It will become much more difficult for California’s vulnerable Republicans to avoid Donald Trump.
The former president is coming to California this week for his first fundraising tour since the historic verdict that found him guilty of all 34 charges in a hush-money trial. On Thursday, he stopped in San Francisco to court wealthy technology investors at the home of venture capitalist David Sacks. before attending fundraisers in Beverly Hills and Newport Beach.
It is routine for presidential candidates to take money from the Golden State’s rich pockets. But Trump’s visit will put a spotlight on his recent convictions — and the fact that California Republicans have remained relatively silent following the verdict.
Two California Republicans in Tough Races – Riverside County Rep. Ken Calvert and Scott Baugh, who are running for an open seat in Orange County – issued statements in the immediate aftermath of the rulings decrying the prosecutions as having partisan motives.
But the instinct of some Republicans in the state’s rocking chair over the past five days has been to say nothing at all. GOP representatives. Mike Garcia, Michelle Steeland David Valadao have remained silent since the statements, despite multiple requests to their campaigns for comment.
Rep. John Duarte, who is running for re-election in a closely contested Central Valley seat that Biden won in 2020, broke his silence Sunday morning in an interview with a local TV station, saying he was “disappointed with the whole persecution.”
Trump’s convictions pose a difficult challenge for the handful of California candidates who could decide control of the House of Representatives in November.
If they support Trump, they risk alienating some of the swing voters who could define their race. If they say nothing, they could be subjected to a public flogging from the Trump world, similar to the one meted out to former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan after he urged Americans to respect the verdict.
California’s Republican House candidates are largely expected to keep their distance from Trump this week, but that doesn’t mean they’re turning their backs on him. Many have already endorsed the former president for re-election, including Garcia and Duarte. In March, Steel quietly signed on to represent Trump during the presidential primaries.
Although Trump often demands total loyalty from within the party, California Republicans assume he understands what is at stake — control of the House of Representatives — and that no one will silence them.
“At the end of the day, despite the veneer he exudes, [Trump] understands that in order to win each of these individual House seats, the candidates must have their own strategy for winning,” said Jon Fleischman, former executive director of the California Republican Party. “And he knows there are districts where raising a Trump flag won’t help you.”
Meanwhile, some of the nation’s wealthiest citizens are pulling out their checkbooks for Trump, spurred on by the verdict.
Sequoia Capital Partner Shaun Maguire donated $300,000 to Trump following the news, noting on X that the timing was “no coincidence.” Another Sequoia partner, billionaire Doug Leone, announced Monday that he would support Trump’s re-election bid, despite renouncing his support after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Harmeet Dhillon, the RNC’s national committeewoman for California, plans to attend the fundraiser at the Sacks’ home on Thursday. She said Trump’s positions on deregulating business and technology, such as cryptocurrency, are likely to resonate with Silicon Valley’s elite.
“You don’t really have to agree with Donald Trump on many issues, or his style, or even like him, to understand where your business interests align,” she said.
Melanie Mason contributed to this report.
