Demographic change in California, including the growth in the percentage of Latino and Asian American voters and their mobilization against Republican policies, caused a drastic drop in Republican fortunes in the state and a major improvement in Democratic prospects.
With growing majorities in the electorate and in the legislature and a near monopoly of elected offices across the state, California’s Democratic leaders could get ahead of the national party on issues ranging from immigration to climate change to health care.
California became a powerful ally of the Obama administration, going further on the environment and demonstrating how the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) could be successfully implemented. During the Trump years, the state often led the resistance on issues such as immigration and climate change, prompting Donald Trump to declare in 2020 that California was “going to hell.”
In the Biden presidency, Newsom led the way with aggressive steps against COVID-19 that cost him politically in the short term, but are paying off with public approval and better, if tentative results, now a path that the cautious Biden now he is treading. their directives on vaccinations.
What’s even more remarkable is Southern California’s elevation as a state and national actor. To date, the presence of the California Democrats in national politics has been due to the influence of the highly organized and liberal Northern California.
The North appeared once again in retirement, providing a large margin and a high turnout for Newsom. But the big change is in Southern California, which is developing a profile as a Democratic powerhouse. It wasn’t just Los Angeles County that turned down the recall; it also failed in the new Democratic leaning Orange and San Diego counties east and south of the Los Angeles metropolis.
The lessons of California’s recall election could become crucial as the party tries to strategize what could be the extremely challenging 2022 midterm elections.
With information from AFP and EFE