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As GOP dysfunction in the House hit a fever pitch these past few weeks, Californians read a flurry of stories about vulnerable California Republicans John Duarte, David Valadao, Mike Garcia, Young Kim, Ken Calvert, and Michelle Steel’s attempts to catapult far-right extremists into their party’s leadership.
DCCC Spokesperson Dan Gottlieb:
“If vulnerable California Republicans like Duarte, Valadao, Garcia, Calvert, and Steel thought voters wouldn’t notice the far-right extremists they’ve been empowering in Congress, they’re in for a rude awakening. These hypocrites preach moderation while elevating the far-right fringes of their party, and Californians will remind them next November that they can’t have their cake and eat it, too.”
In case you missed it:
POLITICO: Orphaned by McCarthy, California Republicans stand alone
Sejal Govindarao | October 24, 2023
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Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s unceremonious ouster and the ensuing weeks of morass landed a one-two blow to California Republicans representing Biden-won House districts.
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Not only did the half-dozen GOP members in swing seats lose their loyal patron, but each also voted to install, as McCarthy’s replacement, a hardliner in Ohio Republican Jim Jordan. He fell way short and gave up on the speakership, but not before California’s GOP delegation all put themselves on the record with a vote Democrats are salivating to use in next year’s elections.
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California was already going to be a big uphill climb for Republicans to retain their advantage in the handful of competitive races given that 2024 will be a presidential election and the state keeps getting bluer. They’ll now have to do it without the beating heart of the state party — Kevin McCarthy — who for years has helped build their bench through energetic recruitment and showered the districts with money and attention even as the state Republican Party atrophied to the point of near non-existence.
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Rep. David Valadao squeezed by pro-Trump primary challenger Chris Mathys by a razor-thin margin last year and went on to beat former Democratic Assemblymember Rudy Salas by just 3 percentage points in the general election. But the congressman who in 2021 voted to impeach Trump has continued to veer right. He cast three votes for Jordan, which he’ll have to justify to blue-leaning voters and moderates in a district heavily populated by immigrants and farmworkers.
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His Central Valley colleague Rep. John Duarte also had a narrow triumph last year, defeating former Democratic Assemblymember Adam Gray by a mere 564 votes. In other districts — such as Garcia’s and Steel’s — Democrats hold a significant registration advantage. In his newly redrawn district that encompasses Palm Springs, Rep. Ken Calvert won by less than five percent. Rep. Young Kim, though beating her opponent by a larger margin, also represents a Biden-won district.
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“Vulnerable Republicans like Calvert, Duarte, Garcia, Steel, and Valadao have spent the past week showing Californians exactly who they are — enablers of their party’s worst impulses and far-right extremists who want to ban abortion and overturn election results,” said DCCC spokesperson Dan Gottlieb. “These GOP shills can speak about moderation until they’re blue in the face, but they cave to their MAGA extremist friends almost every time.”
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Republicans by and large reject the idea that the speaker race will remain top-of-mind for California voters next fall, like other economic and public safety related issues. But they’ve become increasingly aware they’ll have to fight it out without a safety net in McCarthy.
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“Nothing’s better than having Kevin McCarthy from the Central Valley as the Republican speaker of the House,” Duarte said in an interview. “And I’m a Central Valley Republican running in a tough district.”
The Fresno Bee: Do California Republicans face a tougher 2024 campaign with Mike Johnson as House speaker?
Gillian Brassil | October 26, 2023
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Many of the state’s GOP congressional incumbents were already in tough positions headed into next year. The removal of fellow Californian Rep. Kevin McCarthy, their valued fundraiser and political patron, in favor of Rep. Mike Johnson, who devised a legal argument to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory, may place them on even more unstable ground.
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For Republicans to maintain their slim House majority, they will need to hold the line in California. But they “are now associated with one of the most far-right elements of MAGA, the MAGA Republican Whig Party,” said GOP consultant Mike Madrid.
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“This is the realization that this isn’t an abstract thing anymore. This is an existential threat to the values that a lot of Republicans — especially women, college-educated women are facing — and they’re saying, ‘I’ve had enough.’”
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“You have to remember that the Republicans have done very poorly with their own base in the last three straight election cycles,” he said. “And this is lining up to make it a fourth.”
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“Mike Johnson is Jim Jordan with a sports coat — possibly worse — and he has a new posse of best friends in California …” said Dan Gottlieb, a spokesman for the Democratic Campaign Committee. “These GOP shills have enabled MAGA extremism every step of the way, and we’ll make sure that voters know that they once again put the far-right before California workers and families.”
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Losing McCarthy in leadership puts California Republicans in a tough spot. With his formidable fundraising, McCarthy has been a significant source of cash for the state GOP, often using his assets to protect vulnerable incumbents.
