President-elect Donald Trump received criticism for holding a campaign rally in the long deep-blue state of California, but this week’s election results continue to show there is a “right-shift” to Trump and Republicans in the state.
Trump outperformed his 2016 and 2020 vote in the state and progressive Democrats lost in the deepest of blue areas of San Francisco (mayor) and Los Angeles (LA County district attorney). There has been nearly an 8-point move in the Trump era.
The shift in California is now apparent, even if it is marginal, according to University College London’s Thomas Gift to Newsweek.
“California’s right shift is the result of years of Democratic governance that have been dominated by structural indebtedness, high taxes, burdensome regulations and an exorbitant cost of living,” Gift said.
“The uptick in Republican voting doesn’t even capture the great exodus of many disillusioned Republicans who’ve fled California for states like Texas, Arizona, Nevada, and Florida.”
California still struggles to get its votes counted within days, if not weeks, because of mass mail-in balloting under Democrat rule, but Trump has pulled 39% support in the state with just 72% of the vote reported almost one week into the count. Presidential election loser but declared California winner Vice President Kamala Harris has 58% support.
That is a near 5-point move right after Trump pulled 34.3 support in the record-setting COVID, antifa, Black Lives Matter, and George Floyd election of 2020. He won 31.5% of the vote in 2016.
Trump resoundingly won the election with 312 Electoral College votes and nearly a 4 million-vote edge in the popular vote that has eluded Republicans for two decades, according to the latest Newsmax projections.
Two of Democrats’ long-held strangleholds of San Francisco and Los Angeles even showed burgeoning Democrat weakness in the state.
Independent candidate Nathan Hochman, a former Republican, defeated progressive Democrat Los Angeles Country District Attorney George Gascón, who took office in that 2020 social justice election promising criminal-justice reform.
Also, Daniel Lurie, a moderate Democrat promising “clean and safe streets for all” and addressing “our drug and behavioral health crisis” defeated San Francisco progressive Mayor London Breed by a 56%-44% margin.
Breed had at times attempted to move away from progressive and social-justice policies as San Francisco has been overcome by crime and outward migration.
While the U.S. population has grown under mass migration, notably immigration-leading states Texas and Florida, California’s population has declined by .3%. While that percentage of less than a point might seem small, there is more than 30 million in the state of California and .3% amounts to roughly 1.2 million fewer Californians.
That comes, notably, with California being a Gov. Gavin Newsom-led sanctuary state under the Biden-Harris regime. Without a flood of border-state migrants, California’s population loss might have been even greater, something that could come if Trump makes good on his vow to “close the border.”
“The increased Republican support in California is concerning to Democrats, but the districts that flipped to Trump have flip-flopped since 2004, when they were last all red,” political expert Dafydd Townley told Newsweek.
“California voters also showed hesitancy in supporting the state’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s progressive agenda that was up for grabs too. They rejected a progressive prosecutor in LA County, supported tougher punishments for criminal sentences, and voted against expanding rent control across the state.”
But the 2026 midterms might bring a wobble back to the left, he added.
“Is this a sign that California is turning red or even purple? Unlikely,” he told Newsweek. “Harris still comfortably won the state and Democrat Adam Schiff was elected to the Senate. It’s likely that many voters will flip back blue now that the Republicans are the incumbents in the White House and control Congress.
“If Republicans make further gains in the 2026 midterms then perhaps a discussion can start to be had about the state turning red.”
