Latina, an ally of McCarthy, elected Republican Californian at the head of the party

SACRAMENTO – The Republican Party of California, touched by the mid-term elections and anemic electoral registration, has chosen as president Jessica Patterson, the first woman in her history, as a result of a combative election that opposed the faithful of President Donald Trump to those of the party. |

The election of Patterson, aged 38, mother of two children of Latin descent and ally of the minority leader in the House, Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), To lead the largest operation of the The country's GOP in the 2020 election cycle, took place at the end of Congress Day which drew a record 1,500 local delegates to Sacramento.

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Patterson was the overwhelming choice of elected in the state. CEO of California Trailblazers, a program for recruiting and training candidates for political parties, she was successful in the aftermath of a close fight against two grassroots conservative activists, both supporters of Trump: former Assembly member, Travis Allen, and Steve Frank, a longtime insider.

Addressing delegates after garnering 54.6% of the vote in the first round of voting, Patterson made a strong call to unity – and the promise of future victories – to starving members of the polls. State, GOP, which has been reduced to third-party status in California.

"Today we are embarking on the next chapter in the history of our party," she said. "We are going to be on one thing: win. We will fight against the Democrats. … We will fight them in the compound and we will beat them in the elections. "

As a sign of approval for Republicans to call for more diversity in their ranks, delegates also elected Sunday Peter Kuo, a businessman from East Bay immigrant to Taiwan, as vice president and vice president. Greg Gandrud, openly homosexual, to the position of treasurer. .

With Patterson's victory, the California Republicans will now be led by a women's group: Marie Waldron, chair of the Assembly's caucus of Republicans, and Shannon Grove, recently appointed minority leader in the Senate.

The Republicans have hailed the radical change in party leadership. They said it was a necessary boost for a declining party.

"It has given me shivers," said Beth Miller, a former communications consultant and former press secretary to the administrations of Gov. Pete Wilson and President George H. W. Bush, said after Patterson's victory. "She won decisively and that means a lot of people want a new direction. She went through the party and I'm so proud that we elected the first woman, a Latina, a millennium. "

Cassandra Pye, a former adviser to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, said, "I'm really excited … the board looks like California. We must accept that if we want to attract young voters, we must have young people at the front. It is a young mother, she has a lot of energy. I like the optics. "

With the latest polls indicating that two-thirds of Californians disapprove of Trump's performance, Republicans have been trying to figure out how long it takes to kiss the president – or hold him down and focus on California issues.

Patterson, who voted for Trump in 2016, urged the party to move away from "national issues" and focus, in the next election cycle, on issues such as high housing costs and taxes.

After her election, Patterson avoided journalists asking if she would invite the president to California to campaign or raise money. "We will have to see how it works," she said.

Even with McCarthy's strong support and the lion's share of elected officials and party leaders in California, Patterson has faced a weekend of attacks from far-right activists who have accused her as part of the missing "set-up". "elite" in the GOP, which now has fewer registered voters than Democrats or those who have declared "no party preference." "

The atmosphere of tension was spreading on the streets, where an altercation between supporters of "Make America Great Again" and Liberal activists occurred Saturday night in front of a "Build the Wall" dinner sponsored by Tea Party activists, a few blocks from the convention. The police settled after protesters rallied outside, some wearing bandanas and others chanting, "We welcome immigrants here."

And in front of the convention on the steps of the Capitol of California, advocates in favor of the popular campaign of Allen wore "Trump 2020" clothing and #MAGA hats mixed with members of the extremist and nationalist Proud group Boy while the officers on horseback seemed on. The speakers rose up against the "communist" Democrats at the head of the state, led the songs of "Lock her up!" And sang on a hip hop melody "Build the Wall", while the participants in the rally waving placards urging Republicans to "Resume California".

Throughout the weekend, tensions also reigned in the interior, as candidates presented passionate speeches to militant delegates. "My friends have said that it's pretty ugly," said Jim Brulte, the party's outgoing president.

Opponents of Patterson's candidacy shouted "Drain the Swamp" and were booed after delivering a speech extolling his confession of elected officials; a supporter of Frank suggested that Patterson's supporters had been "paid". In his speech, Patty, host of the San Diego TV show, Carl DeMaio, accused Allen of being an "egocentric" making noble but unachievable promises about his ability to lead Republicans to the next cycle.

Patterson, while urging Republicans to reject any divisive politics, has repeatedly used the rhetoric of red meat in an attempt to attack many conservatives still in contention.

"I know who the enemy is … they are about 500 meters away, in this big white building," she told a caucus, pointing to the state Capitol dominated by Democrats on the other side from the street. "Every day, they offer stupid ideas. … They try to deprive us of our freedoms, "she added.

Former Representative Darrell Issa, whose 49th Congress headquarters was transferred to Democrat Mike Levin after his retirement, Patterson said – and acknowledged the challenges the California GOP faces in a state where the president is historically unpopular.

The problem today, he told POLITICO, is that "as soon as you say you're Republican, you're at a disadvantage."

"Then you have to position it," he said. "We want to show that the party is much more inclusive … that we are the pro-business party that does not attack believers. If we party all that is in Washington, then no.

But Issa said the stakes were high with regard to the leadership of the country's largest Republican organization.

"The president of our party is important at the national level," he said. "We may be blue for a long time, but we are still an economic driver. And if we are not represented by both parties, Washington denies you. "

Despite a consensus among Republican political consultants that Trump's low approval rates caused losses in the secret ballot in November, support for the president was ubiquitous among party activists. John Cox – the 2018 Governor-elect Republican candidate who did not vote for Trump, however, endorsed the general election before suffering a historic defeat – opened his speech to delegates predicting that the president would win a second term.

Supporters of Allen and Frank said they saw a vote for Patterson as an endorsement by incompetent party leaders who had brought California Republicans to their current nadir, including McCarthy, a Bakersfield Republican.

But Demaio, the host of the show, said it was high time that California Republicans focus on California's problems – and on what he called mismanagement of the state by Democrats in power – instead of Trump.

"You can oppose anything you want, but at some point, should not you hold Supreme Democrats accountable here?", He said. "The president of the California Republican Party must reinvent the Republican brand … at a time when the brand is also influenced by national politicians. There is a national party, there are national figures and we have to come back to the problems our state is facing. "

Democrats observing the scene welcomed the disarray and fierce war of rival GOP, who held no position in the state and was reduced to a minority in both houses of the state legislature. They said the California GOP's road to revival around 2020 was blocked by the current White House occupier, regardless of who is responsible for the state party.

"It's the political party of the 21st century," said Bob Mulholland, a former campaign consultant. "Whether they want it or not, Trump is their national leader and that causes them problems. He is too dominant to hide. "