Huntington Beach MAGAs want to take their revolution to Sacramento
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Michael Gates is basing his run for California attorney general on his decade-long reign as Huntington Beach’s top lawman.
When we met at a Starbucks a block away from City Hall, he rattled off his hometown’s bona fides: A drop in crime and homelessness. Tourists from across the world. A thriving Main Street. A small-town feel “almost like the Midwest.”
His biggest obstacle in trying to convince voters that he should replace Rob Bonta, besides his Republican Party membership? Um, Huntington Beach.
For years, Surf City conservatives like Gates have reveled in playing the burr in the saddle of deep blue California. From a torrent of lawsuits against Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration to protests against COVID restrictions to the City Council’s vote to place a plaque outside the public library spelling out “MAGA,” Huntington Beach’s GOP leadership has yet to meet an anti-liberal stunt they didn’t characterize as a stance against tyranny worthy of Bunker Hill.
Huntington Beach has always been conservative, but the governor, masks rules and a new coronavirus curfew have fueled all-out rage.
Their antics made Huntington Beach a national laughingstock — but Gates and his pals so far have had the last giggle.
They ran as a slate in two elections that transformed the City Council from a narrow Democratic majority in 2022 to an all-Republican body in an era when Orange County is turning more and more purple. The takeover became a sensation among California conservatives looking for victories in a state where Democrats maintain a supermajority in both legislative chambers and have held every statewide office for 15 years.
“We’ve morphed into this epicenter of fighting back,” said Mayor Casey McKeon, a third-generation Huntington Beach resident who’s up for reelection this year. “We are the model every city can follow. If I were running for state office, I’d run it on that.”
That’s exactly what the architects of MAGA-by-the-Sea plan to do this November.
In addition to Gates’ bid, gadfly-turned-Councilmember Gracey Van Der Mark is seeking an Assembly seat. Her former council colleague Tony Strickland won his state Senate seat last spring and is the co-author of a proposed state ballot initiative that would require voter ID for all elections. Huntington Beach voters approved a similar initiative in 2024, which was later struck down by the California Supreme Court.
The Huntington Beach red revolution now includes conservative commentator Steve Hilton, who launched his campaign for governor last spring near the city’s world-famous pier — even though he lives in Silicon Valley.
Hilton told me he has long loved Huntington Beach because it reminds him of Brighton, the seaside British town where he grew up. His affection for Surf City deepened the more he talked to people like Gates and Strickland, who sold him on their vision to stick it to Sacramento.
“There’s such a joy about it — it’s a place where it’s well-run and clean and orderly,” said the candidate, who has consistently led in polls as his Democratic opponents cannibalize each other’s share of the vote. “When I was thinking where to launch my campaign, it made sense [in Huntington Beach], because it felt like home.”
Better not tell anyone in H.B. you’re an immigrant, Steve!
California Republican Party Chairwoman Corrin Rankin is confident the Huntington Beach crew can win.
“What happened there proves that conservative leadership works,” she said. “Currently, we have a former mayor of San Francisco who’s the governor. You look at the contrast of how each of those cities are.”
Strickland, who is Hilton’s campaign chair, swears that he and his former colleagues didn’t plan to take their crusade statewide, but “when you do a great job, other opportunities present themselves.”
“I think California is on the wrong track — most think that,” he added. If his team pulls off a November sweep — governor, attorney general, Assembly seat and the voter ID proposition — “it would be known as the major turnaround in the Golden State that made it golden again.”
Does drinking Surf City’s water grant you magical powers, too?
It’s easy to dismiss what Strickland, Gates and the others have created as a lucky local run that’s about to crash into the reality of running statewide as a Republican. Even in Huntington Beach, residents tired of perpetual culture wars rejected two ballot measures last year seeking to give the City Council more control over a municipal library system that Van Der Mark long claimed was essentially providing pornography to children.
But if there’s one thing I’ve learned while tracking H.B.’s ever-aggrieved conservatives for a quarter century, it’s to never underestimate them — the more you do, the more they fume, the more they scheme. They plan with the discipline of a Dodgers World Series team and brawl like hometown hero and mixed martial arts legend Tito Ortiz, who was on the council for a few months in 2021 before stepping down because he said the job “wasn’t working for me.”
Gates, 51, is so Huntington Beach that he looks it: Bull-necked. Blue-eyed. Bro-y. No-nonsense haircut. An aw-shucks countenance barely hiding a righteous anger that seeks to pile-drive progressive California into submission.
Under the new boundaries, Huntington Beach would be represented in Congress by Robert Garcia, a gay progressive and former mayor of Long Beach. That prospect doesn’t sit well with some city leaders.
