Huntington Beach, once a liberal-leaning California coastal city, is now solidly Republican and challenging California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).
In 2020, Democrats gained control of the city council, a shift that some saw as a sign of the beach town softening its political stance.
That change proved short-lived.
Last year, three conservative candidates defeated their rivals, flipping the council back to full Republican control. The city now stands as a right-leaning outlier in a heavily Democratic state.
California State Sen. Tony Strickland (R) called the new council the “MAGA-nificent 7” and said their conservative movement shows no signs of slowing.
“If you want to be successful, do the opposite,” Strickland told the Daily Mail. He said the city focuses on homelessness and crime differently from other California cities.
Strickland highlighted that homelessness has dropped 24 percent in Huntington Beach while it rises across the state. “We give law enforcement the tools they need to enforce our homelessness and encampment laws,” he said.
Crime has also fallen sharply since the council turned red. “We prosecute small crimes. We don’t let that go,” the senator said.
The city council openly challenges Newsom’s policies. Strickland said the governor is “the only one that’s messing it up” in California, per the Daily Mail.
Housing remains a central point of contention. Strickland criticized Sacramento’s plan to force high-density urban development in the coastal city. “People who live in Huntington Beach like the suburban, coastal community,” he said.
The state proposed 50 high-rise apartment buildings. The city is pushing back legally, arguing that the mandate would not fit the community.
Butch Twining, a longtime city council member, said building affordable units in Huntington Beach is extremely difficult. “We’re going to have to either displace residents or businesses to meet the intent of what Sacramento is trying to do,” he said.
Twining offered insight into the city’s political makeup. Nearly 57,000 residents are registered Republicans, compared to 41,000 Democrats and 6,600 Independents. “Republicans outnumber the Democrats significantly in this town,” he said.
Before the “MAGA-nificent 7,” the council was called the “Fab 4,” including Strickland and three others. Twining said there were four open seats because three Democrats and one Republican had termed out.
“The four remaining members hit the streets really hard and got other Republicans to join them,” Twining said.
He said the conservative candidates won decisively.
“It wasn’t that anybody hated the four people that were termed out, they were just Democrats and they did what Democrats did,” he said.
Twining said voters were frustrated with social issues promoted by the previous council. “People in Huntington Beach got tired of it,” he said.
Strickland summed up the city’s approach. “Huntington Beach proves that conservative leadership works, and yes, we do the opposite of what they do in Sacramento because they’re doing it wrong,” he said.
Huntington Beach now stands as a strong Republican bastion in California, sending a message to Newsom and liberal coastal enclaves that the city will chart its own course.
