California’s GOP must broaden base to survive

California’s Secretary of State has officially confirmed last month’s gubernatorial election results, which show Gov. Gavin Newsom handily defeating the Republican-led effort: 61.9% against the recall and just 38.1% in favor.

This should be a wakeup call to California Republicans, who have been shut out of statewide office for more than a decade, have dropped well into super-minority status in the Legislature, have fewer than a quarter of the state’s voters — all with no end in sight.

Old conventional political wisdom was that lower-turnout elections favored Republicans, as their voters tend to show up more regularly than Democrats. And a gubernatorial recall occurring at an off time (September, in an oddnumbered year) and when voter fatigue is believed to be high would usually be prime conditions for a low-turnout election.

Yet the gubernatorial recall actually exceeded voter turnout from the 2018 General Election, when Newsom was first elected governor. Not only that, Newsom’s margin of victory in the recall was identical to his 2018 landslide, which means Republicans fared no better.

Remember, 2018 was actually a record year for midterm turnout, with Donald Trumpinduced voter intensity amped up to the max. With Trump no longer on the ballot, intensity remained high (of course, Newsom and Democrats mentioned Trump as much as possible).

Reviving the Republican Party is essential in California, if for no other reason than to provide a modest check on California Democrats who have complete control of the state government.

Political competition is important, especially in a state as large and diverse as California.

However, we won’t be holding our breath.

Just last week, news broke that the San Francisco Republican Party, long considered one of the more moderate county parties, invited controversial conspiracy-theorist Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, to speak at its Lincoln-Reagan dinner. With judgment calls like that, it should come as no surprise that self-identified Republicans constitute less than 7% of the registration in San Francisco.

Instead of putting itself on a path to electability, California Republicans increasingly turn to the strategy that has landed them where they are currently: A party on the path to extinction.

Both parties suffer from the same general problem of pandering to their respective activist bases and select lineup of special-interest groups. The result is predictable, as both parties have turned to increasingly fringe policy priorities out of step with what ordinary people actually care about.

The difference, though, is that the Democratic Party in California enjoys total dominance in California, so it has the privilege of passing laws regulating how ketchup packets are distributed at restaurants or mandating genderneutral toy sections in large department stores.

The GOP in California needs to appeal to more than its activist base if it’s ever going to be a meaningful check on the Democrats’ excesses and failures.