California Republican Party
The California Republican Party (CAGOP) is the affiliate of the United States Republican Party in the U.S. state of California. The party is based in Sacramento and is led by chair Jessica Millan Patterson.[2]
California Republican Party
Jessica Millan Patterson
1854
Sacramento
5,236,952[1]
- Red
(customary) - Green Blue
As of October 2023, Republicans represent approximately 23.9% of the state's registered voters, placing the party far behind the California Democratic Party which has 46.8% of registered voters.[3] The party is a super minority in the California State Legislature, holding less than 1/3 (33.3%) of the seats in both chambers of the legislature: 18 seats out of 80 in the California State Assembly (23%), and 8 seats out of 40 in the California State Senate (20%). The party holds none of the eight statewide executive branch offices, 12 of the state's 52 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives delegation, and neither of California's seats in the U.S. Senate.
The California Republican Party is known for its culture-war style politics; the state party platform advocates for a near-total ban on abortion access, banning same-sex marriage, and privatizing education.[4]
History[edit]
The Republican Party was born in the 1850s as a primary vehicle to oppose the expansion of slavery in the United States. In 1856, Republicans nominated one of California's inaugural senators, John C. Frémont, for the 1856 presidential election,[5] but he lost the state by a wide margin to Democrat and eventual winner James Buchanan, though he did win the state of New York. Later in 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected to the presidency as the first Republican president. The Republican Party would emerge as primary opposition to the Democratic Party until the present day.
California Republicans and Democrats were competitive throughout the late 19th century. In 1878, Republican California Senator Aaron A. Sargent introduced the language that would become the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which would allow women the right to vote.[5]
Republicans dominated state politics for most of the 20th century (they controlled the state senate from 1891 to 1958) until the 1960s when the Democrats once again became competitive with the rightward shift of the Republican Party, exemplified by their nomination of Barry Goldwater in 1964 (Goldwater lost California in a landslide).[6] Republicans still saw ample success up until the 1990s. George H. W. Bush carried the state in 1988 after Ronald Reagan twice carried the state in 1984 and 1980. Pete Wilson was elected Senator in 1988, and John Seymour was the last Republican Senator from California after being appointed to the seat in 1991.
California's Latino and Asian populations grew significantly in the 1990s and the growing segment of voters were turned off by the Republican Party's hard-line stance on immigration (the Party closely tied itself to Proposition 187). Democrats have won most elections at the state, local, and federal levels since the 2000s by comfortable margins. For example, despite failing to win the presidency, Hillary Clinton won a higher percentage of votes than any candidate since Franklin D. Roosevelt.[6]
Still, California elected Arnold Schwarzenegger twice for governor. Schwarzenegger and Steve Poizner, who later became an independent, are the last Republicans to win statewide elections in California.
California has two Republican presidents in U.S. history: Richard Nixon, who was a U.S. representative and senator from California, and Ronald Reagan, who was a governor of California (1967–1975). Herbert Hoover also studied in California and lived there for a number of years. Other notable California Republicans include former Governor and Chief Justice Earl Warren, former Governor and Senator Hiram Johnson, and former Senator and founder of Stanford University Leland Stanford.[5]
In 2018, the California Republican Party had fewer registered voters than voters registered with a no party preference option, but that trend reversed in 2020.[7][8]
Rules for presidential primary elections[edit]
How delegates are awarded[edit]
As of the 2024 Republican National Convention, the California Republican Party gets to send 169 delegates to the quadannual Presidential nominating convention, the most of any state party. From the 2004 presidential primary until the 2020 presidential primary, the California Republican Party awarded 3 delegates to the winner of the primary within each one of the state's congressional districts, with the balance (about a dozen delegates) awarded proportionally based on the statewide result.[13]
Ahead of the 2024 National Convention, the state party changed its rules for awarding delegates in order to comply with the rules of the national party (failure to do so would have resulted in a cut of 50% to the number of delegates the state party gets to send to the national convention). Under the new system, delegates are awarded based on the statewide results, rather than results within the individual districts. At the urging of the Donald Trump presidential campaign, the rules were also changed that if a candidate receives more than 50% of the primary votes, the candidate gets 100% of the state's 169 allotted delegates. If no candidate gets 50% of the primary vote, then delegates are awarded proportionally.[14]
Participation of "independent" voters[edit]
Since January 2001, California has had a "modified" closed primary system in which political parties can determine whether or not to allow voters who are not affiliated with any party (i.e. "independent") to participate in the party's primary. The passage of Proposition 14 limited this "modified" closed primary system to primaries for President of the United States, starting with the 2012 primaries. Since the adoption of the "modified" closed primary system, the California Republican Party has allowed "independent" voters to vote in Republican primaries only in 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2010 (for 2008, the allowance applied to all primaries except for the presidential primary).[15]
