Exclusive | Inside the California GOP civil war after crushing midterm wipeout

California Republicans are locked in a civil war over the disastrous midterm elections — with as many as eight legislative seats potentially lost, their state party chair heading for the exit and accusations flying over the waste of millions in campaign money.

Democrats will hold a supermajority in the next legislative session, and Gov. Gavin Newsom will hand the baton to Xavier Becerra. Meanwhile, Republicans are sending just four members to Congress, and state Assembly Republican Leader Alexandra Macedo lost a historically safe Central Valley seat to a little-known Democrat.

Anne Dunsmore, a veteran Republican fundraiser, called the election results an “ass-whooping.”

“That was not a mandate for Democrats — that was strictly an indictment of [President] Trump,” Dunsmore said. “We have to represent the citizens, not our own agenda.”

The California Post spoke with nearly a dozen GOP sources who described a toxic mess within the Republican Party that dates back years and only grew worse in the lead-up to Election Day, as key relationships were severed and finger-pointing descended into middle-finger salutes.

A feud between Assemblymember Carl DeMaio — who spearheaded the failed voter ID effort, Proposition 39 — and Republican Party brass has boiled over following the election defeat. Much of the rupture stems from a fight over donor money.

DeMaio’s group Reform California raised more than $6 million since the start of 2025 to craft its own voter guide and get-out-the-vote efforts, while the “Yes on 39” campaign sucked up more than $32 million in conservative donations over the last two years.

By comparison, the California Republican Party — starved for help from the Republican National Committee — had raised just $3.2 million this year as of mid-October.

“They (the state GOP) weren’t interested in providing value to candidates, and so if you raise money there, you’re only lining someone’s pockets, and that has to change,” DeMaio told the California Post.

Republican legislative caucuses split off their fundraising from the state party, and relations deteriorated to the point that the caucuses declined state GOP Chairwoman Corrin Rankin’s offer to organize meetings as far back as the summer of 2025, according to multiple sources.

“I don’t blame the Assembly and Senate caucuses for saying that they didn’t trust the party and wouldn’t raise money for the party, because they didn’t know where the money was going,” DeMaio told The Post.

“I don’t blame them because the reality is you couldn’t trust the thieves at the party.”

Several of DeMaio’s critics returned fire, accusing the San Diego Republican of being a “bully” and pressuring candidates to bankroll his voter guide and pursuing personal political battles while Republicans struggled to defend their seats.

“Carl is very good at getting things on the ballot and getting his candidate through the primary, but what he doesn’t do is finish the job,” one GOP source said, calling him “the biggest, most despicable grifter in California.”

The fallout upended GOP leadership in the Assembly, where Macedo fell to upstart 28-year-old Democrat Hipolito Angel Cerros. Multiple sources accused the former beauty pageant queen of neglecting her district to frequently appear on Fox News with Trace Gallagher.

Macedo did not respond to a request for comment.

Devon Mathis, a former Republican assemblymember who represented Macedo’s district, appeared to take aim at legislators who prioritized appearances elsewhere over relationships at home.

“You can’t represent a district from a fundraising dinner somewhere else in California,” Mathis wrote on LinkedIn. “Shocking concept, I know.”

Political Data Inc. pollster Paul Mitchell said the state’s 2025 gerrymandering effort, Prop. 50, helped fuel Democratic turnout by giving dispirited voters a way to fight Trump and win.

“Democrats were in the wilderness,” said Mitchell, who drew the Prop. 50 maps.

“What Prop. 50 did was in addition to pushing back on Texas and the measurable effects of the line-drawing, it allowed Democrats and Newsom to fight back and brought along tens of millions of voters.”

Steve Hilton, the Republican nominee for governor, is backing outgoing state Sen. Tony Strickland — who lost his seat in Huntington Beach — to succeed Rankin as chair, arguing the party needs a clearer message and a stronger campaign operation.

“Republicans need to offer an inspiring vision for California, a positive, credible policy plan for making it happen — backed up by a well-financed and organized election-winning machine to match the corruptly funded Democrat machine,” Hilton told The Post.

Strickland, who did not respond to requests for comment, also has DeMaio’s backing. Duane Dichiara, partner at the Republican political consulting firm Axiom Strategies, said the election drubbing has quietly encouraged cooperation among rival factions.

“I’ve actually seen more unity since the election than I have recriminations,” Dichiara told The Post.

He described Strickland as a pragmatic campaigner building an alliance, rejecting suggestions that others would control his chairmanship.

However, GOP fundraiser Dunsmore and other California Republicans argue that a complete overhaul of the party and its messaging is still needed.

“Why would you go with the same old thing?” she said. “We need a complete new vision right now, new leadership with fresh ideas.”

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