This story initially was printed by Actual Clear Wire
The night time earlier than former Vice President Kamala Harris re-emerged on the political scene in a speech rallying Democrats to “lock in” to struggle President Trump, one in every of Trump’s prime lieutenants issued a warning.
If Harris makes an attempt to rehabilitate her political profession by working for governor of California, Ric Grenell, Trump’s envoy for particular missions, reiterated his plans to contemplate leaping into the race himself.
“If she runs, I believe Republicans need to rethink the truth that we’ve a shot,” he advised a crowd at a non-public occasion in Calabasas, California, Tuesday night time. “Sure, if she runs, I’m going to take a tough have a look at it.”
Proper now, Grenell is serving as Trump’s interim director of the John F. Kennedy Middle for the Performing Arts and longtime international coverage adviser. In February, Grenell was instrumental in liberating 5 Individuals held hostage in Venezuela, and during the last day, his identify, together with a number of others, has been floated as a doable alternative for former Nationwide Safety Adviser Mike Waltz. Trump introduced Thursday that Waltz could be leaving the publish to develop into United Nations ambassador in a serious shakeup of his nationwide safety staff.
Grenell, who refers to himself because the president’s “fixer,” is a detailed Trump confidante who has served in a wide range of roles, together with appearing director of nationwide intelligence and ambassador to Germany throughout Trump’s first time period. Earlier this 12 months, Grenell, recognized for his blunt discuss and contentious strategy to international coverage, served as Trump’s emissary throughout the devastating California wildfires, strongly backing his calls to connect circumstances to any federal catastrophe help to assist Los Angeles rebuild.
Throughout the presidential transition, Grenell was a contender for secretary of state, however that function went to Marco Rubio. Now the roving envoy function offers Grenell the liberty to maintain his choices open and enter the crowded California gubernatorial discipline if the political dynamics appear proper.
Even when Trump faucets Grenell to fill the nationwide safety adviser function, he nonetheless has time to find out whether or not to leap into the California governor’s race. The election is greater than a 12 months and a half away, and candidates have till March 2026 to file their paperwork.
Over the previous few weeks, as hypothesis swirled about Harris’ intentions, a number of candidates on each side of the aisle have joined the race, together with conservative commentator and Fox Information contributor Steve Hilton and Biden’s Well being and Human Providers Secretary Xavier Becerra. The pool contains Republican and former Riverside Sheriff Chad Bianco, and several other Democrats: Rep. Katie Porter, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, State Senate President Professional Tem Toni Atkins, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former State Controller Betty Yee, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, and entrepreneur Stephen Cloobeck.
Whoever decides to run, the Democratic supermajority-controlled state is a protracted shot for Republicans. No GOP candidate has gained statewide since Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s landslide re-election in 2007. With out a Hollywood blockbuster film star or one other well known character within the combine, a Republican candidate for governor faces lengthy odds.
Nonetheless, a late March ballot exhibiting Californians warming to the concept of a Republican governor is stirring hopes amid the GOP. Almost 50% of possible California voters stated they’re now contemplating voting for a Republican for governor in 2026, with 71% expressing dissatisfaction over Gov. Gavin Newsom’s and legislative leaders’ data on addressing California’s excessive value of residing. Such a big discipline of Democratic gubernatorial candidates may divide Democratic and impartial voters, giving a conservative or impartial candidate a possible opening, however provided that the variety of right-leaning candidates within the race stays restricted.
Thus far, Grenell has stated he’s centered on paving the best way for conservative candidates throughout the state relatively than throwing his personal hat within the ring. He says his political motion committee, Repair California, which he based in 2021, registered 200,000 new conservative voters final 12 months alone.
The group’s registration efforts have corresponded with a major uptick in Republican voter registrations in recent times – some 775,000 new Republicans have been added to the voter rolls since 2019, in keeping with the California Republican Get together. During the last 12 months, GOP voter registrations have elevated by greater than 100,000 whereas Democrats have declined by tens of hundreds, in keeping with stories from the California Secretary of State.
The California GOP didn’t put money into these efforts, nonetheless, and several other state conservative activists have stated the credit score goes to Grenell and Repair California.
