As a student of Political Science, I am recognizing that our political party in California and San Bernardino County is not being responsive to the activists in the Republican Party. Perhaps the party is losing its luster as how the Conservative Party lost its luster in 2024 in the United Kingdom General Election. How can we save our state when our local and state parties are not listening to the pulse of the base.
We have winning issues, but we are being treated as the strange uncle in the family. I want to see voter registration, issue advocacy campaigns, outreach efforts and other initiatives implemented. It is vital for us to cultivate the ground so we have redistricting lines that are not horrific in 2031. Yes, we do want to have new congress members and state legislators. However it takes us starting from the bottom to the top for us to make a revolution. We need to begin at the school and utility boards to the city councils and work from there. If your city has quality leadership, maintain the quality leadership and defend them. It also will take people to attend their city council and school board meetings at least once a month to check up on them to make sure they are doing responsible policies for the people of our communities.
If I won my race last year, I would have established perhaps town hall meetings with the grassroots groups. We need to understand what the people are wanting so we can address their needs in the party. The status quo will play games to silence our voices, but there are other groups that will value our contributions. We are here to grow the Republican Party, if you do not like a Republican running for a local office you run another Republican. County Parties should discuss with the membership and other clubs in their area what are they looking for in a candidate instead of demoralizing endorsed candidates.
Even if our county party can not be united, the state party is not exactly exceptional even though they are more open of an organization as my county party. Self-reflection should be utilized by both organizations to see why people on the outside perceive them. The state party convention earlier in September 2025 in Anaheim was disappointing where policies were abused to get John Paul White out of the Associate Delegate Representative race and various resolutions that the base supported were rejected on the floor. Even a delegate on the floor spoke to the chair before she was cut off stating that we were acting more like Democrats and that is a shame.
We need a spine. Donors and volunteers are running away. If we have no conviction we have no soul. State legislators in our party do not want to fund the state party, volunteers in various Republican clubs in my county do not want to help the county party. There is room across the spectrum in our party to use all of our talents to make things better for our county and our state. I understand no one wants to be called out from Corin Rankin and Phil Cothran Sr., but perhaps we need dialogue on what needs to be given and taken so we can defeat Democrats and help California leave the bottom tier of our nation.