After the shellacking that California Republicans took in this year’s midterm elections, many figures within the more pragmatic wings of the party establishment had hoped that the party would turn away from the divisive politics of President Trump and seek to become a more diverse coalition.
But in the short term, the midterm election whittled away all the purple sections of the state now represented by the GOP, leaving only the scarlet-red core. With striking losses in Orange County and the Central Valley, the Republican Party’s diminished congressional delegation will now represent a less diverse and less well-off subset of Californians and an electorate that was most enamored with the president. It will also be a much smaller portion of the state.
This year, 26 percent of Californians are represented in Congress by a Republican. Next year, that number will fall to 13 percent.
Prior to the election, the average Californian living in a Republican-held district earned $65,634 per year. That’s slightly above the state average of $63,783. The average district was also slightly less educated than the state as whole (19 percent have bachelor’s degrees compared to 20 percent statewide) and significantly whiter (49 percent to 38 percent).