Kevin McCarthy and Duncan Hunter said things in the past week that could be used to destroy whatever future the Republican Party has left in California.
Those statements involved Donald Trump. Hunter endorsed him, and perhaps that wasn’t surprise, given the abhorrent policies that the two have proposed on immigrants. But the McCarthy, the House Majority Leader, who ought to know better, gave a sanguine interview to MSNBC saying that he’ll work Trump as nominee and sounding sanguine about the possibility.
California’s Democrats need to hang that Trump support around McCarthy and every Republican candidate in California As someone who travels the state, I’ve encountered toxic feelings about Trump all over the place, and from people of all parties. Could the Democrats, by making Trump the issue, put even safe Republican seats in play in the fall? I’d bet the answer might be yes.
The Democrats would have the truth on their side. Trump is reprehensible personally – the lying, grafter-like business behavior, the racism, the sexism. He’s committed to policies that are hostile to California – his opposition to immigration, his slurs against Mexico, our leading trading partner (not to mention China and Japan), and his opposition to trade, the heart of the California economy.
Over the last several years, California Republicans have done considerable work—creating more diverse and moderate candidates, building a strong base among local candidates, and trying to back away from anti-immigrant politics. When Kevin McCarthy says Trump is someone he can work with, the natural response—for Californians of every background, region and stripe — is to question whether McCarthy and his fellow Republicans are people we want representing us.