Walters: California’s image will be a weapon as Harris faces Trump this year
New GOP strategy will paint VP's home state as a dystopia of crime, unaffordable living costs and ruinous taxation
“Alright, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.”
Fading movie star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) utters those words in the final scene of “Sunset Boulevard,” Billy Wilder’s 1950 film noir that exposes the dark reality that lies behind Hollywood’s glamorous image. Desmond mistakes the newsreel cameras that will record her arrest for those of a studio that will capture her starring role in a new movie.
Her delusion comes to mind while contemplating how California will fare if, as now seems almost certain, Vice President Kamala Harris becomes the Democratic nominee for president this year.
It’s no secret that California, by far the most populous state, is not held in high esteem by those who live elsewhere. In fact, a 2023 study found that California is the fifth most unliked state, behind Illinois, New Jersey, New York and West Virginia.
“A staggering nine of California’s western neighbors hate their guts,” the semi-serious study said. “Is it the water stealing thing? Whatever is, California doesn’t have a lot of friends around. Maybe a fruit basket would help.”
Non-Californians, especially those who live in socially and politically conservative states, tend to see California as a dystopia of crime and deviant behavior, unaffordable living costs and ruinous taxation.
The negative image is a relatively recent phenomenon. For decades, even before World War II, California was seen as a place of new beginnings and boundless opportunity. In 1980, its movie star former governor, Ronald Reagan, was elected president and four years later easily won a second term.
However, as the nation’s politics polarized, California became one of those places that people on the other side of the political teeter-totter loved to hate.
President Joe Biden’s historic announcement that he would drop his bid for a second term and throw his endorsement to Harris changes the dynamics of what would have been, and probably still is, an unpredictable contest.
Former President Donald Trump was preparing to depict Biden as a doddering old man, incapable of governing, but now he will likely face Harris, who is two decades younger. He must devise a new strategy to prevail in the half-dozen or so swing states whose voters will ultimately decide which contender secures the 270 electoral votes needed to capture the White House.
One element of that strategy will be to demonize California, where Harris was born and where she climbed the political ladder from San Francisco district attorney to state attorney general, U.S. senator and finally vice president.
There’s no shortage of fodder for a “California is a cesspool” campaign in those swing states, most of which have little in common with California. Video images of California’s squalid encampments of homeless people and smash-and-grab store robberies, its embrace of undocumented immigrants, its tight gun control laws and its high gasoline prices could be potent political ammunition.
Trump will almost certainly claim that electing Harris would visit those California conditions on the nation as a whole, with illegal immigration perhaps being the most powerful potential issue in those decisive states.
Harris — or whoever else winds up as the Democratic candidate — will, of course, pound on Trump’s many problems, including his conviction on felony charges and other pending criminal cases. She has been the Biden administration’s point person on using abortion rights to attract swing voters in the wake of the Supreme Court’s repeal of its Roe v. Wade decision.
This is not going to be a positive campaign. This is going to be a mudslinging duel to the finish, and California’s image will be a major weapon.
Is California ready for its close-up?
Dan Walters is a CalMatters columnist.