After penning a scathing op-ed about one of the few Republican elected officials speaking for San Diego in the statehouse, former chair of the San Diego Republican Party Corey Gustafson joins Joey Safchik on Politically Speaking.

A transcript of the conversation is below. 

Safchik: The 2026 midterm elections will be here in the blink of an eye. And needless to say, California Republicans want to make gains. Even if the road to victory in five congressional districts, including here in San Diego, may require heavier lifting in the aftermath of Prop 50, winning will require unity within the party itself, a coherent and cohesive message. But is the local party all in lockstep? Maybe not. Let’s bring in former San Diego party chair Corey Gustafson to discuss. Thanks for being here.

Gustafson: Thanks, Joey.

Safchik: How, in your words, is the local party doing?

Gustafson: It’s not doing very well. And we have been behind in San Diego for a long time now. And we don’t have a credible pathway back to being the majority party. As long as Carl DeMaio is cannibalizing the Republican Party of San Diego County and Republican candidates across San Diego County since 2017, Reform California, Carl DeMaio, has raised $25 million, $25 million and what? Where has that money gone? It obviously has not been going to winning elections, as Republicans have lost our majority on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. We’ve lost Assembly seats here. So this enormous sum of money seems to only be going to Reform andCarl DeMaio self-promotion machine rather than actually winning elections called the mail has not won, has not beat a Democrat in a general election since 2008. Think about that: 2008. So while he likes to attack Republicans and use that money to funnel against Republicans in primaries, he’s not very good at actually flipping seats and winning for Republicans.

Safchik: You are pointing the finger. Name checking one person. Why?

Gustafson: Yes. Because this is a man who’s gained enormous influence within the Republican Party, through his massive fundraising efforts. And when you have $25 million, raise $25 million, you with that comes great responsibility. You’re the de facto leader of Republicans in San Diego County. So we have to hold our leaders accountable in the Republican Party for winning. And with $25 million, Republican donors and Republican voters should expect more than what they’ve got since 2017 from Carl DeMaio. 

Safchik: Are you trying to position yourself as the anti-Carl DeMaio?

Gustafson: No, I’m pro-Republican. I hate Republican infighting. And this is one of the reasons I’m speaking out about this. Because I’ve heard from Carl DeMaio and his staff that they are going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars against Republicans in this upcoming primary. That would be a disaster. This money donors have given to his Reform California organization to fund the voter ID initiative, right. Which is a great thing that all Republicans can get behind. They don’t want their money going to things that could help hurt Republicans from winning in November. So this bait and switch that Carl does with his email program with putting, you know, 12, 15 campaigns out there, it confuses people. They think his donors, Reform donors think that they are donating, for one thing, maybe, the beat, the mileage tax. But in reality, that money can be going to all sorts of different things. I’ll give you an example. In 2024,Carl DeMaio and Reform Californiaspent $500,000, gave $500,000 to the California Progressive Voter Guide. How many Reform donors do you think knew that, that I was going to be giving money to progressive causes? So when you donate to Reform California, my message to Republican donors in San Diego County and across California is, you don’t know where this money is going.

Safchik: What progressive causes?

Gustafson: This is– I don’t know, particularly which progressive causes. The progressive voter guide. So I would assume that this goes to, getting progressives elected, attacking President Trump’s America First agenda. That’s what I would assume that it goes to. But, that’s on Carl DeMaio to answer to.

Safchik: He is currently an elected official in the Assembly. At the moment, you’re not. Why should people listen to you?

Gustafson: Because I’ve seen from the inside what’s going on, whether it be during my time as chairman, when he spent $4 million against a fellow Republican to get elected, when there was no chance a Democrat could come through. He could have run in a district and spent that $4 million and say he’s in the 75th now. He could have ran in the 76 and spent that $4 million defeating a Democrat. But instead he chose to run against another Republican. So that seems to be the trend that Carl DeMaio likes to run against Republicans. But he runs away from fights with Democrats.

Safchik: Are you worried at all about coming on here and being this voice of dissent and stirring the pot, worsening the infighting and distracting from the issues?

Gustafson: No. Absolutely not. Because what we’re seeing now in this election cycle is, Carl DeMaio is really launching a war against the Republican Party of San Diego County. The party I was the former chairman of, he has, he has talked to his allies and is blocking endorsements to the Republican Party, doesn’t have any endorsements. And why is he doing this? So that Reform is more powerful. So if he can stop the Republican Party from endorsing Reform’s endorsements grow in stature because he’s sending out voter guides, spending money against other Republicans, saying, these are the folks that I want to be on there. And meanwhile, he’s saying, the Republican Party, don’t endorse. So the weaker the Republican Party is, the stronger Reform becomes.