“I know what it looks like to be from a working-class family, a hardworking family, and find it very difficult to make ends meet,” said Gates, noting that his Irish American parents sometimes had to grab food and diapers for their children from the St. Bonaventure Catholic Church pantry. “So frankly, let’s take control away from the government and give control back to the working-class people.”
Fullerton College political science professor Jodi Balma teaches her students about Huntington Beach as an example of how “the power of a slate can really work” in an era of polarization. But when I asked if she thought the Surf City insurgents could upend California politics, the professor quickly said, “No.”
A majority of California voters think the state is heading in the wrong direction, and the number of undecided voters in elections ranging from California governor to the L.A. mayor’s race is putting the fear of God into Democratic leaders. But how deluded can Strickland and company be to think that aligning themselves more with President Trump — who just endorsed Hilton — is a winning strategy in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by nearly 2 to 1? And propping up Surf City — a wealthy beach town so full of itself that it makes Santa Monica seem as humble as Santa Ana — as the last, best hope to save California?
Hilton demurred when I asked if he agreed with everything his pals on the City Council have done over the years. “I’m not there, so I don’t see the day-to-day operation,” was his weak salsa reply.
Gates was more forthright.
“I think probably everybody in city leadership would admit the library thing got out of control,” he said. By then, Gates was working for the Department of Justice in Washington as a deputy assistant attorney general in the civil rights division, resigning after just 10 months because he said he missed home.
Gates talked a good talk for most of our hourlong conversation. He and Hilton are pushing especially hard for Latino voters — they “can save California because they understand that new leadership can turn the state around.”
But for everything Gates said that might appeal to a frustrated Democrat like me, his Huntington Beach braggadocio continually won out.
He alternately hailed his own political astuteness (“You be patient, bide your time, be disciplined, keep your mouth shut. The long game will win.”), brought up transgender issues (“I want to protect our young girls. I want to stop all the mutilation surgeries happening in hospitals to our young people.”) and inveighed against out-of-control Democrats (“[Californians are] abused. And honestly, we’re pissed off. We’re getting really mad.”).
Most of all, Gates proclaimed time and time again just how darn special Huntington Beach is.
“We love our freedoms. We love flying our American flags,” he said. “We love our beach. I don’t know, it’s a different culture here.”
Good luck selling Californians on it.
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Ideas expressed in the piece
The author portrays Huntington Beach’s conservative leadership as opportunistic political actors seeking to weaponize local grievances for statewide power, characterizing their efforts to expand influence as built on cultural controversies rather than substantive governance achievements. The author notes that despite their self-promotion around crime reduction and homelessness, the group has become nationally infamous for “anti-liberal stunts,” including placing a “MAGA” plaque outside the public library[1].
The author expresses skepticism about the viability of the Huntington Beach conservatives’ statewide ambitions, particularly given California’s political demographics. The author questions their strategy of aligning closely with President Trump in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by nearly 2-to-1, suggesting such positioning is strategically counterproductive and potentially delusional[1].
The author emphasizes that the library book controversy—central to the group’s identity—was excessive and poorly conceived. When discussing Michael Gates’ acknowledgment that “the library thing got out of control,” the author uses this admission to suggest the conservative leadership lacks judgment on signature issues[1].
The author characterizes Huntington Beach itself as an inherently self-aggrandizing, wealthy coastal enclave unrepresentative of broader California concerns, dismissing the notion that this affluent beach town should serve as a model for statewide governance or the state’s future direction.
Different views on the topic
Supporters of the Huntington Beach conservative movement argue their local success demonstrates that conservative leadership and governance produce tangible results, pointing to documented improvements in municipal operations and quality of life[1]. California Republican Party Chairwoman Corrin Rankin contends these achievements validate conservative management philosophy compared to Democratic governance in major cities.
Conservative leaders characterize their political mobilization as a necessary response to progressive overreach at the state level, framing their work as defending community values and individual liberties against government expansion[1]. They present their candidacies as opportunities to implement working-class-focused policies that would reduce government control and return power to ordinary residents.
Proponents argue the Huntington Beach model represents a replicable template for conservative resurgence in California, with supporters in other communities seeking to adopt similar policies[1]. They believe disciplined political organization and focus on local issues can create momentum for statewide change, particularly if cultural grievances continue motivating voters statewide.
The conservative movement emphasizes their electoral success in transforming the City Council in successive elections as evidence of genuine voter support rather than fringe activism[1], arguing this record demonstrates they can appeal beyond their core base and that ongoing frustration with state governance presents opportunities for expansion.
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