{"id":424489,"date":"2026-08-05T13:20:06","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T13:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/424489\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T13:20:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T13:20:06","slug":"carl-demaios-group-keeps-winning-against-the-gops-wishes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/424489\/","title":{"rendered":"Carl DeMaio’s group keeps winning against the GOP’s wishes"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Nadia Lathan<\/a>, CalMatters<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\""A\"
\n\t\t\t\tAssemblymember Carl DeMaio speaks before lawmakers during an Assembly floor session at the state Capitol in Sacramento on Aug. 21, 2025. Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMatters<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by CalMatters<\/a>. Sign up<\/a> for their newsletters.<\/p>\n

In the final weeks before the June primary, California GOP leaders took an unusual step. They sent a cease-and-desist letter<\/a> to a sitting assemblymember accusing him of purposefully deceiving voters for his own benefit.<\/p>\n

Officials alleged that San Diego lawmaker Carl DeMaio<\/a> co-opted the official California Republican Party branding for his group Reform California\u2019s campaign materials, calling them \u201ca calculated deception of California\u2019s Republican voters.\u201d<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n

On Election Day, candidates backed by DeMaio\u2019s Reform California performed well without the party\u2019s endorsement, a sign of the growing influence of the renegade movement to the right of the California party.<\/p>\n

Several of his candidates beat establishment Republican picks in the San Diego area, including in a closely watched state Senate race in which big tech and business groups spent $2 million to defeat Reform candidate Kristie Bruce-Lane. Despite that, Bruce-Lane beat out San Marcos City Councilmember Ed Musgrove and will face former Democratic San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott in November.<\/p>\n

As California Republicans brace for a challenging midterm election, they must navigate a reality in which DeMaio\u2019s rabble-rousing politics prevail over pragmatic conservatism.<\/p>\n

Reform also scored a win in the Central Valley, where Merced City Councilmember Darin DuPont advanced to compete against Democratic incumbent Assemblymember Anna Caballero.<\/a><\/p>\n

The group even prevailed in local races, including a San Diego County supervisor race, in which Reform-backed San Marcos Mayor Rebecca Jones secured 38% of the vote, besting Vista Mayor John Franklin, the establishment pick.<\/p>\n

Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton\u00a0also has a friend in DeMaio, according to Hilton spokesperson Hector Barajas. Hilton appeared on DeMaio\u2019s daily podcast in the run-up to the June primary.<\/p>\n

\u201cSteve is proud to have the support of Reform California and values his relationship with Carl DeMaio,\u201d Barajas said in a statement. DeMaio\u2019s group had endorsed both Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco in the primary.<\/p>\n

DeMaio declined multiple interview requests from CalMatters for this story in person and did not respond to phone, email and text messages.\u00a0<\/p>\n

San Diego Senate race<\/p>\n

Bruce-Lane\u2019s candidacy in Senate District 40<\/a> was a top concern for local Republicans. After she lost two previous legislative races, some worried she wouldn\u2019t be their best shot at holding the seat currently held by Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones<\/a>, who terms out this year.<\/p>\n

This dispute was at the center of an explosive February<\/a> meeting when San Diego GOP committee members couldn\u2019t agree on whether to back Bruce-Lane or Musgrove, who was endorsed by established Republicans including Jones and outgoing U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa.<\/p>\n

The two are similar on policy, but not on temperament. DeMaio and others call Bruce-Lane a \u201cfighter\u201d who will tussle with Democrats on the chamber floor, something DeMaio is known for in the Democratic-controlled Legislature, where his caucus is outnumbered three-to-one.<\/p>\n

Musgrove and those who backed him represent the party\u2019s more diplomatic old guard who cut deals with Democrats behind the scenes to advance their legislative priorities.<\/p>\n

Musgrove received $1.3 million in support from super PAC California Leads<\/a>, a joint Meta-Google venture to boost candidates who oppose strict tech regulations, and nearly $530,000 from a super PAC funded by Chevron and other oil companies, according to campaign finance records.<\/p>\n

Bruce-Lane raised about $250,000 and received $2,000 in independent expenditures from DeMaio’s Reform Local Government PAC and nearly $13,000 from the San Diego County Gun Owners PAC.<\/p>\n

\""A\"Political campaign mailers distributed to San Diego voters by Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, in San Diego on May 22, 2026. Photo by Adriana Heldiz, CalMatters<\/p>\n

Reform corrected the fliers and website misusing the official party branding, said California Republican Party Chair Corrin Rankin, who has a poor relationship with DeMaio.\u00a0<\/p>\n

DeMaio and the candidates he backs are fighters who are willing to be agitators, Republican political strategist Jon Fleischman said. Republicans\u2019 pragmatism in the statehouse largely comes down to the kind of people supported and elected by the official party infrastructure, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

