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June 2, 2026 13 mins

Is California finally ready for a political shake-up?

In this episode of The Truth with Lisa Boothe, Lisa sits down with California Republican Party Chair Corrin Rankin to discuss the growing momentum behind Republican candidates Steve Hilton and Spencer Pratt, the state's political future, and whether voters are ready to reject decades of Democratic leadership.

Rankin explains why Republicans believe California is more competitive than many political observers realize, outlines the party's election integrity efforts, and discusses how concerns over crime, homelessness, public safety, and quality of life are reshaping the political landscape. She also weighs in on Governor Gavin Newsom's declining approval ratings, voter dissatisfaction across the state, and what Republicans must do to win over independents and disillusioned Democrats.

The conversation also explores the role of high-profile candidates like Steve Hilton and Spencer Pratt, fundraising trends, voter turnout efforts, and the roadmap Republicans believe could make statewide victories possible in California.

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Truth with Lisa Booth, where we get
to the heart of the issues that matter to you. Today,
we're talking all things California with the California Republican Party
Chairwoman Carinn Rankin. We're going to dive into the election tonight.
They've got this jungle primary in the state where two
people will advance. Obviously, we're watching the gubernatorial race with

(00:20):
hopes that Steve Hilton, the Republican there, my former colleague,
a friend of mine, will advance in that election. And
then also of course the Los Angeles mayoral race, where
we've been watching Spencer Pratt, who could potentially advance against
Karen Bass there. You know, one of the concerns is
we've seen Chad Bianco, one of the Republicans running for governor,

(00:40):
could potentially block out Steve Hilton from advancing. So we
hope that doesn't happen. But the big challenge is what
happens after tonight if you do end up having a
Republican advance in the gubernatoral race and the mayoral race.
Because look, let's face it, Democrats outnumber Republicans at state
substantially almost by five million. Statewide, almost two million in

(01:02):
Los Angeles alone, So how do Republicans overcome that gap?
We're gonna ask the chairwoman about that. What sort of
apparatus do Republicans in the state have. So we'll dig
in to all of that and more with the chairwoman
of the Republican Party in California States tuned. Well, thank

(01:25):
you so much for coming on the show. You know,
it's great to see both Steve Hilton and Spencer pratte
like viable and running as governor and then also potentially
mayor of Los Angeles. What do you expect to see tonight?
What do you think is going to happen.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
We're expecting to see what all the polls show and
the data is telling us, is that Steve Hilton will
make it into the top two this evening on the
gubernatorial side, and we believe Spencer Pratt will also make
it through to the top two in the LA Mayor's race.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
You know, there's been some concern that Chad Bianco could
potentially eat up too much of the margin that Steve
Hillton needs to advance. Is that a concern of your
Should he have dropped out or how do you see that?

Speaker 3 (02:13):
You know, I'm not in my position.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
It's not really one to tell people to drop out
or not drop out, but it is going to be
a tight race. So you know, you know, Steve's been
making a huge plea to Bianco supporters because you know,
the math is just not in his favor right now.
On our side, for the Republican Party side, we've been

(02:36):
sending text messages out for the past week throughout the
state reminding Republicans to turn in their ballots, guaranteeing them
that we have a full election integrity program. We work
hand in hand with the RNC and the NRCC. There's
no daylight between our organizations. We've got a full war

(02:58):
room here tonight. We've got volunteers in every county that
are watching the ballots being counted, and if anything goes wrong,
they'll call into our election hotline. We'll create a ticket
and our attorneys will look at it. And it's also
important to say that we have attorneys in every single

(03:20):
county that are ready to file a lawsuit within twelve
hours if we see something wrong that we believe needs
to be addressed in the court. So I always say,
if you try to cheat in this election, we will
come after you.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
And how much does that happen in California?

Speaker 3 (03:39):
It depends.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
So a couple elections cycles ago, we've had several tickets
that would pass through our election integrity office that we reviewed,
but only a small fraction of those was something that
we needed to pursue further. Usually what happens is if
it rises to a credible level, the first thing that

(04:02):
our attorneys do is contact the ro O v UH.
Some go down in person, some make personal phone calls,
and we get the situation sorted out immediately and we
demand an explanation right there on the spot.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
You know, what is fundraising looked like for the party
in the state, because obviously both Steve Hilton and Spencer
Pratt more specifically have gotten you know, a ton of
national attension and a ton of attention. So is that
translated into you know, more fundraising dollars for the party
in the state or what what does that look?

