In general, it is a great moment to be republican in the national capital.
President Trump is rediscovering the White House in his gold -plated image. The GOP controls the two chambers of the congress. Two -thirds of the Supreme Court were appointed by republican presidents.
In California, the GOP perspectives are much darker. The party has not elected state -of -scale candidate for almost two decades; Democrats have an advantage of recording voters of almost 2 against 1 and have supermajes in the two chambers of the Legislative Assembly.
It has long been the story of a state party stuck in the shadows in a deep blue coastal state.
Will O’Neill, President of the Republican Party of the County of Orange, Mark Mueser, Dhillon Law Group, Shawn Steel, National Commissioner of RNC, Garrett Fahy, President, National Republican Lawyers Association and member of the State Assembly David Tangipa during the editor -in -editor -in -law according to the 2025 session at the Garden Convention in Garden Grove during the editorial staff.
(Eric Thayer / For time)
However, in the middle of a sea of ”Trump 2028″ t-shirts, red hats of Maga and accessories on the theme of Americana, the Republicans of California had a brief stay of minority status this weekend during their fall agreement in the County of Orange.
The members of the California GOP – often a fractive horde – were energized and united by their opposition to proposal 50, the voting measure carried out by Governor Gavin Newsom and other Democratic leaders to redesign the districts of the State Congress to counter Gérères efforts in the GOP states. Newsom accused the Republicans of having tried to “fake” the 2026 election at Trump’s request to keep control of the congress.
Voters will decide on his fate during a special election of November 4 and will receive ballots by mail about four weeks before.
“Only one thing really matters. We have people in the same play on this question that has hated each other for 20 years, probably for good reasons, on the basis of the ego,” said Shawn Steel, one of the three members of California of the National Republican Committee and the president of the Party Anti-Pos-Proposition campaign on Saturday. “But these days are over, at least for the next 58 days. … It’s more than unity. This is survival.”
If it is approved, proposal 50 could cost the Republicans five seats in the House of US representatives closely divided and determine control of the Congress during the last two years of Trump.
More than $ 40 million has already bypassed the campaigns supporting and opposing the effort, according to reports of great donations filed with the office of the Secretary of State for Saturday.
The expenses were obvious, because brilliant brochures opposing the effort landed in the mailboxes of the voters even before the legislators voted to put the proposal 50 on the ballot. This weekend, advertisements supporting the measure broadcast during the football match between the University of Michigan and the University of Oklahoma.
During the GOP convention of the State, which attracted 1,143 delegates, alternates and guests recorded at the Hyatt Regency in Garden Grove, this priority was obvious.
Republican candidates who show up at the post of governor next year would normally focus on support support among donors and activists less than a year before primary. But they led their opposition to proposal 50 during the Convention.
“I am supposed to say that each time I start to talk about, the most important thing n ° 1 that we can talk about at the moment is not on 50 ”, said on Saturday the sheriff of the county of Riverside, Chad Bianco, a candidate for the post of governor of the GOP.” So, each conversation that you have with people must start with “no on 50”. So you say: “No on 50. »»
Bianco and Conservative commentator Steve Hilton are the two most eminent republican candidates in the crowded breed to succeed Newsom, who will be qualified as 2026.
The walls of the Convention Hotel were bordered by posters opposing the redistribution voting measure, alongside typical countryside leaflets, Maga pins in rhinestones and pro-Trump goods such as t-shirts bearing his face which said “Daddy’s Back!” And calling for his election to a third unconstitutional term in 2028.
Although the California Republicans elected candidates on the state scale in 2006, they were more successful in voting measures. Since 2010, the party has been victorious in more than 60% of the proposals on which it has taken a stand, according to data compiled by the GOP of the State.
“We need you to get involved. This is a disastrous situation,” said state deputy David Tangipa (R-Fresno), a ballroom filled with party activists.
California Gop Convention in Garden Grove, California on Saturday September 6, 2025. (Eric Thayer / For Times)
Participants of the Redecoupage Law in 2025 at California Gop Convention in Garden Grove. (Eric Thayer / For time)
Tangipa urged the crowd to reach out to their friends and neighbors with a simple message that is not centered on redistribution, the esoteric process of redrawing the congress districts which generally occurs once each decade following the American census to take into account changes in population.
“It is too difficult to talk about redistribution. You know, most people want to have a beer, spend time with their family, go to work, spend time,” he said. “You have to talk to the Republicans [and ask] A question: do Governor Newsom and the Legislative Body in Sacramento deserve more power? »»
“No!” The crowd roared.
If the measure adopts, the lawyers would contest the new lines before the Federal Court the next day, said the lawyer and former candidate of the GOP, Mark Meuser, during a separate redistribution panel.
But rather than counting on the courts, the panelists hoped to defeat the measure in the polls, describing various messaging strategies to adopt. Voter awareness training took place during the Convention, and similar virtual courses were to start on Monday.
Even by emphasizing the measurement of the redistribution vote, the candidates for the governor also went around the convention, speaking to various caucus, welcoming the delegates in the corridors and holding private meetings.
More than 80 people reported their intention to present themselves to the post of governor next year, according to the office of the Secretary of State, although some have since abandoned.
Despite being rivals who both hope to win one of the first two places in the June primary and go to the general elections of November 2026, Bianco and Hilton chatted amicably, a show of two men throughout the Convention.
Hilton, after posing alongside Bianco at the California Maga rally on Friday, argued that the number of Californians who supported Trump in the 2024 elections shows that there is a way for a Republican to be elected governor next year.
Taking scintillating letters into gold blocks that spent Maga, he said he wanted to exchange first for a U, so that the acronym is for “the most useless governor in America, Gavin Newsom”.
“The worst record of all states, the highest unemployment, the highest poverty, the highest taxes, the highest gas prices,” said Hilton. “If we cannot tear these people, then we don’t deserve to be here. They will ask for another four years. They don’t deserve four minutes yet.”
California gubernatorial candidate Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco speaks to California Gop Convention in Garden Grove.
(Eric Thayer / For time)
During a rally on Saturday of around 60 delegates of the northern conservative band of California, Bianco said that he would never say a bad word about his republican opponents. But, he argued, he was the only candidate who could win the elections because of his ability to siphon democratic votes because of his good faith of the police.
“Democrats want their children to be safe. They want their companies to be safe. They want their neighborhoods to be safe. And they can say: “I will vote for public security”. They will not even say that I vote for a republican, ”promised Bianco.
As he raised his hands to the crowd with a smile, Bianco was a haircut and handlebar mustache, Bianco, instantly telegraphed his background of the law, even if his badge and his pistol case were hidden under a gray blazer.
Later, after Bianco addressed a host of delegates from the central coast sporting more cowboy hats and fewer buttoned shirts, Hilton went towards the front of the room and spoke in his British accent cut in the way in which another participant had promised to take him pork.
The candidate for the Governor in California, Steve Hilton, talks to the California Gop Convention in Garden Grove.
(Eric Thayer / For time)
“We were not talking about police officers, I want to understand that!” A man shouted in the crowd.
“Exactly,” continued Hilton, explaining how his family had a Salami company in Hungary and he had taken his hands in the past, “making all the aspects of the sausage, especially by killing pigs.”
