Donald Trump plans California campaign headquarters in Sacramento

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, looking ahead to the June 7 primary here, is preparing to open his California headquarters in the Natomas area of Sacramento, a spokesman said Wednesday.

Tim Clark, Trump’s state director, said he plans to have the office up and running next week, along with another space in Southern California.

Since taking the job this month, Clark has been working to organize volunteers across California, a state that’s unaccustomed to presidential campaigning, especially of the retail variety. The billionaire businessman is planning several visits to the state, which awards its delegates by 53 congressional districts.

Trump’s overwhelming victory Tuesday in New York puts him in position to clinch the nomination here, though Republicans Ted Cruz and John Kasich, as well as outside groups, are readying their efforts to deny him the delegates he needs to avoid a showdown at the national convention.

The trio is scheduled to address the California Republican Party’s upcoming convention in Burlingame, with Trump speaking at an opening lunch reception April 29 and Cruz and Kasich filling afternoon and evening slots on April 30.

Speaking with reporters Wednesday in Florida, Cruz predicted he would do well in California, where he’s spent months organizing tens of thousands of volunteers, and dismissed Trump as a “niche candidate” with less appeal in states west of the Mississippi River. Cruz noted California’s 172 delegates, nearly 14 percent of the 1,237 needed to secure the nomination, and characterized the late prize as “the big enchilada.”

Concluded Cruz: “What is clear today is that we are headed to a contested convention.”

This story was originally published April 20, 2016 at 11:39 PM.