California Republicans reject gay marriage, abortion platform shift. Why inclusivity splits GOP
Greg Gandrud and Randall Jordan are both Central Coast Republicans — but they could not disagree more on a vision for the future of their party.
Jordan, the California GOP Central Coast vice chair, told a regional meeting at the state convention Saturday he does not believe the party should embrace LGBTQ members while Republicans are fighting for “parental rights” and forced outing in schools.
Moments later, Gandrud, the openly gay California GOP treasurer, had a different message for those packed into the Anaheim hotel meeting room. He said the party needs to be more inclusive and welcome people like him to win elections.
Jordan and Gandrud’s disagreement is one that is dividing the California GOP as it figures out how to regain influence in a state where Democrats reign.
Some reject the “big tent” approach as a compromise of values and want to double down on the status quo or shift even more to the right. Others argue Republicans need to adapt to a modern California and work to attract a broader swath of voters.
The fight played out this weekend over the California GOP platform, a document few voters likely care about. But it is the place where conflicts over a party’s values and policies are resolved, or not.
“We just should be welcoming and make sure everybody knows they’re welcome in the Republican Party,” Gandrud said. “We have solutions to the things that people really care most about.”
Conservatives win platform fight
Hard-right California GOP members won during the convention weekend by killing a four-page draft version of the party platform that would have eliminated the “one man and one woman” definition of marriage. It also would have revised the platform’s “right to life” section to say GOP members “want to see the number of abortions reduced,” rather than ending them entirely.
More conservative Republicans wanted the party to re-adopt a version of the 2019 platform, a 14-page document with a decades-old framework that maintains same-sex marriage opposition and stronger language against abortion.
Members opposed to the draft actively lobbied against it on Saturday, wearing stickers and carrying red signs that said, “RE-ADOPT. STAY UNITED.”
Log Cabin Republicans, a conservative LGTBQ organization, supported the draft. Other Republicans also welcomed the opportunity to change the platform and include new provisions around recent GOP concerns.
Betsy Mahan, chair of the Sacramento County Republican Party, wanted to add language supporting election integrity, and opposing gender-affirming care for minors.
She said “misinformation” about whether the draft could include old language or be amended helped tank that version.
“There were a number of issues that these people were here for that could have been resolved,” she said of the opposition. “But the people who led the effort, they’re just trying to make a point that they had some power — that’s really all it was about. And it’s a shame, because our party hurts as a result.”
Jordan, who also serves as chair of the San Luis Obispo County Republican Party, was strongly against the draft and moved to help quash it.
When the California GOP recognized the Log Cabin Republicans as a chartered group in 2015, Jordan said, those who pushed for the organization’s acceptance agreed not to attempt any change to the definition of marriage. He was not happy to see that altered in the draft.
“I think we have lost so many people in our party that were true Republicans,” he said. “As soon as we started losing our values, and we started being the big tent, I think they left us. They either left the state or they left our party, and now they’re no party preference.”
A less competitive GOP?
Those who drafted the newer platform say the party’s rejection will force candidates to campaign on an older set of principles that will not be popular in certain areas.
“What I worry about is our Assembly and our state Senate candidates who now have to take this flawed, outdated platform that’s 20 years old and have to sell that to the voters in places like South Central or Watts or Hillcrest or the Castro,” said Charles Moran, president of Log Cabin Republicans, who lobbied for the draft platform.
“They’re going to be woefully ill-equipped because this group of people decided to make choices about what conservatism means in the state of California,” he added. “And it takes away the ability of candidates to do that.”
But state Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, R-San Diego, opposed the draft, saying he thinks the platform needs updates, but “right now is not the right time.”
“We’ve got a very important primary coming up in March,” he said. “We need all of our candidates concentrating on that.”
Jones downplayed the significance of the party platform for candidates, saying most voters are not familiar with it.
“We’re trying to recruit candidates that match their district,” he said. “That candidate is responsible for the message that they’re going to carry. The statewide organization isn’t going to carry that message for each individual candidate.”
Moran disagreed, saying the old platform keeps the party stuck in the past.
“What happened today makes us wholly less competitive in California for a small vocal minority who wants to continue to fight battles that are already been fought,” he said.