DeMaio frequently votes against bills, an anomaly in the California Legislature<\/a> where most lawmakers \u2014 Democrats and Republicans \u2014 choose not to vote at all to maintain relationships and donors.<\/p>\n

\u201cCarl will always err toward finding somebody who\u2019s willing to actually make noise in Sacramento,\u201d he said. \u201cCarl\u2019s argument is: We don\u2019t have the votes, all we have is our voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

A longtime local official with a low-key demeanor, Musgrove likely wasn\u2019t going to be that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a nice guy, I met him a few times, and I thought, you know, \u2018He’s a very pleasant fellow. I wouldn\u2019t mind having dinner or lunch with this guy,\u201d Fleischman said. \u201cBut is this guy going to be a bomb thrower on the floor of the state Assembly? He\u2019s gonna be more of a gentleman.\u201d<\/p>\n

Musgrove said it\u2019s possible Bruce-Lane beat him because of her outspokenness, but being pragmatic is how bills get passed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to believe she has a strategy to go up there and effectuate change rather than continuing to point out problems,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

To moderate or activate the base?<\/p>\n

As Democrats outnumber Republicans 45% to 25% in voter registration and haven\u2019t won a statewide race in California for 20 years, a longstanding question remains at the forefront for the state party: whether to moderate its positions to broaden the membership or lean right to rile up support among the base.<\/p>\n

Reform California\u2019s aggressive approach poses one potential answer, with its ability to raise millions of dollars from small-dollar donors, bringing in a total of $5.8 million during the 2024 campaign cycle<\/a>, about a quarter of what the entire state Republican Party raised in the same period.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reform California also successfully put a voter ID initiative<\/a>, Proposition 39, on the November ballot and it\u2019s bringing life \u2014 and hopefully voters \u2014 back into the party, strategists say.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeMaio has built a very formidable and good political organization,\u201d even though some people may not like it, GOP consultant Tim Rosales said. \u201cCalifornia state politics is big league baseball. You got to have thick skin and you gotta be able to roll with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Republicans are expected to face an uphill battle in the San Diego Senate race and elsewhere come November.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a seat that\u2019s going to be very difficult for Republicans to retain in a midterm election, so it\u2019s not surprising that the leadership was preferring a more mainstream candidate,\u201d Republican strategist Rob Stutzman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe primary base in each party often does not pick the most competitive candidate in a swing seat in a general election. But it also doesn\u2019t mean it should be written off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bruce-Lane did not return multiple calls from CalMatters seeking an interview.<\/p>\n

A sought-after target for Democrats, the inland San Diego district leans Republican but has trended increasingly purple in recent years. Former Vice President Kamala Harris won it by nearly 4 percentage points and nearly 35% of registered voters there are Democrats, while 34% are Republicans and 24% have no party preference.<\/p>\n

Rankin, the state GOP chair, wouldn\u2019t say whether she\u2019s concerned about the party\u2019s ability to retain Jones\u2019 seat with Bruce-Lane as the candidate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing I\u2019m saying from my position is that we have a Republican who made it past the primary. I think it\u2019s going to be up to the voters,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

An old playbook<\/p>\n

DeMaio\u2019s strategy reflects a longstanding feud over the party\u2019s direction that has caused problems for Republican Party chairs throughout the last several decades, as agitators within the party tried to push it rightward, consultant Rosales said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Former George W. Bush administrator Gerry Parksy attempted to remake<\/a> the California Republican Party from the inside out in 2001 by restructuring its budget committee and pushing for moderate platforms in an effort to appeal to women and nonwhite voters. It wreaked havoc as party officials feared moderating would forgo traditional viewpoints on sex, marriage and immigration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s the point of a minority party if you\u2019re not expressing the minority view?\u201d<\/p>\n

Republican political strategist Jon Fleischman<\/p>\n

Then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the last Republican to hold statewide office, famously implored the state party to broaden its tent, telling delegates in 2007 that the party was \u201cdying at the box office\u201d and alienating women and nonwhite voters by ignoring things like the environment and healthcare. Party officials largely ignored his pleas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other rifts have appeared under Rankin\u2019s leadership since she took over last year.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some questioned her<\/a> fundraising ability. In response, Jones and other party leaders announced a change in how campaign donations from their committees are distributed to the party, further weakening its electoral power.<\/p>\n

Some welcome the divisiveness.<\/p>\n

\u201cI happen to be on the side of more voices like Carl would be better, because I don\u2019t think there should be a free pass on the floor of the Legislature,\u201d Fleischman said. \u201cWhat\u2019s the point of a minority party if you\u2019re not expressing the minority view?\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on CalMatters<\/a> and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives<\/a> license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Nadia Lathan, CalMatters Assemblymember Carl DeMaio speaks before lawmakers during an Assembly floor session at the state…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,1843,8,4303,74],"class_list":["post-424489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-legislature","tag-california-news","tag-california-republican-party","tag-san-diego"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424489","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=424489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}