The Orange County Register: Orange County Republicans Kim and Steel choose MAGA over governing
Editorial Board | October 25, 2023
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The GOP-controlled House of Representatives had gone three weeks without a speaker, after Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida – one of the House’s most flamboyant pro-MAGA members – led a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair because Kevin McCarthy had worked with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown.
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After a series of failed candidates, the GOP selected – and the House voted – to make Mike Johnson of Louisiana the new speaker. Johnson is little known, but was neck-deep in efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He even sent an email to House Republicans urging them to sign onto an amicus brief in a Texas lawsuit to invalidate electoral-college votes from several states.
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Before Johnson, the Republican caucus selected Jim Jordan of Ohio, a MAGA bomb-thrower. The House’s January 6 report called Jordan “a significant player” in efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
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Apparently, election denialism was a GOP requisite to lead the House. Nevertheless, Jordan and Johnson both secured the votes of two Orange County members who should have known better.
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We would have expected both members to hold out for a speaker candidate who was less of an ideological rabble-rouser.
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And yet with the speaker vote, they both gave in to the most extreme form of Trumpism.
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We look forward to hearing their justifications as the congressional races get underway.
Lake County Record-Bee: House Republican dysfunction couldn’t come at a worse time
Bay Area News Group Editorial Board | October 24, 2023
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The nation’s government is paralyzed — and it’s hard to imagine a worse time.
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Why? Because the Republican Party is in shambles. Hard-right conservatives engineered McCarthy’s ouster with little thought about a succession plan that could succeed. For them, bipartisan compromise is simply off the table. Indeed, it was such compromises by McCarthy, which kept the country from financial breakdown, that led to his ouster.
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That most members of the GOP pressed so hard for a divisive member like Jordan to lead the House, that they threatened holdout members of their own party for not backing him, demonstrates how far right most elected Republicans have migrated, how ugly the internal party politics have become and how hard it will be to reach compromise.
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Even five California members from heavily competitive districts in the Central Valley and southern part of the state — David Valadao, Michelle Steel, Mike Garcia, John Duarte and Ken Calvert — stood by Jordan through three rounds of voting. Loyalty to the Trump wing of the party, and the fear of a primary challenge from the right, are driving a wedge between Republican members of Congress and representation of their diverse constituents.
Spectrum News 1: California Dems target GOP swing seats over Speaker vote
Cassie Semyon | October 23, 2023
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When the clerk read the roll call three times last week, five California Republicans in swing districts found themselves contemplating either backing House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan — a divisive, far-right hardliner — or voting for someone else.
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“You have, particularly five California Republicans who have claimed to be more moderate and have claimed to want to really represent everyone, be more independent, and that just not been the case,” argued Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif. “They all voted for Jim Jordan multiple times, they voted for someone that believes in a national abortion ban, someone that does not believe LGBTQ plus people should have any rights, someone that only wants tax cuts for large corporations and billionaires. And so I think that clearly, some of these congressional members are not being honest with their constituents and with the public. They supported Jim Jordan, and that was really a shame to see.”
Los Angeles Times: Column: These California Republicans voted for Jim Jordan and against the good of the country. Remember their names
Mark Barabak | October 17, 2023
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On Wednesday, California’s 12 GOP House members put tribal loyalty above the country’s best interests and heedlessly cast their votes to make Jim Jordan — election denier, Jan. 6 instigator, political pyromaniac — the next House speaker.
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Remember their names — especially the ones who are running next year in some of the country’s most competitive reelection contests: Ken Calvert. John Duarte. Mike Garcia. Michelle Steel. David Valadao.
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Each had a chance to stand up for what is honest and right. Each failed to do so.
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Memories of Jan. 6, 2021, the most grievous attack on our democracy since the Civil War, may have faded in the past many months. It’s easy with that passage of time and the fog of partisan conflict to lose moral clarity. So here’s a refresher: Jordan not only condoned President Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election and reject its legitimate outcome but actively plotted with the pouty president to do so. The result was the deadly assault on Congress and first attempted coup in the nation’s history.
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And the reward for Jordan’s treachery is to elevate him to the speakership? Duarte, Garcia and the rest must think so, perversely enough.
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Four lawmakers representing Central Valley and Southern California districts that Joe Biden carried — Duarte, Garcia, Steel and Valadao — are more vulnerable.
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But that only speaks to the seemingly limitless capacity of House Republicans to take a bad thing and make it worse. When you drive a car into a ditch, do you summon an auto crusher to pull it out?
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Come 2024, remember the names and misplaced loyalties of those California lawmakers who voted to install an insurrection-backing, integrity-lacking Trump today as head of the body that calls itself the People’s House.
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Hold them to account. Stand up for first principles. Stop the crazy.
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