Safchik: Without the ability to endorse, is the local Republican Party kneecapped?

Gustafson: Yes. Without the ability to endorse. That’s his number one power, right. We want to endorse people to get elected. We want to endorse, to promote our Republican causes. But if we’re not endorsing candidates and getting them on board with what the Republican Party’s doing, then we cannot win. And that in that vacuum called the mile comes in and is the only voice in the room. He said that he’s going to put out his voter guide. But on the other hand, he doesn’t want the Republican Party of San Diego County to put their voter guide out. Why is that? Why can Reform put out a voter guide? Why does Reform endorse candidates in the primary? But that same doesn’t apply to the Republican Party of San Diego County. It’s hypocritical.

Safchik: If you were the chair of the party right now, what would you be doing?

Gustafson: Well, look, I would absolutely be doing the same thing I am now because this is a full frontal attack on the Republican Party from Carl DeMaio. And he has been again since 2017 with $25 million. What have we to show for this? At some point we have to say, who is the leader of our party? And why is the Republican Party going in the opposite direction of where we want to go? And all the evidence points to Carl. The $25 million raised since 2017, $4 million spent in the 2024 election cycle against Republicans. $500,000 to the California Progressive Voter Guide. These are things that Republicans don’t want their money going to.

Safchik: Is this discord within the local party, is it about personality or is it about issues?

Gustafson: It’s totally about personality. Carl DeMaio has made Reform California into a promote Carl organization. That’s what he uses the money for. That is his ends. If you were to care about getting Republicans elected, he wouldn’t be running against Republicans in primaries. He would be, instead of, forcing candidates to pay to appear on the Reform California voter guide. He’d provide the service for free with the millions and millions of dollars that he is currently raising. So everything seems to go to promoting Karl, helping Karl at all costs. Meanwhile, Republicans all around him, one of the when these millions are dollars are going to call the mail. We are losing. And we have to start calling out the man who’s responsible for these losses.

Safchik: I know you’ve harbored concerns about the Assembly member since before he was an Assembly member. Why this media blitz about this right now?

Gustafson: Because we have a primary coming up. The Republican Party should be endorsing candidates. And if Carl DeMaio gets his way, the Republican Party won’t be endorsing candidates, and the Republican Party will no longer have. And our candidates will no longer have a powerful platform to be able to get our message out. It will all be reliant upon Reform, California and one person remember the Republican Party as an elected organization. We have 48 different members on the Central Committee that are elected by Republicans, Carl DeMaio makes the choices by himself. There’s no accountability. And that’s why, you see, in like 2024, he endorsed Tony Blaine for Power City Council. That was his decision. He was told by many people, including myself, don’t endorse this guy. This guy’s bad news. He’s very troubled. And we’ll look at what we have now. He’s been recalled from office. He’s under, not only under investigation. He’s under indictment by the district attorney. So, Carl, the mile, when given room to run, making decisions on who he’s going to endorse, he doesn’t do who’s the most electable, he doesn’t do, who’s going to low taxes, which, you know, for many years, Carl DeMaio was very famous for. Right. He’s going to go after the tax hikers. Well, he’s endorsing tax hikers right now. So he’s going against his principle in order to have this one litmus test, which is loyalty to Carl DeMaio.

Safchik: At this rate, do you think Republicans will keep losing ground in San Diego?

Gustafson: Until we stop the infighting. Right. And again, every single source of fighting in San Diego County amongst Republicans traces back to one man.

Safchik: So what is your plan to stop the infighting?

Gustafson:  Well, I have to call it out when I see it. Right. Which is? I needed, let Republicans know that this infighting is going on in this source from one person that’s going on when you have candidates in primaries right now, and in some races you have every elected official basically in San Diego County, 80 to 1. In the case of the supervisor district five race, John Franklin’s been endorsed by over 80 Republican elected officials and organizations. And his opponent, Rebecca Jones, has been endorsed by one. And who was that? Carl DeMaio. So what does Carl know that the rest of the Republican Party doesn’t know he’s been a career politician. He’s been a politician for the last 20 plus years. I mean, this guy has been running for office, running for office, trying to find a pathway to power. He’s finally got into the assembly. But what does Carl know that Republicans don’t know?

Safchik: But he was elected. He beat a fellow Republican. What does that tell you?

