PALM DESERT — Pleasure Miedecke, who runs the most important Republican membership within the Coachella Valley, handed out scores of “No on Prop. 50” garden indicators earlier than election day.
However Tuesday morning, she knew the poll measure would go.
Proposition 50, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to problem President Trump, simply handed final week. The poll measure, created to stage the enjoying area with Republican gerrymandering efforts in Texas and different GOP states, reconfigured California congressional districts to favor Democrats as they attempt to take again the U.S. Home of Representatives in subsequent 12 months’s midterms.
As a consequence, Coachella Valley’s Republicans might quickly be represented by anti-Trump Democrats in Washington.
California Republicans, far outnumbered by these on the left, for years have felt ignored in a state the place Democrats reign, and the passage of Proposition 50 solely provides to the sense of political hopelessness.
“The Democrats get their method as a result of we don’t have sufficient folks,” mentioned Miedecke, of her occasion’s struggles in California.
Bordered by the San Jacinto and Santa Rosa mountains, the desert basin has lengthy been a magnet for conservative retirees and vacationers, together with former Republican presidents.
A cluster of palm bushes gentle the night panorama on Frank Sinatra Drive in Rancho Mirage.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Occasions)
The native hospital is known as after President Eisenhower. President Ford loved the numerous emerald golf programs in his later years and his spouse, former first woman Betty Ford, based her namesake dependancy therapy heart within the desert valley.
Voters in Indian Wells, components of La Quinta and Cahuilla Hills backed Trump within the 2024 presidential election. Below Prop. 50, some or all of these areas will transfer to a congressional district led by Democrat Raul Ruiz, an emergency room doctor raised within the Coachella Valley, or be a part of with left-leaning San Diego County suburbs in a brand new meandering district particularly crafted to favor Democratic candidates.
Pleasure Miedecke of Indio is president of the East Valley Republican Girls Patriots. She blames the California Republican Occasion for failing to adequately fund opposition to Prop. 50.
“The occasion is on the backside,” mentioned Miedecke, 80. “It’s on the very backside. We’ve nowhere to go however up.”
Sitting in her membership’s retail retailer on Wednesday, Miedecke blamed the California Republican Occasion and its allies, saying they failed to boost sufficient cash to blunt Prop. 50’s anti-Trump message.
A life-sized cardboard cutout of California Republican gubernatorial candidate and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco stood close to stacks of pink MAGA hats and “Alligator Alcatraz” T-shirts. A President Reagan cardboard cutout additionally greeted guests.
Volunteer Chris Mahr checks signatures on petitions on the East Valley Republican Girls Patriots on Nov. 6 in Palm Desert. Republicans concern Prop. 50’s passage will weaken illustration within the Coachella Valley.
Republican voters within the Coachella Valley spent the times after the Nov. 4 particular election criticizing the Republican Occasion and California’s Democratic management. In Fb discussion groups, in bars and on neighborhood walks, locals weighed in on the brand new congressional district strains and the proxy battle between Trump and Newsom.
On Wednesday, gleaming Lincoln Navigators and Cadillac Escalades cruised down a principal drag, previous tidy inexperienced lawns earlier than disappearing into residential communities hidden behind sand-colored gates.
Kay Hillery, 89, who lives in an Indian Wells neighborhood identified for its architecturally vital Midcentury Trendy properties, is bracing for extra dangerous information.
She anticipates that GOP congressional candidates may have a tougher time elevating cash as a result of the brand new districts marginalize Republicans.
“I’m ashamed of the Republicans for not getting out the vote,” mentioned Hillery, who moved to the desert from Arcadia in 1989.
1. A ceramic figurine of Trump is on show on the East Valley Republican Girls Patriots retailer in Palm Desert. 2. A Trump key chain dangles on high of a giant God Bless America button which hangs subsequent to a hair dryer and a Bible inside “Simply Marylou” hair salon. 3. Contained in the “Simply Marylou” hair salon is embellished in Republican posters and slogans.
Voters who backed Prop. 50, nevertheless, have been reenergized.
“It’s vital to take a place when we have to, and we wanted to take a place as a state,” mentioned Linda Clean, president of the Indian Wells Preservation Basis.
Indian Wells is finest identified for its premiere tennis event, top-level golf programs and palm tree-lined roadways. Eisenhower, who lived in Indian Wells half time, is memorialized with a statue outdoors Metropolis Corridor.
The closely Republican metropolis for years hosted the state’s Republican Occasion conference and donor retreats organized by right-wing libertarians David and Charles Koch. (David Koch died in 2019.)
Following Tuesday’s election, Indian Wells will lose its Republican consultant, Ken Calvert, and turn into a part of the newly drawn district that reaches into San Diego County.
That space is represented by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Bonsall), however Democrats try to oust him by extending his district into bluer neighborhoods.
