Back in the ‘60s and early ‘70swhen I grew up there, CA was staunch GOP territory... I remember the 8th grade trip to the capitol in Sacramento... the State Assembly in 1971 was largely made up of Repubs. Things are ... well.. different now.
Yeah, and I remember the nightly news stories in the late '70s, showing dozens and dozens of people crossing into California on foot, from Mexico, right out in the open. They were running through back yards, up the median strips of divided highways, right through traffic in some cases.
I wonder if that has anything to do with why things are different now.
California republicans were always moderate republican, libertarian republican, liberal republican, California was never conservative, and there never was outreach or the kind of crusading passion and intensity that we see among truly conservative people, like Texans and Southerners.