SACRAMENTO — Count another dent in Donald Trump’s once-impenetrable armor: California Republicans are no longer marching in unwavering lockstep behind him — and some are saying so publicly for the first time.
Her preferred alternative: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“I’m leaning toward DeSantis,” Rep. Tom McClintock, of R-Elk Grove, Sacramento County, told The Chronicle at the three-day California Republican Party convention that ended Sunday. “He’s offering all of Donald Trump’s policies without the drama.”
McClintock is believed to be the first member of the 12-member California GOP House delegation to publicly support DeSantis and, perhaps more importantly, break with Trump. But he wasn’t the only member of the delegation to drop support for the former president. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale (Butte County), who represents some of the most conservative parts of California where Trump is popular, told The Chronicle he was undecided.
Their voices — like those of other California Republicans — will carry unusual weight in this presidential campaign, which is in full swing with DeSantis’ visit to Iowa on Friday, Trump’s landing on Monday and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley already visiting .
While California’s Republican Party is virtually powerless within the state — a Republican has not won a statewide office since 2006, and Democrats hold a supermajority in the legislature — Republican voters will enjoy an intergenerational opportunity to make their voices heard in next year’s presidential campaign To provide.
Ballots will arrive in California mailboxes in the second week of February for the March 5 state primary. The last time there was a GOP open field was in 2016, Trump completed the nomination when Californians cast their ballot in June.
This time, however, candidates must run in California if they want to win the GOP nomination. In the 2016 open primary, California provided the largest number of delegates (172) and will probably do so again.
The weekend’s state convention provided the party’s leaders and grassroots activists – the people who do the political grunt work of a campaign – the first opportunity to speak their minds.
Often her silence said the most.
Even if Republicans did not publicly support DeSantis — who is not yet an official candidate — many did not knee-jerkly support Trump, which would have been viewed as heresy in previous election cycles.
Instead, DeSantis has shown his power in California in other ways.
Fred Whitaker, chairman of the influential Orange County Republican Party Chapter, saw the power of DeSantis in action this month when the Florida governor led a fundraiser there that drew 900 people and raised $742,000 for the local party. Whitaker called it “the greatest event the Orange County Republican Party has ever had.”
“That showed me that there is tremendous interest in 2024,” he said. “And there’s tremendous interest in Governor DeSantis.” Whitaker, who is not engaged in the presidential race, said DeSantis’ accomplishment was even more impressive because Whitaker had just one month to complete the annual fundraiser instead of the typical five to plan.
“People are ready for something different,” Whitaker said.
Look no further than the 2020 results in Orange County, arguably California’s toughest battleground region. Republican Representatives Michelle Steel, R-Seal Beach and Young Kim, R-Fullerton each received a higher share of the vote (51%) than Trump (44%).
“I read the voters,” Whitaker said as he assessed DeSantis’ growing strength, “and I read the donors.”
Ivy League-educated DeSantis (with a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a law degree from Harvard Law School) connects with the party’s “intellectual conservative base,” Whitaker said, “but he’s also a tough person,” which “will push back .”
“So many of our constituents who are close to President Trump say, ‘I don’t want a woke country,’ and they like someone who’s willing to hit back,” Whitaker said. “Governor DeSantis has this unique ability to marry the two different wings.”
It is revealing that even longtime Californian Trump supporters do not reflexively back a candidate. That includes Harmeet Dhillon, the San Francisco attorney who ran for Republican National Committee chair this year and lost to incumbent Ronna McDaniel. DeSantis kick-started Dhillon’s RNC presidential campaign by praising her on the eve of the vote, saying the party needs “fresh blood.” Returning the praise at Congress, Dhillon said voters like him because “he’s a very impressive governor.”
That’s kudos from Dhillon, an attorney who still represents Trump in a few legal cases across the country.
“He’s conservative. He is effective. He has a good track record in his state. Not only do people like his rhetoric, they like his results,” DeSantis’ Dhillon told me. “So I think he’s a natural choice for someone looking for the next generation of Republican leaders. But when it comes to rhetoric and politics, he’s not that different from Trump. And I think in that sense they’re both competing for the same voters.”
Gonzalo Vergara is a two-time Trump voter, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who lives in El Dorado County and said he supports DeSantis.
“I think Trump had his four years and he could have done better than what he did,” Vergara, 68, told me.
“It’s kind of a hard-to-swallow dish,” Vergara said. “I don’t think he can win because I think there are more people who are against him because they don’t like him. It would give the Democratic Party, whoever they nominate, a win by default.”
Steve Frank, a longtime California Conservative chronicler and 2019 party presidential candidate, has seen the momentum swing toward DeSantis during the 75 speeches Frank delivers annually to Republican clubs across the state.
“Many of the people who were previously Trump are publicly saying they are dating Trump. Privately, much of this state’s conservative leadership will go with DeSantis,” Frank said.
Not only do they like DeSantis’ likely campaign mantra — “In Florida, waking is to die for” — they like that he backs it with legislation and opposes what they see as the tyrants of the left and the media.
“They say that not only is this a guy who could hold his own against the Democrats, but also against people like Putin and Xi,” Frank said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. “They see him as President.”
Grassroots support buoyed a February Berkeley IGS poll in California that showed DeSantis leading a field of 11 current and potential GOP candidates with 37% of the Republican vote, followed by Trump at 29% and Haley at 7%.
LaMalfa, the congressman representing a district where Trump received 58% of the vote in 2020, told me that “Trump still has the nomination to lose.”
But LaMalfa, who has endorsed Trump twice before, has not yet decided who he will endorse in 2024. He advised Trump not to get bogged down in attacks on his challengers.
“He needs to focus on his race and not worry about what the other contestants are doing,” LaMalfa told me. “You don’t have to run at DeSantis; You don’t have to go after Nikki Haley.” He also said that given his popularity in that part of California, voters in his part of the state don’t want DeSantis to attack Trump.
“DeSantis is a great candidate, but I think Ron would be wise not to confuse it with Trump,” LaMalfa said.
Trump still has fans here. The party was considering a resolution to support Trump in negotiations to end the war between Ukraine and Russia. On Sunday, however, 75% of the congress participants rejected it.
Joan Leone, president of the Republican Club of San Francisco, still supports Trump. She said, “DeSantis is great, but I don’t want him to leave Florida right now,” for fear it might fall into Democrat hands. And Leone has a wish for Trump.
“He has to completely forget what happened in 2020,” Leone said. “He doesn’t have to have cute little names for the other candidates. Focus on what he did (as President) because I loved my 401(k) when Trump was President.”
Younger Republicans are also waiting.
“We’re waiting to see who comes out,” said David Chan, a 20-year-old UC Berkeley student and leader of the College Republicans of California, who voted for Trump last time.
Other Republicans remain nervous about expressing their preference for anyone.
“It’s a pretty tricky time right now and nobody wants their name in block letters,” said Scott Woodworth, a San Jose resident who chairs the California Young Republicans Federation. “The party is still working on the vision and direction in which it wants to go. You have different factions and we will see which will win.”
Even Marty Miller, who sold Trump T-shirts and pins at the convention, hedged his bets. He peddled DeSantis buttons next to those that read, “Presidents Are Temporary/Trump Is Forever.”
Miller is a Trump supporter. What gives?
Said Miller, “I’m a capitalist, baby.”
Reach Joe Garofoli: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @joegarofoli
