Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon is set to keynote the opening night dinner of the California Republican Party’s fall convention, accepting an invitation from chairman Jim Brulte.
Brulte, the former top Republican in the California Senate with deep establishment ties, has been laboring to revitalize the GOP in a state where it has sunk in popularity and influence as politics there has taken a decidedly left turn. With the implementation of the top-two primary system, Republicans often don’t compete in general elections for statewide office.
Bannon’s confrontational style might not appear helpful to Brulte’s goal of strengthening the GOP’s image in California. But Brulte said that Bannon’s message was important for delegates to the state GOP to hear, and appropriate given the condition of the party in the nation’s largest state.
“Silicon Valley is full of disruptors that are changing business. Steve Bannon is a disruptor that is changing politics — and ultimately government, and we really need to disrupt a California government that is going in the wrong direction,” Brulte said in an interview with the Washington Examiner. “We think that Steve Bannon has a message that our delegates need to hear, and that many Californians agree with.”
Bannon, who runs Breitbart News, previously served as President Trump’s top White House strategist. Before that he was CEO of Trump’s presidential campaign. Bannon is recruiting candidates to challenge GOP incumbents in Senate primaries in 2018, with the intent of ousting Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., making his appearance at an official party event — even a state-level event — notable.
Bannon’s appearance on Oct. 20, in Anaheim, Calif., during the first night of the California GOP’s convention, will coincide with “Free Speech Friday Night.” Brulte is inviting the chairman of the student Republican group at the University of California at Berkely to lead the Pledge of Allegiance. President Trump last November garnered just 31.5 percent of the vote in California, losing the state to Democrat Hillary Clinton by 30 points.
