How anti-Trump activists shaped Democratic wins in California

SAN FRANCISCO -- The most significant endorsement that Democrat Mike Levin received en route to a runoff spot in a California House district that his party would love to flip didn't come from a big-name politician, he said. It came from grassroots activists who held 67 demonstrations in front of retiring GOP Rep. Darrell Issa's office during the past year.

``It was an essential part of our victory,'' said Levin, an attorney who will face Republican Diane Harkey in what has long been a GOP district in San Diego County. ``Having the grassroots activists at our back is what propelled us to victory on Tuesday and what I believe will propel us to victory (in November) as well.''

The protesters who showed up again and again outside Issa's office were among the most visible grassroots groups that style themselves as the resistance to President Trump and are trying to help Democrats take the House from Republicans. Those groups helped to boost state turnout in Tuesday's primary to upward of 35 percent, according to early figures, far better than the record-low 25 percent in the 2014 midterm primary.

In Issa's district and several others that Democrats think they can grab from the GOP in California -- in part because Trump lost them to Hillary Clinton in 2016 -- Democratic turnout was up by more than one-third from 2014, preliminary figures show.

``The existence of the grassroots groups was indispensable,'' said David Meyer, a University of California at Irvine sociology professor and author of ``The Politics of Protest: Social Movements in America.'' Those groups, he said, looked at the 2016 results and concluded that ``there's a chance for doing something here, even in Orange County. For years, people thought that when you go beyond the Orange Curtain, abandon all hope if you're a Democrat.''

Many of the people who gravitated to these groups were searching for ways to express their frustration and anger with Trump's election. They started out with street protests, then moved to calling and writing to members of Congress. Then they turned to partisan politics and began going after Republicans they wanted to kick out of office.

Meyer said pressure from such groups contributed to the decisions by a record 44 Republican House members who are either retiring, resigning or running for another office. Two of those who are retiring -- Issa and Rep. Ed Royce of Fullerton -- represent Southern California districts that Democrats are trying to flip.

``The rate of retirements is really high, and that's a result of the grassroots threat,'' Meyer said.

Katie Porter, a Democrat who will face incumbent Rep. Mimi Walters, R-Irvine, in November, said she got a lot of help from grassroots groups.

``Those resistance groups (that) began immediately after the (2016) election were doing some of the most important work that this campaign had to do to be successful,'' Porter said. ``Like educating people on the voting record of Mimi Walters.''

Some of the new activists gravitated to newly created national organizations, like Indivisible, that initially were trying to pressure members of Congress. Eight hundred of its 5,000 chapters are in California. Others, like Swing Left and Flippable, focused on channeling activist energy into removing Republicans from office.

Several groups in the Orange County district held by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Costa Mesa, set up a system for vetting and endorsing candidates. When Indivisible announced that it was endorsing Harley Rouda out of a crowded field, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee quickly followed suit, citing Rouda's support from grassroots activists. At week's end, Rouda was still locked in a close battle with fellow Democrat Hans Keirstead for the right to face Rohrabacher in November.

In Issa's district, another anti-Trump group called Flip the 49th Neighbors in Action evolved into a super PAC that has spent $75,547 on candidates this year.

And over the final weekend of the campaign, Swing Left volunteers made roughly 32,000 calls in key Orange County House races and in the Central Valley district held by Rep. Jeff Denham, Republican from Turlock. Democrat Josh Harder, a venture capitalist and first-time candidate, finished second in the primary there and will face Denham in November.

``When you have these hot races, that's where you see the turnout,'' said Jennifer Eis, Swing Left's deputy national field director.

``The blue wave is alive and well,'' said Aram Fischer, a San Franciscan who organizes across the state with Indivisible. ``We are more organized than ever, and our impact will be felt in November.''

California Democratic Party Chairman Eric Bauman has encouraged party organizers and campaigns to work with the grassroots groups, saying, ``I think they brought a lot of new people in.''

However, grassroots groups reacting to Trump didn't deliver for all candidates who reflected their values.

State Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, who mounted a progressive challenge to longtime incumbent Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, squeaked into the runoff with only 11 percent of the vote -- just ahead of Republican James Bradley, who barely campaigned. Feinstein beat de Leon by 33 points.

De Leon launched his candidacy after Feinstein told a San Francisco audience that she hoped Trump ``has the ability to learn and to change. And if he does, he can be a good president. And that's my hope.'' For months before that, activists protested outside Feinstein's offices, upset that she supported about half of Trump's top nominees to federal positions.

But that grassroots protest of Feinstein didn't translate into electoral support for de Leon. One possible explanation: The enthusiasm of a small group of activists hasn't swept over the whole state.

Plus, ``Trump was not on the ballot,'' said Donnie Fowler, a San Francisco political consultant who has worked on seven Democratic presidential campaigns. ``California's Republicans, now a third party in the state, are also really motivated to vote.

''Don't confuse the time and energy that the tiny percentage of us activists devote to politics with the limited time and energy that most regular voters give to it,`` Fowler wrote last week in Medium. ''We are not normal. We are nerds.``

Conservatives like Republican consultant Matt Shupe said the new groups ''may force us to play defense in a few more places than we ordinarily would, but it's not like Republicans are thinking, 'Oh, my God, there's 20 protesters outside Darrell Issa's office. The world is ending.'``

Shupe considers the new groups the latest in a line of left-leaning organizing groups like MoveOn, Code Pink and the Occupy movement.

''It's a pretty smart organizing tool that helps to create narratives,`` Shupe said. ''I wish I saw a little more of that on the Republican side.``

Ultimately, if Democrats want voters to back them in November, they have to give them something more than an anti-Trump message, said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

''The resistance energy undergirded the ability of Democrats to have a wave this year, but if we want to win a wide swatch of voters, we can't just have an anti-Trump message,`` Green said. ''We have to tell them what we're for.``