The California GOP is decimated.
The Republican Party has fully embraced the Trump agenda, and the most populous state in the union sent an unmistakable message of rejection on Election Day.
Californians not only annihilated the GOP's congressional delegation, ousting seven members, but Democrats also won victories up and down the ballot.
California began its new legislative session with "crushing Democratic supermajorities in both chambers to go with their sweep of all statewide offices," the Associated Press reports.
The lopsided majorities are so huge that legislative historian Alex Vassar told the AP they are "unprecedented in the modern era."
While Democrats ran great candidates across the state, Trump's bloviating demeanor certainly dragged down Republicans.
"Donald Trump's voice is so loud that Republicans in California can't distinguish themselves from it," Thad Kousser, a UC-San Diego political science professor told the AP. Kousser added that Trump alienated a large swath of suburban voters.
Democratic strategist Andrew Acosta was more blunt.
"If you were running for dogcatcher in Orange County — or in a lot of places in California — and you had an 'R' next to your name on the ballot, you lost,” Acosta told Politico. "It was Trump. Trump created this. There wasn't much Republicans could do to stop it," he added.
Orange County was once a conservative stronghold, but the so-called "Orange Curtain" protecting Republicans got crushed by a blue tsunami this year. For the first time since 1978, the county supported a Democrat for governor, giving Gavin Newsom 50.1 percent of the vote.
In addition, every person in Orange County will be represented by a Democrat in Congress, as four Republicans were ousted.
"Honestly, I don't know what we could've done," Matt Rexroad, a political consultant for Rep. Steve Knight (R-CA), a soon-to-be former member from a district north of Los Angeles, told Politico. "I'm going to spend a lot of my time over the holidays thinking about it."
Meanwhile, Democrat Katie Hill, who defeated Knight, will spend her holidays preparing to become one of California's newest members of Congress.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
