{"id":259157,"date":"2026-04-09T10:47:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T10:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/259157\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T10:47:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T10:47:10","slug":"huntington-beach-magas-want-to-take-their-revolution-to-sacramento","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/259157\/","title":{"rendered":"Huntington Beach MAGAs want to take their revolution to Sacramento"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Gates is basing his run for California attorney general<\/a> on his decade-long reign as Huntington Beach’s top lawman.<\/p>\n

When we met at a Starbucks a block away from City Hall, he rattled off his hometown\u2019s bona fides: A drop in crime and homelessness. Tourists from across the world. A thriving Main Street. A small-town feel \u201calmost like the Midwest.\u201d<\/p>\n

His biggest obstacle in trying to convince voters that he should replace Rob Bonta, besides his Republican Party membership? Um, Huntington Beach.<\/p>\n

For years, Surf City conservatives like Gates have reveled in playing the burr in the saddle<\/a> of deep blue California. From a torrent of lawsuits against Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration<\/a> to protests against COVID restrictions<\/a> to the City Council’s vote to place a plaque outside the public library spelling out \u201cMAGA,\u201d<\/a> Huntington Beach’s GOP leadership has yet to meet an anti-liberal stunt they didn’t characterize as a stance against tyranny worthy of Bunker Hill.<\/p>\n

Read more: Arellano: How Huntington Beach became Angrytown, USA<\/a><\/p>\n

Their antics made Huntington Beach a national laughingstock \u2014 but Gates and his pals so far have had the last giggle.<\/p>\n

They ran as a slate in two elections that transformed the City Council from a narrow Democratic majority in 2022<\/a> to an all-Republican body<\/a> in an era when Orange County is turning more and more purple<\/a>. The takeover became a sensation among California conservatives looking for victories in a state where Democrats maintain a supermajority in both legislative chambers and have held every statewide office for 15 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve morphed into this epicenter of fighting back,\u201d said Mayor Casey McKeon, a third-generation Huntington Beach resident who\u2019s up for reelection this year. \u201cWe are the model every city can follow. If I were running for state office, I\u2019d run it on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s exactly what the architects of MAGA-by-the-Sea plan to do this November.<\/p>\n

In addition to Gates\u2019 bid, gadfly-turned-Councilmember Gracey Van Der Mark<\/a> is seeking an Assembly seat. Her former council colleague Tony Strickland won his state Senate seat last spring<\/a> and is the co-author of a proposed state ballot initiative that would require voter ID for all elections.<\/a> Huntington Beach voters approved a similar initiative in 2024, which was later struck down by the California Supreme Court.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Huntington Beach red revolution now includes conservative commentator Steve Hilton, who launched his campaign for governor last spring near the city\u2019s world-famous pier<\/a> \u2014 even though he lives in Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n

Hilton told me he has long loved Huntington Beach because it reminds him of Brighton, the seaside British town where he grew up. His affection for Surf City deepened the more he talked to people like Gates and Strickland, who sold him on their vision to stick it to Sacramento.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s such a joy about it \u2014 it\u2019s a place where it\u2019s well-run and clean and orderly,\u201d said the candidate, who has consistently led in polls as his Democratic opponents cannibalize each other’s share of the vote<\/a>. \u201cWhen I was thinking where to launch my campaign, it made sense [in Huntington Beach], because it felt like home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tony<\/p>\n

Then-City Council candidates Tony Strickland, left, and Gracey Van Der Mark attend a “meet and greet” event in Huntington Beach in 2022. (Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Better not tell anyone in H.B. you’re an immigrant, Steve!<\/p>\n

California Republican Party Chairwoman Corrin Rankin is confident the Huntington Beach crew can win.<\/p>\n

“What happened there proves that conservative leadership works,” she said. “Currently, we have a former mayor of San Francisco who’s the governor. You look at the contrast of how each of those cities are.”<\/p>\n

Strickland, who is Hilton\u2019s campaign chair, swears that he and his former colleagues didn\u2019t plan to take their crusade statewide, but \u201cwhen you do a great job, other opportunities present themselves.”<\/p>\n

\u201cI think California is on the wrong track \u2014 most think that,\u201d he added. If his team pulls off a November sweep \u2014 governor, attorney general, Assembly seat and the voter ID proposition \u2014 \u201cit would be known as the major turnaround in the Golden State that made it golden again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does drinking Surf City’s water grant you magical powers, too?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to dismiss what Strickland, Gates and the others have created as a lucky local run that\u2019s about to crash into the reality of running statewide as a Republican. Even in Huntington Beach, residents tired of perpetual culture wars rejected two ballot measures<\/a> last year seeking to give the City Council more control over a municipal library system that Van Der Mark long claimed was essentially providing pornography to children.<\/p>\n

