IN TRUMP’S CORNER
Conservative, blue- collar Oildale embraces candidate’s vision
OILDALE, Calif. — Betty Robison got so riled up debating with her son over Donald Trump and immigration that her voice drowned out the barks of her two Chihuahuas.
“I don’t like Mexicans. I don’t like them,” the 58- year- old said in the frontyard of her apartment, which is littered with empty soda bottles and hamburger buns still in their plastic bags. “To me, if you can’t speak English, why be here? Go back to where you come from.”
“That’s the point of coming to America,” said Sean Kearns, 31. “Just because of the color of your skin doesn’t mean you’re not welcome here.”
“Well, you watch [ Trump] get everyone the hell out of here,” retorted Robison, who wore a Dia de Los Muertos shirt. “What gives them the right to come to the United States and take over everything they see?”
Oildale — the conservative hometown of country legend Merle Haggard that is north of Bakersfield — might be as close as California gets to Trump Country. The region has remained loyally Republican while California as a whole has become more Democratic.
Places such as Oildale could prove to be important points on the political map June 7, when California, for the f irst time since the 1960s, will hold a contested Republican presidential primary. Trump faces Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
Oildale, an unincorporated community with a population of 30,000, remains predominantly white while Kern County as a whole is 51.5% Latino. In 2014, the most recent year for which figures were available, it had an unemployment rate of 16% — well above Kern County’s 10.2% and Los Angeles County’s 6.7% in 2015. Oildale’s poverty rate is 32% — well above the county average.
For generations, the community has ridden the boom and bust of the oil industry, but in recent years it’s been far more bust than boom.
“If you go through Oildale, it’s not as economically thriving as some other quadrants of Bakersfield,” said Jeanine Kraybill, assistant professor of political science at Cal State Bakersfield. “We’ve been seeing a trend of where Republicans are in pockets or areas where it’s more manufacturing, blue collar or economically disenfranchised, those sectors are going for Trump, because he’s targeting those demographics.”
Across the nation, these types of communities have embraced the Trump message of stronger borders and tougher trade policy. In the view of Kraybill and others, Oildale could be a bellwether of sorts as to how well that message translates in California.
“Based on what other trends we’ve been seeing — if he’s going to be gaining ground in the Central Valley, it may be more likely in places like Oildale,” she said.