Republicans Break With Trump In California Governor’s Race

SAN DIEGO — California Republicans refused Sunday to endorse Donald Trump’s pick for governor here, a stark rebuke of the sitting president by the party’s rank-and-file in the nation’s most populous state.

The activists’ break with Trump — electing not to endorse in the contest, despite his backing of former Fox News host Steve Hilton — came amid worsening fears within the GOP about the party’s prospects in the midterms, including in critical House battlegrounds in California.

On the eve of the endorsement vote, Rep. Darrell Issa acknowledged at the state party’s annual convention that “we may not hold the House in the midterms,” while Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said, “If the election were today, it would be bumpy, because the left is angry. They hate Donald Trump.”

But it was Republicans here who didn’t follow his lead in the gubernatorial race. More party delegates voted for Chad Bianco, a firebrand Southern California sheriff who launched a probe into last year’s special election, than Hilton, with neither reaching the 60 percent threshold necessary to secure an endorsement. Bianco received 49 percent support, Hilton drew 44 percent, and the rest of delegates voted not to endorse.

The outcome was not unexpected among political professionals in the run-up to the convention. Bianco was widely viewed as on the cusp of securing the 60 percent support needed for the endorsement before Trump weighed in — suggesting that the president at least helped Hilton prevent the party from picking sides. Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff, expressed confidence just Friday that he had the votes locked up.

“We think that the numbers are there,” Bianco told POLITICO, days after Trump endorsed Hilton. “Steve knows he doesn't have it, and he's going to be doing everything he can to try and block it.”

But Trump’s inability to further elevate his preferred candidate among convention delegates — traditionally the most fervent partisans, even in this heavily Democratic state — revealed the limits of his influence.

“Both of these candidates have been going literally county by county by county, meeting delegates, talking to people longer than their voters,” said Jon Fleischman, the state party’s former executive director. “And while the president's had a lot of generic influence, when you've already met somebody, when you've shaken their hand, when you've gone through the process and have already endorsed them as an individual, nobody else's endorsement matters to you, not even the president.”

In the convention halls and on the sidelines of party meetings here over the weekend, activists wearing sparkling gold MAGA merch and toting “Bianco for Governor” signs explained their support for the sheriff as the result of long held personal relationships. Most were still bullish both on Trump and on the party’s prospects in the midterms, according to interviews with more than 20 attendees. Some feared the absence of Trump on the midterm ballot is what might pull them down.

“My concern right now is our local politics is not strong enough to push forward the Republican agenda really. Trump is,” delegate Denise Aguilar Mendez, who had not decided who to vote for in the governor’s race, said Saturday. “We all want to support him.”

But an unpopular war in Iran, spiking gas prices and the GOP’s underperformance in a string of recent elections hung over the proceedings. Trump’s approval rating nationally is hovering around 40 percent. Even the optimistic crowd of attendees seemed to sense the risk, growing quiet as Republican members of Congress delivered sobering remarks ahead of the midterms.

During a discussion moderated by Trump’s former press secretary Sean Spicer, Issa, who is retiring rather than seeking reelection in a district gerrymandered in Democrats favor, said retaining the House would require voters to “get past Trump derangement” — a defense of the president but an acknowledgment of the liability he poses.

And Rep. Tom McClintock suggested during the same conversation that the base is not yet fired up. He said, “I think it will be by summer.” But even his optimism was based on an uncertain eventuality — with McClintock predicting voters by summer would feel the economic effects of last year’s megabill “once we’re past all the turbulence from Iran.”