() “That told me that there’s a tremendous amount of interest in 2024,” he said. ![]() Whitaker called it “the biggest event the Orange County Republican Party has ever had.” Instead, DeSantis has been flashing his power in California in other ways.įred Whitaker, chairman of the influential Orange County Republican Party chapter, saw DeSantis’ might in action this month, when the Florida governor headlined a fundraiser there that drew 900 people and raised $742,000 for the local party. The state convention over the weekend offered the first opportunity for the party’s leaders and grassroots activists - the people who do the political grunt work of a campaign - to show what they’re thinking.Įven if Republicans weren’t publicly backing DeSantis - who isn’t an official candidate yet - many weren’t reflexively backing Trump, something that would have been considered heresy in previous election cycles. In 2016’s open primary, California offered the most delegates (172) and probably will again. This time, however, candidates will have to campaign in California if they want to capture the GOP nomination. The last time there was an open GOP field, in 2016, Trump wrapped up the nomination by the time Californians cast their votes in June. While the California Republican Party is virtually impotent within the state - a Republican hasn’t won statewide office since 2006, and Democrats hold a supermajority in the Legislature - Republican voters will enjoy a generational opportunity to have their voice heard in next year’s presidential campaign.īallots will start landing in California mailboxes in the second week of February for the state’s March 5 primary. ![]()
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