WASHINGTON — The conflict between California and Florida began in November 2023 when Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke on Fox News over which state has the better example for the country. They faced off and reached their climax.
Thirteen months later, Mr. DeSantis left the national stage when the presidential race was called off. But his state is winning the political war.
The country under President-elect Donald Trump looks much more like Trump’s adopted home state of Florida after defeating Vice President Kamala Harris by portraying her as an out-of-touch California liberal. It will be.
President Trump is filling his Cabinet with Floridians. And his plans to roll back California’s policies on the environment, crime, homelessness, and education will continue in his first term, thanks to the state’s declining influence in Congress and weakening checks on Trump’s power. There is far less backlash.
“They’re all born and raised in our state, and they’re going to show America the type of leadership we have,” said Brian Ballard, a powerful Florida lobbyist and Republican fundraiser. Deaf,” he said. His company previously employed and continues to employ President Trump’s incoming chief of staff, Susie Wiles. His nominee for attorney general is former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. (Mr. Ballard’s expanded footprint now includes offices in Washington state and West Los Angeles, which opened two years ago, another sign of the state’s encroachment.)
Other Florida officials likely to be in Trump’s inner circle include Sen. Marco Rubio, whom Trump nominated for secretary of state, and Rep. Mike Walz, whom the president nominated to be national security adviser. etc. are included.
Two prominent figures with ties to California and in President Trump’s orbit, advisers Elon Musk and Stephen Miller, have been sharp critics of the state’s business and immigration policies, and Trump’s He promises to support the reversal.
Their united efforts are expected to spark a continuation of the fight that began eight years ago during President Trump’s first term. At the time, Mr. Trump sought to block California’s policy to provide sanctuary to immigrants in the country illegally and reduce its power to set environmental policy, including on motor fuels. Set standards, change water policy to benefit farmers, and suspend post-wildfire aid.
Many of those efforts were thwarted by regulators, advisers who found ways to change his mind, the courts and former San Francisco Democratic Party Chair Nancy Pelosi, who proved to be his most formidable opponent.
Democratic attorneys general filed a record 155 lawsuits against the first Trump administration, winning 83% of the cases, according to a tally by Marquette University political science professor Paul Nollette. California has filed more than 100 such lawsuits.
But Mr. Trump chose people for a second term who were less likely to oppose his wishes. The Supreme Court is showing increasing deference to President Trump, who appointed three of its nine members. And while Republicans won majorities in both houses of Congress in last month’s elections, Pelosi no longer leads the party.
California Democrats’ biggest defense appears to be Republican dysfunction, as evidenced by their struggle last week to pass legislation in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to avert a government shutdown.
Meanwhile, President Trump this time will fight states on a variety of fronts, including homelessness policies, resistance to the border wall, electric vehicle mandates, and plans to launch mass deportations that would disproportionately affect the border state of California. I swore. The state with the largest Latino population in the country.
Mr. Newsom declined an interview request but vowed to continue fighting Mr. Trump’s policies but not with what he called the “brand of resistance” that characterized previous clashes. Other Democrats are approaching Trump’s second term with more conciliatory rhetoric as the party struggles to unite around strategy.
Former Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, who helped define the party’s liberal wing for decades, argues that President Trump has gone too far and will provoke a backlash.
“Bring it to me,” she said.
“People just decided they weren’t happy about things,” she added. “They didn’t vote for the problems we’re going to face,” he said, citing a list of policies from President Trump’s allies that could lead to less overtime for workers and a loss of breathable air for residents. said.
But even if President Trump’s policies help Democrats politically, they could have a major impact on Californians.
Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, who began preparing for a potential lawsuit months before the election, said he would battle the incoming administration over immigration, climate, reproductive rights, gun safety, democracy-related issues and civil rights. He said he expected it. He acknowledged the Supreme Court’s shift to the right, but noted that most decisions are made by trial court and circuit court judges.
“We can and will win, and we won before the United States Supreme Court,” he said.
Bonta, who is considering a run for governor in 2026, argued that voters are choosing Trump in a narrow sense, not a single-state model of governance.
“The Florida model? Are you talking about Matt Gaetz, DeSantis and Pam Bondi?” He said, along with the governor and current attorney general nominee, a former congressman who withdrew his candidacy for attorney general over allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor. “I don’t think they are models for the future of our country,” he said, referring to members of Congress. country. What else is the Florida model? “Don’t say you’re gay” – is it completely exclusive and discriminatory? A formal program to send immigrants across the country as political pawns? ”
But Bonta and other Democrats said the party had just lost an election, even though Trump carried the state by 20 percentage points in 2016 and 2020. They admitted that they had a goal difference of about 10 percentage points.
Much of that growth is due to the state’s Latino population, which makes up a large portion of the Democratic Party’s traditional working-class base.
“Everything is centered around affordability. When you factor in housing costs, California is the most affordable state,” says a post-election survey of Latino voters, and the evolution of their views over the decades. said Mike Madrid, an anti-Trump Republican pollster who has focused on the. “The idea of California values is very much a cultural issue. It essentially ignores economic issues.”
Madrid cited policies like Newsom’s plan to phase out sales of new gas-powered cars by 2035 as examples of policies that don’t resonate with working-class voters.
Most of the state’s Latinos have to live far from work due to high housing costs and high gas prices, but they can’t afford new EVs or benefit from the Biden administration’s rebates. I can’t even receive it. A large portion of their income is spent on housing, which is rising in part due to expensive building regulations.
New census estimates released Thursday show California added 232,570 residents from 2023 to 2024 after a pandemic-era population decline. But the latest estimates show the state has lost more residents to other parts of the country (239,575) than any other state, and only immigration from other countries has increased.
Florida had one of the largest population increases, adding 467,347 people, both immigrants and domestic immigrants.
California’s long-struggling state’s Republican Party is gloating with promises to work with President Trump to eliminate Democratic-led projects and environmental regulations.
Rep. Vince Fong, R-Bakersfield, who won the election to replace former Republican Party Chairman Kevin McCarthy earlier this year, has vowed to defund California’s high-speed rail projects and build a border wall in the state. He said he would submit a bill to cooperate with Trump. , blames porous borders for allowing fentanyl smuggling from China.
In an interview, he raved about Florida as a model for better business, regulation, environmental policy and housing costs, and welcomed the state’s influence on the national level.
“It’s ironic that Governor Newsom and Democrats in the state Legislature are now concerned about affordability,” he says. “I can hear them talking about it, but it’s their policy.”
He accused Newsom of waging war on Florida and the Trump administration for personal gain.
“He is seeking to advance himself at the expense of Californians for his own political purposes,” he said.
The state remains the fifth-largest economy in the world and ranks first in new business startups and private sector employment, according to Newsom’s office. Spokesman Brandon Richards said Newsom travels around the state to expand economic opportunities.
But many of America’s biggest business titans are making their own pilgrimages to visit President Trump’s Florida home.
