Republican candidates in the California governor’s race appear to be following President Donald Trump’s lead on a path toward another party wipeout, according to a new analysis.
Candidates like Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host whom Trump endorsed in April, and Sheriff Chad Bianco have adopted an anti-immigration policy position that is similar to Trump and the MAGA movement’s policies. A new analysis from Spanish newspaper El País suggests that this move may be their undoing.
The analysis pointed to former governor candidate Pete Wilson’s campaign in the early 1990s, where Wilson supported a controversial ballot measure to restrict immigrants’ access to health care. While Wilson won the election, the analysis suggests that his support for the measure made the California Republican Party much more unpopular among voters.
“Professor Fernando Guerra says he hasn’t seen Republican candidates in California with anti-immigrant stances since Pete Wilson, campaigning for reelection as governor, pushed through the controversial Proposition 187 in 1994, which restricted undocumented immigrants’ access to public services like education and healthcare,” the analysis reads. “Proposition 187 passed the ballot, but federal courts blocked it, and it never went into effect. Wilson won that election after using Proposition 187 as a central theme in his campaign.”
“Some believe that this marked the beginning of the Republican Party’s decline in California,” it added. “The struggle to overturn this initiative gave rise to prominent Hispanic politicians, such as current gubernatorial candidates Xavier Becerra and Antonio Villaraigosa, as well as Senator Alex Padilla.”
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