Speaker 2 (04:33):
Sure, our direct mail has increased over the last year,
our digital UH fundraising efforts have also increased, So I mean,
you know, excitement is excitement, and you know, Spencer Pratt
is out raised Karen Bass significantly, So you know, there's
just a lot having a lot of excitement here in

(04:54):
California really does help with the fundraising part.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
Of the challenge. Obviously. You know, hopefully Steve Hilton advances
and the Goobatrolo race and Spencer Pratt advances in the
mayoral race. But you know, the problem, you know, general
election is tough when you're running against a Democrat. I
think in the state of California, Democrats out number you know,
better than me, but I think it's something like almost
like four point six million or almost five million. Yeah,

(05:18):
it's almost two to one. Yeah, and then Los Angeles
it's almost by two million. Other Democrats out number Republicans.
So you know, obviously that's a challenge. You know, how
do you win over That's a lot of Democrats that
you're going to have to win over.

Speaker 2 (05:33):
When we look at the data, and the polling has
shown this too, is that independents have been breaking for
Steve Hilton in this race, and so we we hope
to have that continue. I know, Steve, you know, when
he makes it out of the top two this evening,

(05:54):
it's going to be you know, incumbent upon him. It's
going to be incumbent upon the party and all of
our candidates to make sure that we're reaching out to
independence and we're reaching out to disenfranchised Democrats. There was
a poll that came out recently that showed that fifty
six percent of Californians believe that our state is going
in the wrong direction. So this is a poll done

(06:17):
by you know, it's not a partisan poll. So if
those fifty six percent of Californians can you know, realize
that the Democrats that they've been voting for have done
nothing to improve our state in our state and have
actually been the cause of the wrong direction. And it's
going to be incumbent upon us to reach out to

(06:40):
those voters and get them to understand that the Republicans
are the other direction.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
Yeah, I mean it seems like, you know, the messaging
that we've seen from both Steve Hilton and Spenser Proud,
I mean it's like it's pretty simple. It's just like
you don't have to live with in Squalor, you know,
you don't have to live with you know, homeless drug
addicts running around and threatening by winds like you can
have one or you know, like it's like it's basically
just you know, you can live normally. You don't have

(07:06):
to live in this chaos is you know, seems to
be the message.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
No, and it's it's a great message, isn't it. I Mean,
he just's he's an Angelino. He lives there, he sees
what everybody else is seeing. He's really shining a light
on what Karen Bass is trying to tell people. She's
literally gaslighting Angelino, saying that homelessness has improved, crime has improved,
and everybody who lives there knows that's not true.

Speaker 1 (07:30):
You know. And then even at the what does Gavin
Newsom's popularity look like? And I know you had mentioned that,
you know, the bulk of the Californians believe that the
state's heading the wrong direction. But how what is his
own popularity or popularity look like right now in the state.

Speaker 3 (07:46):
You know, I read a poll recently.

Speaker 2 (07:49):
Where Gavin Newsom was his approval rating is beginning to
drop below fifty percent. Now, of course, that doesn't get
a lot of national media attention. It just kind of
comes out in a blank. If you blink, you'll miss it.
But you know, you know, the fact that he hasn't
even endorsed anyone for governor in this race, I think
really speaks a lot to him, and you listen, if

(08:13):
we go back and look at what was said during
the debates, and none of the Democrats on the stage
could really, you know, rally behind Gavin and the things
that he's done as governor. They all had a really
hard time. They struggled with giving him compliments.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
Now, obviously you're the chairwoman of the Republican Party in
the state, but you're also a Californian, So I mean,
what have you personally seen in terms of just sort
of like the state going downhill? You know kind of
what what have you witnessed as a Californian.

