Harris won California but Trump flipped 10 counties

Vice President Kamala Harris won her home state of California, and its 54 electoral votes, in Tuesday’s presidential election, but results show voters weren’t as enthusiastic about her as they were about President Joe Biden in 2020.
With at least 58% of the ballots results reported, Harris received more than half the vote, about 58%, in the Golden State, while President-elect Donald Trump secured nearly 40%.
The red wave that took over the electoral map also bled into California as Trump performed better this election year compared to 2020 by at least 6 percentage points. As Fox 5 San Diego reported, he flipped at least 10 counties that previously chose Biden in 2020, including Butte, Nevada, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Inyo, Fresno, San Bernardino, Riverside, and Orange.
Paul Mitchell, the vice president of Political Data, in an interview with ABC 10, said the result is “surprising,” but “Democrats are going to pick up a couple of these House seats” once all the ballots are processed.
He noted the key group disillusioned by the Democratic Party are Latino voters. “Registration rates for Latinos have gotten more Republican. Now, they’ve gone from 17% or 18% Republican to 21% or 22% Republican,” said Mitchell.
Christian Grose, a professor of political science at the University of Southern California, told CalMatters the state is largely still trending Democratic even though one of the House races, between Republican incumbent Michelle Steel and Derek Tran, a veteran and city commissioner, is still a toss-up. With an estimated 69% of the votes in as of Thursday, Steel was in the lead by about 9,360 votes.
“The state in general seems like it’s still going Democratic, and might swing the U.S. House to the Democrats,” he said, “while also supporting policies sometimes that are a little bit more conservative and a little bit more liberal.”
The last time California turned red was under George Bush. Some Republicans found great success in the state in the late 20th century, as per the Desert Sun. Richard Nixon turned it red twice in the ‘60s, and Ronald Reagan did the same in the ‘80s. During those decades, California was known as a swing state before becoming a Democratic stronghold during the early 2000s.