Gustafson:  He’s very, he absolutely has influence amongst a certain portion of the Republican base. And he won in an Assembly district that’s the most Republican in the state. So he went to the folks that know him, right. Carl DeMaio has been around a long time, but why didn’t he where he lived in Rancho Bernardo in the 76 district. Why didn’t he run there? That was a great pickup opportunity for Republicans. It was the closest open seat in the Assembly. And he chose to move to a safer district to fight with all these resources. Why is he deciding to do those sorts of things?

Safchik: Are you worried that name calling could do a disservice to the voters? Because it’s not issues oriented?

Gustafson: I have– there’s no name calling here. I have not called Carl any names? I’m pointing out the facts. I would welcome Carl to engage in a conversation about what he’s doing at Reform California and be transparent with Republican donors. I’d be happy to debate him on your show here. But Carl responds to each one of these points with ad hominem attacks, and that’s not something that I want to be involved with.

Safchik: I want to abide by Reagan’s 11th commandment, where we don’t attack other Republicans. But if I see a Republican out there who is donating $500,000 to California progressive voter guides, I gotta call them out. I got to call them out. And that’s why I’ve decided this is the moment we got to do this.

Safchik: What needs to happen to bridge this rift in the party?

Gustafson: Well, look, we should all be focused on things that unite us, whether it be voter ID, right? 

Safchik: This is one of his big points–

Gustafson: Absolutely right. So my question is, why is he deciding he’s raising millions of dollars for the voter ID initiative? I support him on this. All Republicans support him on this. He’s collected about 25% of the signatures to get it on the ballot. But why would he then spend hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of dollars in the primary when he told the Republican Party it shouldn’t, because there’s not enough important races going on? Every dollar that Carl DeMaio spends from his assembly account or his Reform account in June, every dollar he spends could be money that he can spend to fight for the California ID initiative in November. We saw what happened with Prop 50. Prop 50 was broadly popular, and then the Democratic machine got behind it and then defeated by a big margin. So while California, the voter ID initiative, is popular right now, when the Democratic Party mobilizes against it, we’re going to need every single dollar that Carl DeMaio raised to fight that and call them. I’ll give him that, he’s a fighter, right? I mean, what, he finds a cause he’s going to go after it. But it’s the question of who he will run over to get there. And I’d prefer not to be fellow Republicans.

Safchik: This conversation could sound very inside baseball to the average San Diegan, right? Why is this worth discussing?

Gustafson: Because San Diego is currently dominated by the Democratic Party. Right? And when you have a say, the city of San Diego, you have nine city council members who are Democrats, zero Republicans. I don’t think that’s healthy for governance. Right. I think it’s good to have competition. I think it’s good to have another side holding a political party that’s in power accountable. But when Republicans have fallen to such a degree where we don’t even have one member on the San Diego City Council, it’s hard to get our message out there. Right. And Karl, I think, does a fantastic job in the Assembly, you know, hammering away at the Democratic supermajority. That’s a good thing that he’s doing. Right. But it’s also just because you do one good thing in Sacramento, it doesn’t mean you’re all forgiven for all the bad things that are going on here in San Diego. So why this matters to all San Diego is that a healthy two party system creates competition. And when there’s bad things going on in city government or county government, you can have an opposition party saying, here’s the alternative. You can, if you don’t like what’s going on, vote for us. But when you have the dysfunction that’s currently going on in the Republican Party, that option is not currently manifesting itself to San Diego voters.

Safchik: I want to pivot, and I want to talk about what we saw in El Cajon over the last couple of weeks. Council member Gary Kendrick switched parties from Republican to Democrat. What was your reaction?

Gustafson: I was disappointed, of course. We need to be growing as Republicans. We can’t be losing the few elected office holders that we have. In 2024, for the first time in a while. We actually grew by 5% of the vote in San Diego County. So we were very proud of that. But when you have people leaving the Republican Party, it makes it very hard to win, right? I mean, we need elected officials out there fighting for our messages of lower taxes or of holding the government accountable. And when we’re losing those folks because maybe they don’t feel that the Republican Party is a viable option for election. I think that is very worrisome. And that’s one of the reasons I’m speaking out to kind of give a warning to my fellow Republicans, is that we really need to get our act together and really start focusing on beating Democrats and be on the same team.

Safchik: Have you heard about any other local Republicans considering the same move?