Final 12 months’s voter registration drive was notably profitable in flipping Congressional District 41 from blue, serving to longtime California GOP Rep. Ken Calvert maintain on to his seat in a decent re-election final 12 months.
Grenell stated he goals to copy the outcomes of Stacey Abrams’ Honest Battle group’s five-year digital voter-registration program that made once-red Georgia a swing state, and related efforts in Florida and Ohio. Repair California officers have recognized 1.4 million Californians that it needs to register to vote by the 2026 midterm elections to assist Trump keep a Republican majority, keep away from one other spherical of impeachment efforts in Congress, and provides a conservative candidate a greater shot at a gubernatorial win.
“I do plenty of jobs, however Repair California is one in every of my favorites,” Grenell advised supporters Wednesday night time. “I don’t receives a commission. … I do all this work as a result of I believe that the one strategy to save this state is to do one thing that’s very unsexy – simply register folks to vote.”
Trump has thrown his help behind Repair California’s efforts, elevating $3 million in a single Los Angeles fundraiser in 2021, whereas first girl Melania Trump headlined one other occasion which raked in $1 million, Grenell stated.
Some 50% of Californians aren’t registered to vote, and of the 50% who’re, solely roughly 40% go and vote in any given election, Grenell stated.
“You may’t have this small group of the identical individuals who vote and decide our leaders,” Grenell added. “We have now to develop the pool, and I imagine that if we are able to do this, we are able to change Sacramento.”
There’s a very good probability, he added, that these sitting on the sidelines in California, the place Democrats maintain all statewide elected places of work and supermajorities within the legislature, are “commonsense conservatives” who don’t imagine their vote will rely or “aren’t charged up or they simply wish to thoughts their very own enterprise.”
Grenell is difficult all right-leaning candidates within the governor’s race to spend half of all cash they increase on voter registration drives. “I’m bored with folks working, elevating hundreds of thousands of {dollars}, shedding, and strolling away with their very own lists,” he stated. “They lose, they stroll away, and the subsequent individual has to begin throughout.”
Katie Zacharia, who serves as senior adviser to Repair California, says that the group’s efforts may very well be instrumental in serving to Republicans win again swing California Home seats as a result of newly registered voters are extremely prone to vote within the subsequent election. Two Republican Home members, former Reps. Michelle Metal and John Duarte, misplaced to Democratic challengers Derek Tran and John Grey, respectively, by lower than one proportion level in November, whereas two different Republicans misplaced by simply three proportion factors.
“Statistically, 80% of those that are newly registered prove,” Zacharia advised RealClearPolitics.
Within the aftermath of the devastating wildfires, Grenell means that Los Angeles County, with its 9.78 million inhabitants, is prime territory to choose up registrations from conservatives and independents fed up with the Democrats’ file of failed management.
Grenell predicted that Angelenos would help the strings he’s urgent Trump to connect to any launch of federal wildfire catastrophe cash to the state. Congress is ready to contemplate that catastrophe aid package deal within the late spring or summer time.
He additionally stated he’s combating to implement circumstances for these federal funds “come hell or excessive water.” Grenell is urgent Trump to demand that state Democrats intestine the California Environmental High quality Act, a sequence of rules requiring state businesses to mitigate the environmental impacts of their work, and the elimination of the California Coastal Fee, which extremely regulates constructing and improvement close to seashores and coastlines.
Newsom earlier this 12 months waived many features of each for the post-wildfire rebuilding course of in Los Angeles, however eliminating the wide-ranging environmental legal guidelines in California is an formidable, extremely unlikely activity, contemplating the supermajority management of each homes of the state legislature. California Lawyer Basic Rob Bonta is already combating a number of of Trump’s sweeping government orders threatening its federal funding in court docket.
But, the wildfires shined such an intense nationwide highlight on California authorities mismanagement this 12 months that Grenell believes there’s a novel however fleeting alternative to shift California politics.
“Except we shift the paradigm of voter registration, we aren’t going to win, however we do have an opportunity,” Grenell stated. “The fires have given us an unbelievable second. We can not miss this second.”
This text was initially printed by RealClearPolitics and made out there through RealClearWire.
Susan Crabtree is RealClearPolitics’ nationwide political correspondent.
