New poll: CA voters not so keen on national political bloodsport
Politico suggests that progressive state politicians should take note: Californians are more worried about homelessness and cost of living than Elon Musk's hand gestures.
In a dual survey of California voters and political professionals who are driving the state’s agenda, the electorate is strikingly more likely to want a detente with the White House.
The results suggest a disconnect between the policymaking class and voters in an overwhelmingly blue state where Trump made broad inroads in 2024 amid widespread frustrations over crime and a prohibitively high cost of living.
Registered Democrats, however — who comprise nearly half the electorate — are more enthusiastic about progressive policies and more eager to challenge Trump’s Washington.
California’s approach to the president has become a core point of debate among the state’s elected Democrats as the national party seeks a path out of the political wilderness. Newsom has invited conservative luminaries like Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon on his podcast, appealed to the president for Los Angeles wildfire aid and approved millions to battle the Trump administration in court as legislative Democrats wrestle with the balance between combating Trump and addressing quality-of-life concerns.
Jack Citrin, a University of California, Berkeley political science professor who directed the first-of-its-kind poll with POLITICO, said the results underscore the extent to which California’s political class is dominated by self-identified progressives.
“The influentials are a much more homogenous group than the registered voter public,” Citrin said. “The major difference is the electorate has polarized.”
The poll shows that while Democratic voters favor taking on Trump, the electorate broadly wants their representatives to lower the temperature. Forty-three percent of registered voters said leaders were “too confrontational” — a sentiment largely driven by Republicans and independents — compared to a third who found them “too passive.”
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