California Republicans

Education

Affirmative action has tons of endorsements — so why is Prop. 16 trailing?

Endorsements from the Democratic party, high-ranking state officials, and several media outlets hasn’t translated to a commanding lead for the Yes side in the polls. How voters feel about affirmative action in a vacuum versus in practice is part of the reason why.

By

Mikhail Zinshteyn

• October 21, 2020

A voter drops her ballot into the box at San Francisco City Hall on Super Tuesday 2020. Photo by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters

WhatMatters

California ballot battles heat up

The closer the November election gets, the tenser California’s political climate becomes. Secretary of State Alex Padilla and Attorney General Xavier Becerra — both Democrats — sent a cease-and-desist letter Monday to the California Republican Party, demanding it remove unofficial ballot drop boxes set up outside of churches and gun shops in several counties. The […]

By

Emily Hoeven

• October 13, 2020

Dr. Myiesha Taylor, left, with her daughters Hana Taylor Schlitz, 12, and Haley Taylor Schlitz, 18. Photo courtesy of William Schlitz

Politics

How California expats are helping turn Texas into a battleground state

Pushed by the soaring cost of living, more than 700,000 Californians have moved to the Lone Star state since 2008. It’s part of the reason historically bright red Texas has turned surprisingly purple in 2020.

By

Matt Levin

• October 8, 2020

Capitol

The young Republican lawyer taking on California’s governor

Welcome to the next installment of Insiders. Assemblymember Kevin Kiley, a 35-year-old Rocklin Republican with degrees from Harvard and Yale, left a promising law career to run for a state Legislature so heavily dominated by Democrats as to render Republican votes almost meaningless. “I would do it all over again if I had the opportunity,” […]

By

Emily Hoeven

• September 14, 2020

Elections

Could the path of a GOP revolt against Trump run through east Los Angeles?

A quirk in the Republican Party's nominating process gives outsized influence to its voters in the bluest districts. Will they stay with Trump?

By

Ben Christopher

• March 7, 2019

Capitol

Still more evidence of the GOP collapse in California: A legislator switches parties

GOP Assemblyman Brian Maienschein of San Diego is the latest prominent California Republican to switch parties, giving Democrats a majority of epic proportions in the Legislature.

By

Laurel Rosenhall

• January 24, 2019

Tani Cantil-Sakauye, the chief justice of the California State Supreme Court, talks with the Mercury News editorial board at the Mercury News in San Jose Thursday Jan. 26, 2012. (Patrick Tehan/Staff)

Newsletters

Judges, beaches, COP24 and a heartbreaking fire map

California's top judge leaves her party, the Brock Turner judge asks for money, a memory of the late Judge Newsom, and fingerpointing at the COP.

By

Dan Morain

• December 14, 2018

California Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye gives the keynote address at the UC Davis School of Law commencement ceremony, May 19, 2018.

Politics

Chief justice of the California Supreme Court leaves the Republican Party, citing Kavanaugh

California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye has quietly given up her Republican registration and re-registered as a no-party preference voter, citing the Kavanaugh U.S. Supreme Court nomination and saying she had become increasingly uncomfortable with the GOP’s direction nationally and in the state.

By

Dan Morain

• December 13, 2018

Newsletters

Water, Obamacare and a GOP shellacking

By

Dan Morain

• December 10, 2018

Newsletters

California’s top bracket, and bottom rung

Patagonia founder donates Trump tax cut, private equity firms fight a CA tax hike, how California Republicans voted, Eric Bauer details and TJ Cox's win.

By

Dan Morain

• November 29, 2018