CAGOP Convention Recap: Trump’s MAGA Momentum Shunned

Opening day, Friday March 14th 2025, saw county party delegates from around the state arriving in Sacramento, eager to fete the triumphs of Donald Trump and his nearly completed White House administration. Across the nation, DOGE and accountability measures are underway, saving taxpayers untold billions; waste, fraud, duplicative spending and race-based DEI initiatives have been uncovered and canceled, yielding near-daily news headlines.

Yet just 48 hrs. later, the California GOP seems back to its old ways.

There are basically two factions within the party- The establishment, the old guard Republicans, with many never-Trumpers numbering among them. The America First faction, on the other hand, is MAGA and MAHA, featuring strong closed border and fentanyl action, also opposition to Sanctuary Cities.

Nationally (and indeed the majority of registered Republicans in California) support the White House’s momentum, and polls reflect this. In other words, the America First agenda and associated party leadership candidates would logically seem desirable to assume the helm next.

But Sunday morning’s CAGOP General Assembly, the final Convention Center gathering for the hundred of delegates to choose new leadership -and to examine and pass party resolutions – unfortunately painted a different picture. Riding the wave of Trump’s current and continuous victories was not on the Establishment’s agenda.

Just outside the convention hall where these several hundred delegates gathered, were vendors selling everything MAGA – T-shirts, hats, sparkly bling and trinkets- in homage ultimately to Donald Trump. On the streets was a truck rally, with giant Trump, American and Gadsden flags adorning their vehicles, circling the convention center outside. Yet, with this show of party ideological force inside and out, even with MAGA, MAHA images all around them, GOP delegates chose Establishment candidates to lead the party. The opportunity, or better termed, necessity, to show unity with the national RNC and Trump, was lost.

Three of four party officers elected are Establishment Republicans; the new Chairwoman Corrin Raskin, Vice Chair John Park, Secretary Sayrs Morris won. America First treasurer candidate Jack Guererro was the lone exception. He espouses a DOGE California movement, which could be blessing in disguise. Fingers crossed.

And then came the resolutions, the statements of policy or support to be adopted by the party’s delegate body. This was a chance for the CAGOP to unify and rally behind Trump and his agenda.  Proposed before the convention and deliberated at Sunday’s General Assembly, the message became clear: Establishment and never-Trump delegates shunned bringing the California party leadership in line with national conservative voter sentiment.

One proposed Resolution supported Trump’s MAGA  and MAHA movement. Resolution failed.

Another sought to voice support for a fully transparent investigation into assassination attempts against Trump. That resolution failed.

A resolution approving of Trumps executive order, Protecting the American People Against Foreign Invasion (a heavily anti-Sanctuary City effort), failed.

Support for Trump’s effort to stop the flow of fentanyl? Resolution failed, even with an introductory impassioned speech by fellow delegate Christine Bich who lost her daughter to a fentanyl overdose.

Establishment delegates voted on each of these, giving the thumbs down.

Frustration abounds, that California’s GOP delegates have not learned the lessons of ignoring the voters they are supposed to represent. Nationally, Trump won. His campaign promises are currently being implemented, and polls show he and his work are popular mere one hundred days in office. So why are CAGOP delegates bucking? RINOs have infiltrated the party. America First’s efforts were shut out of pre-convention planning and stopped from associating with anything with Trump. Even though America First faction is the “minority” within the CAGOP, its ideology essentially reflects the now-majority of national Conservative sentiment.

Across America, people have been thanking President Trump for making the nation’s borders secure, for pursuing and deporting foreign criminals preying on US citizens on US soil, and for his working to halt the deadly scourge of fentanyl. Police departments, sheriffs’ departments thank Trump. His administration seeks to make us safer, smarter and more efficient. Previously, while under Joe Biden, we have no clue what he actually did nor who actually ran the country. So, the delegates of the CAGOP in their Establishment shunning of MAGA, of Trump and the America First movement, have placed themselves on the wrong side of history and the wrong side of a majority of the state’s Conservatives.