Growing up in Menlo Park, Corrin Rankin’s politics were like most of her neighbors. She supported former President Barack Obama, energized by the Democrat’s message of “hope and change.”
But when he and California Democrats embraced criminal justice reforms reducing prison and jail populations, Rankin, whose family has deep roots in the bail bonds industry, was done with them. Then, Donald Trump rode down his Trump Tower escalator in 2015 and announced his run for president.
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“Everything he said in that speech resonated with me,” Rankin told the Turning California Red podcast last month. “And I just resolved myself, I said, ‘I’m going to do everything I can do, whatever I can do to help, to get this man elected to president.’”
After her election last month as California’s Republican Party chair, Rankin, 50, of Stockton, is banking there are more folks like her out there disillusioned by Democratic politics — even in liberal strongholds like the Bay Area, where she met last week with the party’s San Francisco central committee in a city where GOP registration is in single digits.
“Be happy warriors,” Rankin told them of her party’s persuasion plan to find common ground with voters of different stripes and push Republican talking points in the media. “Talk about why people should vote for Republicans.”
The former party vice chair’s mission is to capitalize on the GOP’s recent inroads and restore the power of the beleaguered party, which once sent Ronald Reagan to the Oval Office but hasn’t elected a candidate statewide since former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006.
But Rankin is offering few concrete details on her strategy. Nor does she see much significance in her status as the first Black woman to lead California’s Republican Party.
In an interview, Rankin said she’ll continue the chair’s typical responsibilities of registering more Republicans — who Democrats outnumber statewide by a whopping 5 million votes — and recruiting candidates. The California GOP will continue to stand for its longtime values under her tenure: low taxes, cheaper staples like gasoline, support for small businesses, and less bureaucratic red tape in government. Those issues have renewed appeal to disaffected Democrats, she said.
Mostly, Rankin said she embodies a “different vibe” for the party at a time when California Republicans are enjoying a moment of optimism.
Although she’s a veteran of Trump’s campaigns, she’s well familiar with progressive territory. Rankin, 50, is a Silicon Valley native with experience in tech who has spent years whipping up support for Republicans among Black voters.
Locally and nationally, support for Trump surged in November among people of color and working-class voters, sending Democrats into a tailspin of worry and self-reflection. Republicans also picked up several seats in the California Legislature, chipping away at the supermajorities held by Democrats in both chambers.
On Wednesday, Rankin spent most of her remarks advising committee members on how to present themselves to the media and voters across the aisle. They should be more constructive and conciliatory, and they shouldn’t expect her to spend much time dragging Democrats, she said.
It’s an approach Rankin said she honed during her years working to broaden Trump’s appeal to fellow Black voters throughout the U.S. in appearances on the ground in swing states and on TV.
“I don’t like to go on the attack. … My preferred style was to talk about how great of a businessman Donald Trump was,” she told the committee on Wednesday, “to talk about the big things Republicans want to do and why people should vote for him.”
But when an attendee asked her how far she should compromise when seeking common ground with more liberal voters, Rankin responded vaguely.
“I don’t see anywhere we have to compromise,” she responded. “Again, I just think it’s finding common ground.”
Democrats aren’t buying her message.
“California Republicans claim to be in search of ‘common ground’ with California voters but the truth is they’ve pledged fealty to the destructive politics of Donald Trump and his minions,” said Rusty Hicks, chair of the California Democratic Party since 2019.
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