“What does ‘Republican’ mean to you?” Assemblymember Chad Mayes (R-Yucca Valley) posed this question on Twitter one morning on his way to Sacramento.

“I thought, ‘I wonder what people actually think about Republicans these days,’” he said. “So I sent it out before we had taken off. And when I landed, I had noticed there was quite a bit of response.”

There were about 50 responses at that time. By the end of that day in August, there were more than 10,000.

“I was a little bit blown away by the response but, I think, [what] is top of mind for many is what is going on in our democracy today? What’s going on with the Democratic party? What’s going on with the Republican Party? There definitely is a shift that’s happening,” he said.

The large number of responses signaled to him that democracy is changing.

“I think you’re seeing a lot of people that are becoming more and more religious about their political experience, about their political activism, both on the left and on the right,” he said. “And we’ve gotten to this point now where it’s no longer ‘We the People’ [or] ‘We the Americans,’ it’s now ‘I’m a Republican’ or ‘I’m a Democrat.’ And if you’re a Republican you’ve got to hate Democrats, and if you’re a Democrat you’ve got to hate Republicans.”

He said many of the responses weren’t from Republicans, but from Democrats who had “negative” opinions of the GOP.

“I think ‘negative’ is probably not strong enough of a term,” he said. “For those of us who are still Republicans in California, we have to take heed – realizing that for us to be able to have some balance here in this state, we’ve got to listen to Californians who are not Republicans.”

He said historical context is important when considering what it has meant to be a Republican in California.

“I think some would suggest it’s because Trump is now in the White House that we’re seeing a downturn in Republican registration, we’re seeing the fall of the Republican Party in California,” he said. “And, while it’s true that we’ve seen a faster decline since Trump has been in the White House, it is not true to suggest that this decline didn’t start before he got in the White House. We’ve seen this since the mid-90s.”

The Assemblymember said California Republicans held 41 seats in the state Assembly in the mid-90s, while now it’s just 19 out of 80 seats. He said part of the blame is Washington, D.C.

Tip O’Neill, former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, famously said “all politics is local.” Mayes said this is no longer the case.

“I think all politics is national,” he said. “People make the assumption that if you’re a Republican, you must be like the national Republicans back in Washington, D.C.”

When it comes to Republicans in the Golden State, he said that has not been the case.

“The reality is, all California Republicans have been different,” he said. “But the perception is, among the electorate in California, is that we’re not.”

He said California Republicans may be hiding their political beliefs because of the messaging from the GOP on the national stage.

“Many Californians feel like they can’t speak up, they don’t want to speak up. Again, it’s such a vast majority, super majority, of the people that are here in this state that are Democrats and I do think that for many Republicans they just don’t feel comfortable in speaking up,” he said.

He said for Republicans to win in this state again, they will need to start to convey the message of unifying Californians.

“They have to reflect the values of Californians [and] we need to get away from some of this divisive rhetoric,” he said. “I think it starts with being kind, I think it starts with being compassionate, I think it starts with loving your neighbor.”

He said as a Republican leader a few years ago they set out to try to understand the California electorate and polled 1,800 Californians with focus groups all over the state. What they found is that Californians didn’t believe that Republicans cared about them.

“If you’re running for political office, and you don’t think your constituents care about you, I find it hard that they would want to vote for you,” he said. “Another way of saying this is, if they don’t like you, why are they going to listen to you?”

He thinks Republicans have a likability problem because of their rhetoric.

“I think our rhetoric has been very harsh, I think it’s been very caustic, it’s been very exclusive instead of being inclusive,” he said.

“California is an exceptionally diverse state, and until we start to realize that as Republicans and realize there is strength in that diversity, we need to reach out to people who are not like us,” he said. “Maybe they don’t go to the same churches as we do, maybe they don’t speak the same language, but they still hold on to those same values. They love freedom, they love free markets, they want to make choices for themselves and for their families and their business.”

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