California Republicans made minor, incremental gains in the state legislature this cycle, flipping a handful of seats from blue to red in Sacramento. Democrats will still enjoy supermajorities in this one-party-rule state, but their advantages will be less dominant. The GOP successfully shifted two assembly seats and one senate seat into their column, moving the needle slightly with a diverse set of candidates. Despite Donald Trump winning the highest red percentage of the presidential vote in the state since 2004, California still is a very tough nut to crack, in large part thanks to the aggressive partisan gerrymandering Democrats have engineered to protect their power. The ruling party is also unlikely to take any steps to count votes more efficiently and reliably, despite the embarrassing spectacle of having US House elections still unresolved into late Novemner and even December. This third-world system benefits them, so they have no incentive to clean up the humiliating system (for what it's worth, both of the last Congressional races called flipped red to blue, very narrowly, thanks to extremely late-counted votes).
Still, conservatives in the Golden State will take their silver linings where they can find them. Statewide initiatives restored sanity on crime-related issues, and voters also rejected a harmful minimum wage hike for the first time in California history. Locally, woke and leftist leaders were booted out of office, from the Soros District Attorney in Los Angeles to the mayor of Oakland. And, as mentioned above, there was this:
The Republican caucus in California’s Legislature is growing more diverse as Latino and Asian American candidates apparently flipped three Democrat-held seats, including unseating an incumbent Democrat senator for the first time in a presidential election since 1980. When new legislators are sworn in next week, Democrats will still control a supermajority in the Legislature. But the three flipped seats have Republicans hopeful that California’s reputation as a liberal enclave state may be shifting. They point to Latino and Black voters helping send Donald Trump to the White House for a second term. “As Californians grow increasingly frustrated with the failures of Democrat leadership, they are shifting toward Republican solutions,” Senate Republican Leader Brian Jones said in a statement. “Senate Republicans are not only growing in numbers but also diversity.”
The story mentions that nearly half of the Republicans in the legislature are now nonwhite, but as we're continuing to learn, Democrats aren't always eager to "celebrate diversity," or whatever:
Republicans Latinos in the California legislature being denied membership in the Latino Caucus 🙄
— Andrew Clark (@AndrewHClark) December 13, 2024
Even after huge shifts in Latino voters towards the GOP in 2024, https://t.co/9wxERPEAp2
Within the state Legislature, some lawmakers have sorted themselves into what’s called the “Latino Legislative Caucus.” From its online description, the aim of the caucus “is to identify, promote and advocate on behalf of the professional, educational, social, political and cultural interests of the Latino Community.” That sounds innocuous enough. But there’s a catch to the caucus’ rules: No Republicans allowed, even if they’re Latino and want to promote and advocate for the interests of the Latino community. This restriction is particularly awkward considering the growing number of Latino Republicans in the California Legislature. Representing at least parts of Riverside County and San Bernardino County include Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh, Sen. Suzette Martinez-Valladares, Asm. Kate Sanchez, Asm. Leticia Castillo and Asm. Jeff Gonzalez. They’re not allowed into the Latino Legislative Caucus because they are apparently the wrong kind of Latino.
We mentioned some of the seismic realignments within California and elsewhere among Latinos, including overwhelmingly Hispanic and deep blue counties voting Republican this year. Democrats in California are responding by doubling down on the idea that 'wrong-thinking' Latinos need not apply. If that's the case, what's the point of naming your affinity group caucus the 'Latino Legislative Caucus'? Just call it the 'Latino Democrats,' or something like that. We've seen the same phenomenon in DC with the Congressional Black Caucus, for instance. No wonder more Democrats of color are realizing maybe they don't belong in that party anymore. I'll leave you with part of my discussion on this subject with the outgoing California GOP Chairwoman:
.@LatinoCaucus is willfully ignoring the rightward shift of California’s Latino voters.
— Jessica Millan Patterson (@millanpatterson) December 15, 2024
Thanks @guypbenson @GuyBensonShow for having me on to discuss! pic.twitter.com/DTw38yYLe0
