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Podcasts Take Two
Will Donald Trump transform the nation the way Pete Wilson transformed California?
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Feb 9, 2017
Listen 8:03
Will Donald Trump transform the nation the way Pete Wilson transformed California?
Sometimes it seems like California has always been a blue state. But no so long ago, it was lobster red. What happened here might happen to the entire country.
Republican Pete Wilson may have laid the groundwork for years of Democratic dominance in California. Might Donald Trump be doing the same for the nation as a whole?
Republican Pete Wilson may have laid the groundwork for years of Democratic dominance in California. Might Donald Trump be doing the same for the nation as a whole?
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Sometimes it seems like California has always been a blue state. But no so long ago, it was lobster red. What happened here might happen to the entire country.

Most of us think of California as a long-time bastion of Democratic politics.

Sure, the Democrats control both state houses and the governor's mansion now. But until the end of the 20th century, the state was, in fact, consistently red. It gave us Earl Warren, and later Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. 

Why did California turn so true blue?

Many political historians point to Gov. Pete Wilson's anti-immigrant campaign, encapsulated in Proposition 187. The groundswell of opposition brought out new voters, many of them Latino. The Democratic party capitalized on the controversy by registering new voters and engaging them in the process. And they successfully branding the California GOP as the anti-immigrant party.

Sociologist John D. Skrentny has been thinking about how the California experience with Pete Wilson might be replicated nationwide under Donald Trump. He wrote about this in a op-ed for The Hill. And he shared his theory with us on Take Two.

Listen to the entire conversation. Click on the blue bar above.