Michael Gates is basing his run for California attorney general on his decade-long reign as Huntington Beach’s top lawmaker.
When we met at a Starbucks a block away from City Hall, he touted the authenticity of his hometown: declining crime and homelessness. Tourists from all over the world. A thriving main road. A small town feel “almost like the Midwest”.
What’s his biggest obstacle in trying to convince voters that he should replace Rob Bonta, other than his membership in the Republican Party? Umm, Huntington Beach.
For years, surf city conservatives like Gates have enjoyed playing gurgle in the saddle of deep blue California. From a flurry of lawsuits against Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration to protests against COVID restrictions to the City Council’s vote to put a plaque spelling out “MAGA” outside the public library, Huntington Beach’s GOP leadership has yet to pull off an anti-liberal stunt that they haven’t portrayed as a stance against tyranny worthy of Bunker Hill.
His antics made Huntington Beach a national laughingstock — but Gates and his friends aren’t done laughing yet.
They ran in two elections as part of a slate that changed the City Council from a narrow Democratic majority to an all-Republican body in 2022, in an era when Orange County is turning more and more purple. The takeover became a sensation among California conservatives, who were looking for a victory in a state where Democrats maintain supermajorities in both legislative chambers and have held every statewide office for 15 years.
“We’ve turned into this center of fighting back,” said Mayor Casey McKeon, a third-generation Huntington Beach resident who is up for re-election this year. “We are the model that every city can follow. If I were running for state office, I would run it along those lines.”
That’s exactly what the architects of MAGA-by-the-Sea plan to do this November.
In addition to Gates’ bid, gadfly-turned-councilmember Gracie Van Der Mark is seeking an Assembly seat. His former council colleague Tony Strickland won his state Senate seat last spring and is a 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 last spring launched his campaign for governor near the city’s world-famous pier — even though he lives in Silicon Valley.
Hilton told me he has long liked Huntington Beach because it reminds him of the seaside British town of Brighton where he grew up. His affection for Surf City grew stronger the more he talked to people like Gates and Strickland, who sold his vision of keeping it limited to Sacramento.
“There’s a lot to be happy about – it’s a place where it’s well-run and clean and organized,” said the candidate, who has consistently led in the polls as his Democratic rivals chip away at each other’s share of the vote. “When I was thinking about where to start my campaign, it made sense (Huntington Beach), because it felt like home.”
Then-City Council candidates Tony Strickland, left, and Gracie Van Der Mark attend a “meet and greet” event in Huntington Beach in 2022.
(Alan J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Better not tell anyone at HB that you’re an immigrant, Steve!
California Republican Party Chairwoman Corinne Rankin is confident the Huntington Beach crew can win.
“What happened there proves that conservative leadership works,” he said. “Currently, we have a former mayor of San Francisco who is governor. You look at the difference in status of each of these cities.”
Strickland, who is Hilton’s campaign chairman, swears that he and his former colleagues had not planned to take their crusade statewide, but “when you do a good job, other opportunities present themselves.”
“I think California is on the wrong path — that’s what most people think,” he said. If his team delivers on the proposal in November for governor, attorney general, Assembly seat and voter ID — “it will be known as a major change in the Golden State that makes it golden again.”
Does drinking Surf City water give you magical powers?
It’s easy to dismiss what Strickland, Gates and others have built as a lucky local race that’s about to crash into the reality of a statewide race as a Republican. Even in Huntington Beach, residents tired of the perpetual culture wars last year rejected two ballot measures seeking to give the City Council more control over the municipal library system, which Van der Mark had long claimed was essentially providing pornography to children.
But if there’s one thing I’ve learned during a quarter-century of tracking HB’s always-suffering conservatives, it’s that never underestimate them — the more you do, the more they freak out, the more they scheme. They scheme with the discipline of the Dodgers’ World Series team and spar with the likes of 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 fond of Huntington Beach that he looks like This: bull-neck. Blue eyed. Brother-y. No nonsense haircut. A bemused face barely concealing a righteous anger that is trying to force progressive California into submission.
“I know what it looks like to be from a working-class family, a hard-working family, and it’s very difficult to make ends meet,” Gates said, noting that his Irish American parents sometimes had to get food and diapers for their children from the pantry at St. Bonaventure Catholic Church. “So clearly, let’s take control away from the government and give control back to working-class people.”
Fullerton College political science professor Jody Balma teaches his students about Huntington Beach as an example of how “the power of the slate can really work” in an era of polarization. But when I asked if he thought the Surf City rebels could overturn California politics, the professor immediately said, “No.”
Majority of California voters Think the state is going in the wrong directionAnd the number of undecided voters in elections ranging from California governor to the LA mayor’s race is putting the fear of God among Democratic leaders. But just how confused Strickland & Co. might be in thinking how to align itself More With President Trump — who recently endorsed Hilton — is there a winning strategy in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly 2 to 1? And Surf City – a prosperous beach town so full of itself that it makes Santa Monica look as polite as Santa Ana – as the last, best hope to save California?
When I asked if he agreed with everything his friends on the City Council have done over the years, Hilton demurred. “I’m not there, so I can’t see the day-to-day operation,” was his weak salsa reply.
Gates was more candid.
“I think probably everyone in city leadership would acknowledge that the library thing has gotten out of control,” he said. By then, Gates was working as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division for the Justice Department in Washington, resigning after only 10 months because he said he missed home.
Sand art at Huntington City Beach in 2020.
(Raul Roa/Los Angeles Times)
Gates made a good conversation for most of our hour-long conversation. He and Hilton are working especially hard for Latino voters — they “can save California because they understand that new leadership can turn the state around.”
But whatever Gates said might appeal to disenchanted Democrats like me, his Huntington Beach braggadocio consistently won over.
He alternately praised his own political astuteness (“You be patient, bide your time, be disciplined, keep your mouth shut. The long game will win.”), raised transgender issues (“I want to protect our young girls. I want to stop all mutilation surgeries happening in hospitals for our young people.”) and lashed out against out-of-control Democrats (“(Californians) are abused.” And honestly, we got angry. We’re getting really crazy.”).
Most of all, Gates repeatedly proclaimed how special Huntington Beach is.
“We love our freedoms. We love flying our American flags,” he said. “We love our beach. I don’t know, the culture is different here.”
Good luck selling Californians on this.
