Trump continues West Coast tour ahead of Nevada caucuses after rallying thousands in Arizona
The president goes on the attack against Democrats in Phoenix ahead of the next primary contest; Jacqui Heinrich reports from the president's next stop in Las Vegas.
President Trump came to California this week. Again.
Although I am an eternal optimist, I am also a realist who is well aware that California and its 55 electoral votes are all but guaranteed to go to the Democrat candidate in November. So why would he bother coming all the way across the country to a state that won’t matter to his reelection efforts?
President Trump’s mere presence in the Golden State invigorates his base — and simultaneously annoys his political rivals (a byproduct I’m sure he doesn’t mind). And despite the Democratic Party’s dominance over California politics, conservative voters shouldn’t succumb to despair. There are more than 4.7 million registered Republicans in California, more than any other state.
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Those voters could — and should — play a vital role in shaping the narrative of the 2020 presidential election, even if they’re unable to flip the state for President Trump.
Since it first became clear that Donald Trump had won the 2016 election, liberals have been declaring “he’s not our president,” or “he’s an illegitimate president,” because “he didn’t win the popular vote.” Even though the Constitution clearly states that the president of the United States is elected via the Electoral College, the left wants to do away with the Electoral College and elect the president by a nationwide popular vote — something they’re actually trying to accomplish without bothering to go through the required process of amending the Constitution.
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This cynical ploy to cheat the electoral system is based on the assumption that Democrats would easily win a majority of the popular vote — but that’s hardly a foregone conclusion. As President Trump has said many times, his strategy in the 2016 election was designed to maximize his chances of winning the Electoral College, not the popular vote. Indeed, he has even speculated that it might have been easier to win the popular vote, had that been the condition for victory.
And that brings us to how California — even though it will undoubtedly give its electoral votes to the Democrat candidate — can still help President Trump this November.
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By turning out to vote for the president in large numbers, California Republicans can validate his Electoral College victory by helping him win the popular vote too. Depriving the left of its ability to question the president’s legitimacy could be the legacy of the silenced and marginalized Republicans in the Golden State in 2020.
For California Republicans who have felt politically irrelevant for far too long, let this be a rallying cry — a motivation to turn out to the polls en masse on Nov. 3. It will help competitive Republican candidates all the way down the ballot, from congressional races to city council seats, and will most definitely contribute to the president’s victory in November — not electorally, perhaps, but certainly symbolically.
By coming to California and touting his successful record of delivering peace, safety and prosperity throughout the country, the president is shining a spotlight on the abject failure of California’s policies, creating a stark and compelling contrast that even mainstream Democrats are hard-pressed to ignore.
As the nation heads in a positive direction in numerous ways, California refuses to follow the president’s lead, regardless of the success he is championing. California Democrats — who control both the governor’s mansion and the State Legislature — have pursued a “resist at all costs” strategy that energizes progressives, but prevents Californians from fully participating in the economic boom the rest of the nation is enjoying.
California’s governor and its super majority of Democrats in the State Legislature hate this president more than they care for their own citizens.
While the nation has become energy independent, and now is even a net exporter of oil, California continues to import 70 percent of its oil, including from foreign sources, an environmentally damaging policy that makes the state dependent in dangerous and unnecessary ways.
While the Trump administration has led a reduction in the opioid epidemic nationwide, California continues to be mired in addiction, drug trafficking and overdose deaths.
Likewise, the inner cities in California are cesspools of disease, crime and filth as a result of decades of liberal mismanagement. The president is investing in inner cities nationwide, but federal support has been spurned by Sacramento, even though it would improve the lives of the very people elected officials in California are supposed to care about.
California’s governor and its super majority of Democrats in the State Legislature hate this president more than they care for their own citizens. In fact, Gov. Gavin Newsom recently bragged about having more than 60 active lawsuits against the Trump administration. Those lawsuits, funded by California taxpayers, won’t do anything to make life better for California’s citizens, but the left’s hatred of Donald Trump overrides any common sense or compassion for those truly in need. The “#resist” mentality is having disastrous consequences on the economy and the quality of life in California.
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Unlike the Democrat's food-fight witnessed by the nation with collective disgust last week in Las Vegas, we have seen the unbridled enthusiasm for Trump, even in basically an uncontested primary race. Iowa's caucus and New Hampshire's primary boasted historic incumbent turnout. Record-breaking crowds like those at rallies in Arizona, Colorado and Nevada will certainly continue nationwide – a telling and positive barometer.
For California and other Blue States, electoral irrelevance in November doesn't have to mean election irrelevance. Californians can lead the way in championing Blue States for Trump – and invite conservatives in New York and New Jersey and other Blue States to join them.