But if there\u2019s one thing I\u2019ve learned while tracking H.B.\u2019s ever-aggrieved conservatives for a quarter century, it\u2019s to never underestimate them \u2014 the more you do, the more they fume, the more they scheme. They plan with the discipline of a Dodgers World Series team and brawl like hometown hero and mixed martial arts legend Tito Ortiz, who was on the council for a few months in 2021 before stepping down<\/a> because he said the job “wasn’t working for me.”<\/p>\n

Gates, 51, is so Huntington Beach that he looks it: Bull-necked. Blue-eyed. Bro-y. No-nonsense haircut. An aw-shucks countenance barely hiding a righteous anger that seeks to pile-drive progressive California into submission.<\/p>\n

Read more: Prop. 50’s passage means Huntington Beach’s MAGA council could clash with Rep. Robert Garcia<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI know what it looks like to be from a working-class family, a hardworking family, and find it very difficult to make ends meet,\u201d said Gates, noting that his Irish American parents sometimes had to grab food and diapers for their children from the St. Bonaventure Catholic Church pantry. \u201cSo frankly, let\u2019s take control away from the government and give control back to the working-class people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fullerton College political science professor Jodi Balma teaches her students about Huntington Beach as an example of how \u201cthe power of a slate can really work\u201d in an era of polarization. But when I asked if she thought the Surf City insurgents could upend California politics, the professor quickly said, \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n

A majority of California voters think the state is heading in the wrong direction<\/a>, and the number of undecided voters in elections ranging from California governor to the L.A. mayor’s race is putting the fear of God into Democratic leaders. But how deluded can Strickland and company be to think that aligning themselves more with President Trump \u2014 who just endorsed Hilton<\/a> \u2014 is a winning strategy in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by nearly 2 to 1? And propping up Surf City \u2014 a wealthy beach town so full of itself that it makes Santa Monica seem as humble as Santa Ana \u2014 as the last, best hope to save California?<\/p>\n

Hilton demurred when I asked if he agreed with everything his pals on the City Council have done over the years. \u201cI\u2019m not there, so I don\u2019t see the day-to-day operation,\u201d was his weak salsa reply.<\/p>\n

Gates was more forthright.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think probably everybody in city leadership would admit the library thing got out of control,\u201d he said.\u00a0By then, Gates was working for the Department of Justice in Washington as a deputy assistant attorney general in the civil rights division, resigning after just 10 months<\/a> because he said he missed home.<\/p>\n

\"Someone<\/p>\n

Sand art at Huntington City Beach in 2020. (Raul Roa \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Gates talked a good talk for most of our hourlong conversation. He and Hilton are pushing especially hard for Latino voters \u2014 they \u201ccan save California because they understand that new leadership can turn the state around.\u201d<\/p>\n

But for everything Gates said that might appeal to a frustrated Democrat like me, his Huntington Beach braggadocio continually won out.<\/p>\n

He alternately hailed his own political astuteness (\u201cYou be patient, bide your time, be disciplined, keep your mouth shut. The long game will win.\u201d), brought up transgender issues (\u201cI want to protect our young girls. I want to stop all the mutilation surgeries happening in hospitals to our young people.\u201d) and inveighed against out-of-control Democrats (\u201c[Californians are] abused. And honestly, we’re pissed off. We’re getting really mad.\u201d).<\/p>\n

Most of all, Gates proclaimed time and time again just how darn special Huntington Beach is.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love our freedoms. We love flying our American flags,\u201d he said. \u201cWe love our beach. I don’t know, it\u2019s a different culture here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Good luck selling Californians on it.<\/p>\n

Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. <\/a><\/p>\n

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Gates is basing his run for California attorney general on his decade-long reign as Huntington Beach’s top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[7,1610,426,588,63,68461,121,123,122,17382,58122,8689],"class_list":{"0":"post-259157","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sacramento","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-city-council","10":"tag-dodgers","11":"tag-huntington-beach","12":"tag-los-angeles-times","13":"tag-michael-gates","14":"tag-sacramento","15":"tag-sacramento-headlines","16":"tag-sacramento-news","17":"tag-steve-hilton","18":"tag-surf-city","19":"tag-tony-strickland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}