Michael Ford, left, Sonny Bono, heart, and John Gardner Ford, proper of Bono, attend the third day of the 1976 Republican Nationwide Conference at Kemper Enviornment in Kansas Metropolis, Missouri.
(Man DeLort/Penske Media through Getty Photographs)
A serious portion of the Riverside County desert area as soon as was represented by Rep. Sonny Bono, the singer, who was a Republican. After he was killed in a ski accident in 1998, his spouse, Mary Bono, additionally a Republican, ran for his seat and served in Congress till 2013.
The Coachella Valley is now a political patchwork, dwelling additionally to the Democratic havens of Palm Springs and Cathedral Metropolis and divided cities of Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert.
Immediately, the area is break up into congressional districts held by Calvert, a Republican who lives in far-off Corona, and Democrat Ruiz.
Calvert introduced final week that he’ll run in a brand new district in Orange and Riverside counties. The excellent news for Calvert is that it’s a closely Republican district. The dangerous information is Republican Rep. Younger Kim of Anaheim Hills can also be working in that district.
Calvert, in an emailed assertion, blamed Newsom for disenfranchising Republicans all through California — who account for five.7 million of the 22.9 million voters within the state.
“Conservatives should have their voices heard, not be drowned out by partisan strikes to advance a one-sided political agenda,” mentioned Calvert. His workplace didn’t reply when requested concerning the congressman’s views on Texas’ redistricting actions.
Indian Wells Mayor Bruce Whitman mentioned Calvert was instrumental in directing thousands and thousands of {dollars} to a wash venture that may assist growth.
U.S. flags adorn El Paseo Procuring District on Nov. 6 in Palm Desert. Republicans concern their affect within the Coachella Valley shall be weakened by Prop. 50.
In close by liberal Palm Springs, metropolis leaders handed a decision supporting immigrants and celebrated an all-LGBTQ+ metropolis council in 2017.
Indian Wells’ political management stays apolitical, Whitman mentioned.
“Nationwide points like sanctuary metropolis resolutions, or resolutions supporting Israel or Palestinians — it’s simply not our factor,” he mentioned.
On the Nest bar in Indian Wells, vacationers from Canada and Oregon on Wednesday evening mingled with silver-haired locals.
As Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” performed, 60-something resident John — who declined to present his final identify— predicted the redistricting wars would finish as a “wash” between California and Texas.
“It’s only a recreation,” he mentioned, sounding dismissive.
Sandra Schulz of Palm Desert, government vice chairman of the East Valley Republican Girls Patriots, stands in entrance of a wall lined with Trump pictures and work on Nov. 6 in Palm Desert.
Dan Schnur, who teaches political communications at USC and UC Berkeley, sees one other end result. Taking away congressional illustration from the occasion’s final remaining conservative bastions leaves the occasion even much less related, he mentioned.
The California Republican Occasion hasn’t completed significant statewide work since then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger left workplace, Schnur mentioned.
“They determined a few years in the past that they simply weren’t going to have interaction severely in state politics anymore,” mentioned Schnur. “If you happen to’re a California Republican, you give attention to nationwide politics and you’re employed on native races.”
Vacationers take a look at the Republican objects within the retailer window on the East Valley Republican Girls Patriots retailer on Nov. 6 in Palm Desert.
In 2007, then-Gov. Schwarzenegger spoke at a GOP state occasion conference in Indian Wells and warned his fellow Republicans that they wanted to pivot to the political heart and appeal to extra moderates.
Schwarzenegger drew a parallel to the movie business, telling the conference crowd: “We’re dying on the field workplace. We’re not filling the seats.”
The previous governor opposed Prop. 50, however restricted his involvement with Republicans within the marketing campaign to defeat the measure.
Indian Wells resident Peter Rammer, 69, a retired tech government, described himself as a Republican who didn’t at all times vote alongside occasion strains. He’s more and more pissed off with Democrats’ dealing with of homelessness in California.
He voted towards Prop. 50, however predicted the Democratic wins in New Jersey and Virginia would drive the Republican Occasion to pay extra consideration to regional points.
“I’m simply not pleased with how every part is happening the nation proper now,” mentioned Rammer, standing outdoors Indian Wells Metropolis Corridor. “There’s simply a lot turmoil, it’s loopy. However Trump — the man I voted for — causes a whole lot of it.”
American flags adorn El Paseo Procuring District in Palm Desert, an space which is staunchly Republican however could possibly be weakened by Prop. 50.
Again in Palm Desert, Republican membership president Miedecke was centered on the subsequent marketing campaign: Getting the phrase out a couple of poll measure by Assemblymember Carl DeMaio (R-San Diego).
It might require voter ID and proof of citizenship in California elections — one other polarizing difficulty.