Gustafson: No, no, I mean, there’s not a lot of Republicans around the county that can actually make that move. But, you know, again, they’re strong points. As I’ve said many times before on the show, if you look at North County, whether it be in Escondido, where there is a Republican majority, Santee, El Cajon, they’re still strong areas of Republican support. But for us to win on the countywide level, we need to really grow from that and be competitive places. We haven’t been over the last, you know, ten years.

Safchik: It sounded like a second ago, you were perhaps implying that this was about electability and not values.

Gustafson:  I think so. I think that, right now, the idea is that the Republican Party is going to lose in the midterms, not only in San Diego, but nationwide. I think that’s very negative thinking. I think the Republican Party can win in this midterm, because I think that we have to just keep pushing our victories, right? Right now people are receiving their tax refunds. They’re up 11% because of President Trump’s and Republicans’ tax cutting policies in Washington, D.C.. If that doesn’t help you with the cost of living, I don’t know what putting money back into the American people’s wallets that they earned is the pathway to making America and California and San Diego County in particular, more affordable.

Safchik: But do you think the tent has gotten too small or too extreme for some people?

Gustafson: No, I don’t think so, because in 2024, Republicans reached their highest percentage of the nationwide vote since 2004. So in 20 years, Republicans reached their highest, proclaimed voters who identified as Republicans in 2024. So in that respect, there’s more Republicans than there have been in 20 years, right? So what we have to figure out how to do is to take that national Republican following and bring that here to California, where we’re at number 2 to 1. That’s the big question that Republicans have, and that’s what we have to work together on. How do we go from the nationwide Republican model that’s winning, right. Whether it be in Texas, whether it be in Florida, the South, whether it be in Pennsylvania or Ohio, Iowa? How do we get that Republican messaging across in California? It was not that long ago. I guess it was. I mean, especially for us younger folks, that California was a Republican state. So it’s possible to do. But it takes having the right message, crafting the right message, not changing principle, but delivering the message that appeals and people respond to in California. And that’s what we have to do as Republicans.

Safchik: What do you foresee happening in District 48?

Gustafson: In district 48, you have, it’s going to be, a dogfight for sure. Congressman Issa is a fighter, right? And so I think that he is the incumbent congressman, and he’s obviously the odds on favorite. And you have really what looks to be a big fight amongst the Democratic Party with I mean, I believe it’s seven candidates, jockeying for position to take on Congressman Issa. And, that’s going to take a lot of resources away from them that could deploy in the general election. So I think we have a good chance in the 48th, which, you know, as you point out, is one of, Republicans few opportunities to defend and hold a Republican seat on the congressional level in California.

Safchik: What is your overarching goal for 2026?

Gustafson: We want to make California great again. We want to make San Diego County a place where it’s more affordable. Right. And the Republican Party, I think, has the ideas to do that. So what we have to do as Republicans is communicate the simple message. If you want to have a more affordable life, if you want groceries, prices go down. If you want gas prices to go down, if you want housing prices to go down, you have to reduce taxation because that’s what’s driving this affordability crisis. You know, when you talk about a transfer tax, a property tax and people, Democratic politicians will say, hey, this only affects the wealthy. Well, that is actually those transfer taxes affect the folks who own the buildings that you rent from. And so if these property owners are taxed more, they’re going to pass that down to renters. So taxation always trickles down and it always ends up on the backs of working class people. And if people want a more affordable California, a more affordable San Diego County, they need to get government smaller and money back in their pocketbooks through stopping tax hikes.

Safchik: Do you think that message is reaching people right now?

Gustafson: I think so. I think you see, there’s a lot of union backed measures of trying to put the county in a position of having a ballot initiative for another, sales tax increase. And they’re having a hard time doing it. From everybody I hear from both sides of the aisle, there’s not an appetite to increase taxes. And I would say I would hope not. I mean, we go to the– anybody who goes out to even to go, you know, go to Chick-Fil-A. It’s $20 for just yourself. Now, maybe that’s just for me. But, look, it’s expensive out there. Everybody’s feeling it. Grocery store. Gasoline prices. And as long as we keep taxing businesses at these high levels, taxing individuals at these high levels, and only proposing taxation as a means of dealing with budget deficits, the affordability crisis will continue.

Safchik: A conversation we will keep having. Thank you, as always, for being here.

Gustafson: Yes. Thank you so much, Joey.

We asked Asm. DeMaio for comment. His office provided a statement, saying “We find it surprising that NBC would give any airtime to a dishonest, sour-grapes rant by someone who served only 6 months as Chair of the Republican Party — and was quickly forced out for ethics violations and leaving the party financially a mess.”