FIGHT THE POWER! How a Laid-Back California Beach Town Emerged as Headquarters for the Anti-Newsom Resistance.
When a slate of Republicans worked together in 2022 to win back control of the Huntington Beach, Calif., city council, the four candidates signed a “contract” with voters. Most of the planks weren’t particularly controversial: They pledged to combat homelessness, crack down on crime, slash red tape, and roll out the red carpet to businesses.
But it was the first plank of the contract — a vow to give the city attorney the authority to fight Sacramento overreach, including state housing mandates — that has in many ways come to define an aggressive new brand of Surf City politics.
After taking over the board, those Republicans have transformed this laid-back beach community into the unofficial headquarters of the resistance to Governor Gavin Newsom and the blue-state policies championed by the Democrats who run the state. Huntington Beach leaders have repeatedly fought the state in court over laws they believe infringe on their rights to govern locally, and they’ve passed laws of their own taking aim at left-wing shibboleths, including Pride flags, Covid masks, and sexually-explicit library books.
The populist pushback is almost certain to intensify over the coming years after a slate of three more conservatives romped the council’s last three liberals on Election Day, giving them a 7–0 board supermajority. They celebrated on swearing-in day, donning red “Make Huntington Beach Great Again” hats with “7–0” embroidered on the side — a not-so-subtle poke in the eye to their left-wing critics.
Councilman Tony Strickland, a former Republican state assemblyman, dubbed the new majority the “MAGA-nificent 7.”
But while there will almost surely be plenty of more fights to be had as Newsom sets himself up for a likely 2028 presidential run, Pat Burns, a councilman who is now serving as Huntington Beach’s mayor, insists that despite their rambunctious reputation, sparring with the governor isn’t his and the board’s primary mission.
While Newsom begins any presidential election bid with a guaranteed 54 electoral college votes, from a state that as Dave Barry recently wrote, “apparently tabulates its ballots on a defective Etch-a-Sketch,” meaning it can come up with any result Sacramento chooses to manufacture, the anti-California commercials his opponents will craft will be loads of fun to watch. Or as Joel Kotkin asks and answers: California ruled with great jobs and boom times. What happened?