Advertisement
Politi-Cal

State demographics pose potential problems for Republicans

By David Lauter
Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Republicans have a reasonable shot at capturing California’s governorship and a U.S. Senate seat this year, but their party faces a serious long-term problem in the state –- a steep drop-off among younger voters. The latest Los Angeles Times/USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Poll has the numbers.

Among all voters in California, 45% are registered as Democrats and 31% as Republicans. Voters who “decline to state” a party are the third-largest group overall, at 20%.

Advertisement

Democratic registration is steady across age groups, the poll shows. Republican registration, by contrast, skews heavily toward older voters. Among voters 65 and older, 39% are registered Republicans. But among those aged 18-29, that falls to just 21%, putting the GOP in third place among voters under 30, behind ‘decline to state’ at 29%. One factor related to that – race and ethnicity.

The state’s growing Latino population tends to be younger than the white population, and Latinos are also more likely to be Democrats. Among registered voters who identified themselves as Latino, 63% are Democrats and only 16% Republicans. Republicans are at parity with Democrats among the state’s white voters, with each party claiming 38%.

--David Lauter

Politi-Cal
David Lauter

David Lauter writes the Saturday Los Angeles Times Politics newsletter from Washington, D.C. He began writing news in Washington in 1981 and has covered Congress, the Supreme Court, the White House under Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and six U.S. presidential campaigns. He served as Washington bureau chief from 2011-20. Lauter lived in Los Angeles from 1995 to 2011, where he was The Times’ deputy Foreign editor, deputy Metro editor and then assistant managing editor responsible for California coverage.

Advertisement