Trump’s awkwardly timed fundraising swing through California

 

Trump’s awkwardly timed fundraising swing through California

https://www.highcpmgate.com/fjg4mj7m?key=ba9cbfa3ea2ebbbafd1bfa9d56ada03b

Republicans in swing districts could find it harder to keep a low profile on the former president’s felony convictions.

Former President Donald Trump speaks at Trump Tower in New York on May 31, 2024, the day after he was found guilty on 34 felony charges. | Alex Kent for POLITICO

It’s about to get way harder for California’s vulnerable Republicans to avoid Donald Trump.

The former president comes to California this week for his first fundraising tour since the historic verdict that found him guilty on all 34 charges in a hush money trial, stopping by San Francisco on Thursday to court wealthy tech investors at the home of venture capitalist David Sacks before heading to fundraisers in Beverly Hills and Newport Beach.

It’s routine for presidential candidates to make cash swings through the wealthy pockets of the Golden State. But Trump’s visit will put a spotlight on his recent convictions — and the fact that California Republicans have stayed relatively quiet following the verdict.

Two California Republicans in tough races — Riverside County Rep. Ken Calvert and Scott Baugh, who is running for an open Orange County seat — made statements in the immediate aftermath of the verdicts decrying the prosecutions as having partisan motivations.

But the instinct among some of the state’s swing seat Republicans over the past five days has been to say nothing at all. GOP Reps. Mike Garcia, Michelle Steel, and David Valadao have laid low since the verdicts, despite multiple requests to their campaigns for comment.

Trump’s convictions represent a tricky calculus for the handful of California candidates who could decide control of the House come November.

If they come out in support of Trump, they run the risk of alienating some of the swing voters that could decide their races. If they say nothing, they could be subjected to a public flogging from Trump world, similar to the one doled out to former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan after he urged Americans to respect the verdict.

California’s Republican House candidates are largely expected to keep their distance from Trump this week, but that doesn’t mean they’re turning their backs on him. Many have already endorsed the former president for reelection, including Garcia and Duarte. In March, Steel quietly signed on as a delegate for Trump in the presidential primary.