When Jessica Millan Patterson took the reins of the California Republican Occasion in 2019, the media protection invariably led with the historical past she made — how she was the primary girl, first Latina, first millennial to guide the get together.
The fact verify often got here in the second paragraph: The longtime political operative and acolyte of Kevin McCarthy was assuming among the many most thankless jobs in politics.
The state GOP had simply misplaced half of its congressional delegation within the blue wave of 2018. The get together was not solely badly lagging Democrats in registered voters, it was outranked by voters registering no get together desire. Republicans teetered getting ready to irrelevance in Sacramento and had even slumped in onetime strongholds like San Diego and Orange County.
The vibes, as Patterson described it, have been that “California was a misplaced trigger … and we have been going to go the way in which of Hawaii.”
“And do I feel that was completely doable? Yeah, I feel that was completely doable.”
As an alternative, Patterson, throughout an exit interview with Playbook marking the top of her tenure this week, sounded — as incongruous as it could’ve sounded when she began — triumphant.
To be clear, not too triumphant. Patterson, 44, will not be the chest-thumping kind. And Republicans are nonetheless resoundingly California’s minority get together.
Nor was it all the time clean crusing for six years. The failed recall in opposition to Gov. Gavin Newsom exposed the age-old fractures between the grassroots and institution wings within the get together, squelching the way forward for its most viable statewide candidate, Kevin Faulconer.
However on steadiness, Patterson undoubtedly leaves California Republicans in stronger form than when she took over. Her operation registered almost 1 million new Republicans, clawing its manner again into second place in state get together identification behind simply Democrats. The GOP flipped again a number of the Home seats it misplaced in 2018 and in 2022 was capable of ship the decisive win to make McCarthy, her longtime mentor, speaker of the Home (not less than for a couple of months, anyway). And final yr, Republicans flipped legislative seats in each homes, the primary time they’ve performed so throughout a presidential cycle since 1980.
Patterson, who raised $122 million throughout her tenure, benefited mightily from her shut affiliation with McCarthy. She was extensively rumored to doubtlessly be within the operating for a prime job on the nationwide Republican Occasion when he was nonetheless in workplace (she instructed Playbook that working with McCarthy on nationwide politics might’ve been a risk, however she was firmly in opposition to shifting to Washington).
“There is no such thing as a individual on the planet that’s higher at recruiting candidates,” she mentioned. “Folks figuring out that I had his help, they believed me after I got here and mentioned, ‘we’re in search of somebody to assist us make Kevin McCarthy the speaker. They knew I used to be talking on behalf of him.’”
Patterson’s method to the GOP’s primary chief, President Donald Trump, was someplace between a stiff-arm and a bear hug — a tightrope walk made doable since California is hardly a presidential battleground state. As an alternative, she urged her candidates to maintain the main focus native, tapping into voter frustrations with the ruling Democrats at residence.
Rob Stutzman, a veteran GOP strategist, credit Patterson with being an “excellent” chair who managed to concurrently enchantment to the nation membership Republicans of yore and devotees of the brand new Trumpified model of the get together.
“Trump is intent on mainly alienating conventional Reagan Republicans,” Stutzman mentioned. “She had the power to function a state get together that also felt welcoming to these Republicans whereas on the identical time supporting the brand new path of the get together.”
With Republicans falling to such a nadir, Patterson turned her concentrate on smaller incremental objectives — higher candidate recruitment, displaying up in inland and ethnically numerous areas the get together used to disregard — to chart a path to achievement.
“We weren’t attempting to alter the world. We weren’t attempting to go in there and say, we’ll flip California pink,” Patterson mentioned. “We have now a restricted quantity of sources, and we’ll go into locations the place we consider that there’s a pathway to victory, and we’ll discover that pathway. We will discover the precise candidate, and we’ll win in these seats.”
In a way, a few of these beneficial properties have been low-hanging fruit. The get together put extra emphasis on registration drives — utilizing digital advertisements to focus on residents ready on the DMV, for instance, to sway potential Motor Voter registrants — than it had up to now, and lo and behold, the numbers went up.
Republicans had been perilously out-of-step with the state’s diversifying citizens, regardless that Patterson felt Democratic insurance policies really have been harming the voters they presupposed to champion. Her favourite instance: the plastic bag ban.
“Each single time, we’ve got to stroll right into a retailer and purchase one other rattling bag,” she mentioned. “I feel it is probably the most regressive factor that you might presumably push upon folks. I simply did not really feel just like the Democrats have been talking to the people who they have been claiming to be combating for. However Republicans weren’t speaking to them in any respect.”
Now, Patterson says the brand new registered Republicans look extra just like the voters the get together had as soon as ignored — youthful, extra Latino, extra working-class. She famous that they’ve had extra success flipping in inland components of the state as an alternative of the coast. Working example: The Republicans’ inconceivable maintain on Rep. David Valadao’s Central Valley district, regardless that on paper it’s a blue seat. In the meantime, Democratic Rep. Dave Min pulled out a win in coastal Orange County district that features rich, whiter enclaves similar to Newport Seashore, regardless of a slight GOP registration benefit.
She additionally touted tangible operational adjustments, similar to shifting the Trailblazers recruiting program in-house, which let the get together construct up a bench ranging from faculty boards and water boards, not simply legislative seats.
Patterson often is the beneficiary of impeccable timing: She ascended to the submit after her get together’s 2018 whupping, and she or he’ll be leaving earlier than the midterms, which might very nicely be one other tough cycle for the incumbent president’s get together.
However she denies feeling any aid about being on the sidelines for the 2026 cycle. As an alternative, she says she feels a tinge of jealousy that the following Republican get together chair could possibly accomplish the one factor that has eluded her — and the state GOP on the whole — for almost 20 years: electing a Republican to statewide workplace.
“I do assume that California is prepared, and we’re seeing it in polls. We’re seeing 47 % [who] are keen to vote for a Republican,” she mentioned. “I simply assume we’ve obtained to search out them the precise one.”
Patterson didn’t establish which candidate she thinks will finish the GOP statewide drought, however she thinks it can doubtless be the highest prize — the governorship — that can flip earlier than any of the opposite positions, and she or he suspects it can doubtless be “somebody outdoors of politics” to drag it off.
“I am slightly bit envious that the following [chair]individual might be the person who helps get a statewide elected,” she mentioned. “I will probably be cheering them on, for certain, however possibly be slightly bit envious of what they’ve the chance to do.”
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CORRECTION: An earlier model of this story misstated Jessica Millan Patterson’s age.
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