A new poll out of deep-blue California is sending a clear message: voters want their state to work with President Donald Trump, not against him. Despite Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and his Democrat allies waging constant political war with the Trump administration, the public appears exhausted over the partisan grandstanding. Instead, many Californians are signaling they’d rather see cooperation than endless resistance, even if it means setting aside the left’s obsession with opposing Trump at every turn.
According to a poll conducted by the University of California, Berkeley professor Jack Citrin, together with Politico, Californians are more interested in fighting illegal immigration and climate change, as opposed to Newsom and Democratic state lawmakers, who are just focused on rebuffing Trump’s agenda. The results from the survey highlight a gap between that state’s political leaders and its voters. While the state is heavily Democratic, many voters, frustrated by rising crime and the high cost of living, showed growing support for Trump in 2024.
California voters are less keen on fighting Donald Trump than their state’s political elite. In a dual survey of California voters and political professionals who are driving the state’s agenda, the electorate is strikingly more likely to want a detente with the White House. Voters are also more divided on issues like immigration and climate change, where Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic state lawmakers have asserted progressive ambitions that rebuff the president’s agenda.
The poll shows that while Democratic voters favor taking on Trump, the electorate broadly wants their representatives to lower the temperature. Forty-three percent of registered voters said leaders were “too confrontational” — a sentiment largely driven by Republicans and independents — compared to a third who found them “too passive.” A plurality of Democrats surveyed, 47 percent, wanted a more aggressive approach.
This comes as Newsom announced a lawsuit against Trump’s tariffs and approved $50 million in new spending to sue the Trump administration or provide legal aid to illegal immigrants—all while the state is simultaneously requesting $40 billion in wildfire relief from the federal government.