Republicans in California moved to curb years of political hemorrhaging, electing Jessica Patterson, a millennial Hispanic woman, as the new chairwoman of the state party.
Patterson, 38, is a seasoned political operative who is expected to overhaul the California Republican Party, modernizing communications and voter turnout operations. She is a close ally of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and her ascension puts McCarthy in functional control of the state party, say Republican insiders in the state who were relieved to see the pragmatic Patterson triumph over a couple of conservative populists who vowed fidelity to President Trump.
“She’s not a political ideologue,” said Republican Darrell Issa, a former congressman from San Diego County who telephoned the Washington Examiner unprompted to praise Patterson. “Realistically, what she can do is stop the bleeding.”
Patterson, in an interview Friday, was realistic about the problems Republicans in California are dealing with as they attempt to rebuild in 2020, when Trump, generally unpopular in the state, will be at the top of the ticket.
But Patterson downplayed the unique challenges posed by this president, saying her goal for the party in the next election was to win back seats in the legislature. Patterson said a key part of her strategy for broadening the Republican coalition would revolve around an ambitious effort to court ethnic minorities who have long been ignored.
“We’re not blinded to the task we have ahead of us here as California Republicans and understand the challenges we face. But we also have enormous opportunities,” Patterson, who lives in Simi Valley near the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, told the Washington Examiner.
“We really want to build our party’s infrastructure with the grassroots, and reinvigorate them. But at the end of the day, it’s about winning,” she added.
The midterm elections were a bloodbath for Republicans in deep blue California, the culmination of years of decline. The Democrats flipped seven congressional seats in a massive backlash against Trump, even turning historically Republican enclaves of Orange County and northern Los Angeles County blue. The GOP now controls just seven of 52 of congressional seats, and is virtually powerless in the state capital.
With Patterson, Republicans are cautiously optimistic a turnaround is possible, although they predict that any progress will be incremental. Much is out of the new chairwoman’s control: the demographic transformation of the nation’s most populist state, Trump’s sharp unpopularity, and a suburban rebellion against the GOP led by female voters.
But GOP operatives said Patterson, a younger Hispanic female, looks like what the state is becoming and is especially equipped to sell conservatism to Californians. More than that, these professional Republicans emphasized her skills as a strategist. Patterson, they said, knows what it takes to win and would put the state GOP in a position to create opportunities and capitalize on them.
“It’s good to have an operative that understands what it takes to run campaigns, do voter registration and all of the tactical stuff that the party has been really bad at,” said Jason Roe, a veteran Republican consultant in the state.
“She has the ability to extend the party,” added Tom Ross, another GOP strategist. “She has this ability to message for the party. As a 38-year-old mother of two, she talks differently and connects with people differently.”
Patterson also boosts McCarthy’s influence over state party operations. McCarthy, from Bakersfield in the Central Valley, is top Republican in the House and the highest-ranking member of his party in California. He also is a close ally of Trump.
That means that no major decision about strategy, messaging, or where and how to invest resources, is likely to be made without McCarthy’s input, if not approval. McCarthy could be most engaged in directing the state party’s participation in congressional races, with his leadership post riding at least in part on the outcome in 2020.
“McCarthy is now functionally in control of the California Republican Party,” a Republican insider in the state said.
