It’s amazing how the California GOP is choosing Trump over ever being relevant again | Opinion

Donald Trump was the darling of the California Republican party’s fall convention in Anaheim on Friday, and he attended with good reason.

California has been toxic for Trump in the last two presidential elections. In 2016, Democrat Hillary Clinton got 62.2% of the state’s votes to Trump’s 31.6%.

The results were nearly identical four years later, when Democrat Joe Biden received 63.5% to Trump’s 34.3%.

So why would Trump, who faces a $250 million civil fraud trial starting Monday in New York, take time to travel to Anaheim to meet California Republicans?

Because they are key to his future as the party’s nominee in next year’s presidential election.

If Trump wins 50% or more next March’s Republican primary in California, he will get the state’s 169 delegates to the GOP national nominating convention next summer. That is the largest share of delegates of any state.

And therein is the irony: Trump needs California’s Republicans. But the state’s electorate overwhelmingly rejects him when the general election comes around.

Yet by backing him, presuming they do, the California’s Republicans will remain stuck in irrelevancy in the Golden State. Democrats have a 2 to 1 margin in registration over Republicans. Trump’s policies, and personality, are wildly unpopular here.

The last Republicans to hold statewide office in California were Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was governor, and Steve Poizner as insurance commissioner. The year was 2006.

John Pitney, professor of government at Claremont McKenna College and former Republican National Committee staffer, told The Sacramento Bee that the Republican party that used to win statewide contests in California is long gone.

Time to ditch Trump

Here is how the GOP can become relevant again: Don’t back Trump.

To Republicans, that may seem like a ridiculous idea, but consider Trump’s record: four criminal indictments; the leading role in fomenting the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol; democracy-damaging claims of a fraudulent election; and his continued desire to push chaos.

Witness his recent demand that House Republicans oppose any efforts to fund the federal government. It took Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield winning Democrat support to get a 45-day stopgap measure passed that avoids a shutdown and continues the government into November.

Trump supporters can delude themselves as much as they want that the indictments are fake and a form of political persecution. Common sense and a unbiased look at the evidence gathered so far shows they are not.

Trump remains the single greatest danger to the future of American democracy since he has no respect for it.

It is up to average Republicans to put a stop to Trump. If they do not quit him, and he wins the election next year, he has promised to seek retribution against his opponents.

Make the break

California’s Republicans could chart a new path for the party and the nation. They would embolden Republicans in other states to say no to Trump.

The only way America overcomes Trump’s thrall is if Republicans deny him what he wants.

But will they do that? Polls show him far ahead in California, just like the rest of the nation.

What his followers don’t understand is that Trump is temporary, but the damage the California GOP inflicts on itself to blindly support him will endure.