The 1st Republican Debate has had a substantial effect in California
Our analysts Weigh in
The First Republican debate of the 2024 cycle was extremely consequential in the grand scope of the RNC race. Former President Trump made a critical error in not attending the Debate and now is seeing the consequences of this mistake. Trump's Poll numbers have seen a great decline and this has given breathing room for runner-up Ron DeSantis and for other Presidential hopefuls in the race.
Candidates Like Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy got their names out there and many were immediately either attracted to their message or polarized against their movement. Former Vice-President Mike Pence was given a chance to champion his Evangelical stances and explain the choices made on the fateful day of January 6th. Chris Christie positioned himself as a firm anti-MAGA candidate along with South Carolina's Tim Scott.
All the Candidates used the debate as a chance to sell their movement and many used Vivek Ramaswamy as a surrogate to attack Former-President Donald Trump. Vivek Ramaswamy came off as rather cocky in his presentation and many saw him as childish and non-professional, to the detriment of his image Infront of those not committed to his cause. He sparred with former Vice-President Pence and Nikki Haley. Nikki Haley in particular used tactful and percise words to neuter Vivek's "Gift of Gab"
Most interesting of all in my opinion was the showcase of Runner up Ron Desantis. He used the debate masterfully to present himself as a real alternative to Former President Trump and championed his conservative populist views, putting himself even to the right of the Former President. I Believe Ron Desantis Won this debate through Masterful positioning and powerful Rhetoric.
- Jackson Schneider, California Choice's Chief Political Analysts
A poll for California
California Despite being a dark blue state sends the second most amount of delegates to the Republican national convention being a runner up to only Texas. this is to say the Numbers out of California are highly important so that is why we have decided to conduct a poll of our very own state to see how the numbers are stacking up.
Our Process
We Conducted our poll by calling 750 Registered Republicans and independents and asked how they intended to vote in the primaries, if they were considering voting for Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump, Tim Scott, Chris Christie, Asa Hutchinson, Doug Burgumn, or Vivek Ramaswamy
To ensure no region was over represented the area code for every number was found and equality of geography was ensured so we can get a bigger picture of the leanings of all of California's right wing voters.
Below is the results we found, they may shock you:
We can see the Opinions of Californians greatly differ from those of the rest of the nation, Donald Trump and Vivek Ramaswamy both lag behind their national numbers in this more progressive state, their populism doesn't sell as well for Californians, It is clear Trump will have to fight to ensure he wins the consequential and populous state that awards its delegate with a winner take all type of race.