Coachella Valley's GOP feels shut out

Republicans may soon be represented by an anti-Trump Democrat after Prop. 50 passage.

- BY DAKOTA SMITH

Photographs by GINA FERAZZI Los Angeles Times SANDRA Schulz, left, Joy Miedecke, Chris Mahr at East Valley Republican Women Patriots in Palm Desert.

PALM DESERT — Joy Miedecke, who runs the largest Republican club in the Coachella Valley, handed out scores of “No on Prop. 50” lawn signs before election day.

But Tuesday morning, she knew the ballot measure would fail.

Proposition 50, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to challenge President Trump, easily passed last week. The ballot measure, created to level the playing field with Republican gerrymandering efforts in Texas and other GOP states, reconfigured California congressional districts to favor Democrats as they try to take back the U.S. House of Representatives in next year’s midterms.

As a consequence, Coachella Valley’s Republicans could soon be represented by anti-Trump Democrats in Washington.

California Republicans, far outnumbered by those on the left, for years have felt ignored in a state where Democrats reign, and the passage of Proposition 50 only adds to the sense of political hopelessness.

“The Democrats get their way because we don’t have enough people,” Miedecke said of her party’s struggles in California.

Bordered by the San Jacinto and Santa Rosa mountains, the desert basin has long been a magnet for conservative retirees and vacationers, including former Republican presidents.

The local hospital is named after President Eisenhower. President Ford enjoyed the many emerald golf courses in his later years and his wife, former First Lady Betty Ford, founded her namesake addiction treatment center in the desert valley.