The political elite in California — comprised almost completely of radical leftists — are hellbent on continuing their war against President Donald Trump, seemingly energized by opposing anything and everything that could potentially be good for their own state and the country, are in for a rude awakening when it comes to their constituents.
In a recent survey, it was discovered that voters in the Golden State were not on board with the idea of continuing to be anti-Trump. While the elites are primed and ready to go head-to-head with the current administration, voters are more divided on issues such as climate change and the immigration crisis facing our nation.
“A plurality of voters is skeptical of legal immigration, and less than half think the state should be able to set its strict standards on vehicle emissions, an authority California has used for more than half a century,” a report from Politico stated.
The results suggest a disconnect between the policymaking class and voters in an overwhelmingly blue state where Trump made broad inroads in 2024 amid widespread frustrations over crime and a prohibitively high cost of living. Registered Democrats, however — who comprise nearly half the electorate — are more enthusiastic about progressive policies and more eager to challenge Trump’s Washington.
California’s approach to the president has become a core point of debate among the state’s elected Democrats as the national party seeks a path out of the political wilderness. Newsom has invited conservative luminaries like Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon on his podcast, appealed to the president for Los Angeles wildfire aid and approved millions to battle the Trump administration in court as legislative Democrats wrestle with the balance between combating Trump and addressing quality-of-life concerns.
Making it even clearer that Newsom and his attorney general in California are out of touch with average Americans, the pair announced the state would be launching a lawsuit against the president over tariffs, making them the first state to take such a course of action.
While there were more than a few Democrats in California who were all aboard the “I Hate Trump” train during his first election to the White House in 2016, this time around, these same individuals are a bit more on the quiet side.
But Jack Citrin, a University of California, Berkeley political science professor who directed the first-of-its-kind poll with POLITICO, said the results underscore the extent to which California’s political class is dominated by self-identified progressives.
“The influentials are a much more homogenous group than the registered voter public,” Citrin commented. “The major difference is that the electorate has polarized.”
The poll shows that while Democratic voters favor taking on Trump, the electorate broadly wants their representatives to lower the temperature. Forty-three percent of registered voters said leaders were “too confrontational” — a sentiment largely driven by Republicans and independents — compared to a third who found them “too passive.” A plurality of Democrats surveyed, 47 percent, wanted a more aggressive approach.
People in California are waking up to the truth. Politicians are giving more rights and privileges to those who enter the country illegally than they are receiving. That doesn’t mean the people there are coming out strongly in favor of a border wall or other Trump immigration policies without qualifications, but they aren’t nearly as open-border as they were before.
While a clear 60 percent of voters support the state’s “sanctuary” laws, which partition local law enforcement from federal immigration authorities, policy influencers were 20 points more likely to support that policy.
Voters were more likely to support reducing legal immigration and encouraging assimilation, while policy professionals favored more legal immigration and maintaining distinct cultures.
“The survey was conducted on the TrueDot.ai platform from April 1-14 among 1,025 California registered voters and 718 influencers. To generate the influencer sample, the poll was emailed to a list of people including subscribers to California Playbook, California Climate, and POLITICO Pro in California who work in the state. Respondents in that sample included lawmakers and staffers in the state Legislature and the federal government,” the report said.
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