Californians Push Back at Progressive Dogma
State ballot propositions show that voters aren’t as radical as the people they tend to elect.
It’s complicated.
Photographer: Rodin Eckenroth/Getty ImagesCalifornia voters are more complicated than their left-wing stereotype. And not nearly as radical as the progressives they elect to public office.
True, Joseph Biden thumped President Donald Trump two to one, garnering the single largest cache of electoral college votes. Democrats control everything in the state capital of Sacramento and overwhelmingly dominate the congressional caucus. Thanks to the state’s nonpartisan, top-two primary system — colloquially known as the “jungle primary” — some California voters even face general election choices between two Democrats. Ronald Reagan’s former home is now a safely Democratic, one-party state.