Speaker 3 (08:44):
Well, I mean, I'll just say last week.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
You know, our headquarters is here in Sacramento, which is,
you know, a block and a half from the state Capitol,
and you know, when I walk out of the building,
there's there's there's people who are are homeless. There are
drug addicts that are on the on the street, so
you know, you're walking side by side with them. Last week,
when I was heading to my car, I saw a

(09:09):
man painting what I hoped was not concrete, but it
looked like he was painting concrete on his hand sitting
on the sidewalk, So you know, it just it goes
to what Spencer Pratt is saying. These are people with
mental health troubles and they're drug addict They're addicted to drugs.

Speaker 1 (09:27):
And it's not.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
Humane for us to let people sit on the sidewalk,
you know, under the influence and painting their hand.

Speaker 3 (09:38):
With what looked like concrete. I'm hoping it was clay.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
But I don't know, have you seen this kind of
enthusiasm for Republicans in the state before. I mean, obviously
you had Arnold Swarzenegger was governor for a period of time,
But you know, I guess when's the last time you've
kind of seen this level of enthusiasm and excitement. I
think it was.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
I think it was back when Arnold Swartzen came in.
You know, we've had, you know, a budget crisis. I
think the landscape is very similar to what it looked
like then. And you know, Californians get to a point
and even the Democrats where you know, they're.

Speaker 3 (10:12):
Not excited about their candidates.

Speaker 2 (10:14):
They're not turning their ballots in at the rates they
usually do, and I think that's because of a lot
of a lack of enthusiasm. I think the landscape is
right in this moment, and it's going to be a
compant upon us incumbent, upon all of our candidates up
and down the ballot to really make a concerted effort
to speak to Californians on a level of you know,

(10:37):
making California a better place to live for everyone, regardless
of voter registration.

Speaker 1 (10:45):
No, and then what before we go, sort of what
does the apparatus in the state look like? You know, obviously,
Democrats they hold so many positions to power, so you know,
they sort of have a machine set up in the
state that routinely gets you know, Democrats elected to office
from you know, governor on down. Sort of, what does
the apparatus for Republicans look like in the state.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
You know, we are having a meeting tomorrow where all
of our statewide elected i mean, excuse me, our statewide
endorsed candidates will be coming to the headquarters and we're
going to put together a Republican machine this cycle where
everybody's working together in concert. We're all one hundred percent unified,
we're all singing from the same song street song sheet,

(11:28):
and we're all out there getting out the vote speaking
to Republicans with the right message that resonates with their districts.

Speaker 1 (11:37):
You know, and if Steve hill In advances, which I
hope he does. He's a friend, you know, obviously a
former colleague at Fox. But you know that also just
helps the down ballot, you know, the congressional races, all
of it in the state as well, because you know
that would generate enthusiasm for Republicans to get out to vote.

Speaker 2 (11:54):
Absolutely, and you know, the California is not a lost cause.
In twenty twenty two, he had a gentleman by the
name of lanhi Chen who ran for controller, who fell
really very short of being elected statewide as a Republican.
And when we look went back and looked at the data,
it showed us that if he would have picked up
about five to seven percent more of the vote in

(12:16):
Los Angeles County, he would have won his statewide race
as a Republican. So what that race did in twenty
twenty two is it really laid out the roadmap for
what we're going to do this cycle. You know, California
is read throughout a lot of counties and if we
could just pick up another five to seven percent more
of the vote in Los Angeles County, we could have

(12:39):
a Republican governor, and Spencer Pratt is just the perfect
storm that could potentially make this happen. It's going to
be up to us to just leave it all on
the field and just you know, work over time with
our messaging and.

Speaker 1 (12:54):
You know, hopefully he does. Is there anything else you'd
like to leave us with before we go?

Speaker 2 (12:58):
Just a reminder to republic to turn in their ballots,
I mean, get out to vote. We are watching in
every single county. Your vote matters, your vote will be
counted and we will be watching.

Speaker 1 (13:10):
Awesome, Thanks so much. Appreciate you coming on the show.

Speaker 3 (13:12):
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (13:14):
That was the California Republican Party chairwoman Karen Rankin. Appreciate
her coming on the show. Appreciate you visit home for
listening every Tuesday and Thursday, but you can listen throughout
the week. Also want to thank my producer, John Cassio
for putting the show together. Until next time,

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