How one California beach town became Gavin Newsom’s nemesis
Huntington Beach’s hard-right turn is typical of modern California Republicanism
AN IDYLLIC CITY in swanky Orange County, California, is not where you would expect to encounter a self-professed champion of the proletariat. Huntington Beach was first known for oil (the high school’s mascot is still the Oilers), then for surfing. Yet that is how Gracey Van Der Mark, its Republican mayor, sees herself and her city. A framed copy of a recent Los Angeles Times column suggesting (half facetiously) that Donald Trump should pick her for his vice-president hangs on her office wall. She says other cities are afraid of Gavin Newsom, the state’s Democratic governor, “because he’s acting like a tyrant”.
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This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Surf City goes MAGA”
United States April 13th 2024
From the April 13th 2024 edition
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