Trump Breaks CA Election Records For Most Republican Votes

SACRAMENTO, CA — President Donald Trump eclipsed 5.7 million votes this week, surpassing every Republican candidate in state history. While Trump's vote totals in California pale in comparison to Joe Biden's 10 million plus, the outgoing president still managed to shatter records in what is considered to be a deep-blue state.

The significant surge in votes for Trump could signal to a growing red presence in the Golden State, or it could simply point to a large voter turnout.

Trump beat George W. Bush's 5,509,826 in 2004 and even stacked more votes than California denizen, Ronald Reagan, who garnered 5,467,009 votes in 1984. Previously, Reagan was the only Republican candidate to win nine California counties in a presidential election.

As of Nov. 11, Trump held more than a 50 percent lead in 23 of California's 58 counties, the same number as 2016, ABC7 reported.

But Biden shattered state records of his own, outpacing Barack Obama's 7,441,458 votes in 2008.

Trump's high vote totals point to an increased voter turnout, as nearly 17.5 million voters had cast a ballot in the November election, 3 million more than the 2016 presidential election. The president won just over 30 percent of California's votes.

And the president hasn't shown any signs of conceding more than a week after Biden was projected to win. On Saturday, hundreds of his supporters in California rallied behind him in Sacramento.

The Million Maga March gathered hundreds to surround the state's Capitol Saturday, to "stop the steal." Similar marches took place in Washington D.C., San Diego and other parts of California over the weekend.

"The reality is we've had people trying to steal our nation out from under us for decades. California used to be a nice place," a Vietnam veteran told the crowd, ABC7 reported.

Thousands across the Golden State have protested over the past week, rallying behind the president's claims that the election was marred with fraud. These claims have not been proven.

On Saturday, MAGA supporters clashed members of Antifa as well as counter-protesters, prompting Sacramento police and CHP on horseback in riot gear to intercept. A group of Proud Boys also arrived to confront counter protestors, spraying a cloud of bear spray, ABC7 reported.

No serious injuries were reported but police officers made at least two arrests.

Even with what appears to be strong ground support in California and historic vote totals, Trump lost the Golden State by significant margins in the 2020 election. But the weekly pro-Trump demonstrations in Beverly Hills and MAGA truck rallies up and down the state over the past few months may have signaled to a larger Republican presence in the Golden State than most would've suspected.

The number of registered Republican voters in California had been falling for the last ten years. In 2019, more people were registered under "no party preference" than with the GOP, according to the Sacramento Bee.

But this October, California's Republican voter registration numbers began to climb. Now, the party has 50,000 more registrants than those who register without a party preference, the Sacramento Bee reported Sunday.

Still, just over 24 percent of California's registered voters are registered Republicans, according to the Secratary of State's office. But more than 33 percent of voters in California checked the box for Trump.

Republicans made some significant gains this election, as the party was on track to picking up three of the state's 53 congressional seats, securing 11 of them.

Candidates Young Kim in the 39th Congressional District and Michelle Steel in the 48th District both celebrated victories for flipping two Southern California seats red this week.

This was a step toward pushing back on the blue wave of 2018, in which Democrats took the majority of the congressional seats.

“I think the party’s only going to continue to grow,” California Rep. Kevin McCarthy told the Sacramento Bee. “I think, the president, if at the end of the day, doesn’t come out to win the presidency, I just don’t think he’s going away.”