The best part about 2024 for Inland Empire Democrats is that it’s over.
Despite spending tens of millions of dollars and countless hours courting voters, local Democrats lost a string of competitive races as the national party lost the White House and control of the U.S. Senate.
Donald Trump poured salt in those wounds as he became the first GOP presidential candidate in 16 years to win the Inland Empire. And there are signs that Inland Republicans are gaining ground after years of watching a once-red region turn purple.
As they pick up the pieces, local Democrats are looking back at what went wrong.
“For the November 2024 election, the Democratic Party needed to do more to get our message out to voters,” Kristin Washington, chair of the San Bernardino County Democratic Party, said via email.
“Our base knows of our commitment to working class Americans and to creating jobs to move more families into the middle class. But we needed to do a better job of talking about those pocketbook issues with voters.”
Robert Gonzalez, spokesperson for the San Bernardino County Young Democrats, agreed.
“The everyday worker goes to work 9 to 5 and they care about the prices and how they’re going to put food on their table and a roof over their head,” he said.
“Republicans really beat us on that message and I think we’re starting to acknowledge that … if we don’t start walking the walk and talking the talk, we’re not going to get the results where we want, especially on a local (level).”
Brian Nash, a 2022 Democratic state Senate candidate from Murrieta, believes the COVID-19 pandemic, attitudes about the economy and a tilt toward authoritarian politics factored into Democrats losing.
The Biden administration “didn’t do a good job of articulating … the fact that people were hurt,” said Nash, who plans to run against Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Escondido, in 2026.
“So if you’ve got a lean towards authoritarianism already kind of brewing in the background and then you have a disconnect … It’s a perfect recipe for the kind of disaster that ultimately happened in 2024.”
At the state level, there seems to be “complacency” among Democrats about messaging and organizing in the Inland Empire, Marcia Godwin, a professor of public administration at the University of La Verne, said via email.
“The Democrats seem to have departed from core messaging about education, the environment and workers,” Godwin wrote. Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency “has done more to remind would-be Democratic voters about the public services that the government provides …”
“The Democratic Party also seems to have taken it for granted that core constituencies and that younger voters will break their way while the California Republican Party has been strategic in candidate recruitment,” Godwin added.
Long a minority in Inland Empire politics, Democrats broke through the red wall in 2012, when they won open state Senate and Assembly seats created through redistricting.
Eventually, Riverside County joined San Bernardino County in having a plurality of registered voters who were Democrats. Barack Obama carried both counties in 2008 and 2012, as did Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020.
Going into last year, Democrats targeted Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona; Assemblymember Greg Wallis, R-Rancho Mirage; and state Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh, R-Redlands; for defeat.
Instead, all four won new terms — Calvert’s win helped the GOP keep control of the House of Representatives — and Democrats lost ground.
In California’s 58th Assembly District — Jurupa Valley, Grand Terrace and parts of Corona, Eastvale and Riverside — Republican Leticia Castillo upset Democrat Clarissa Cervantes despite Democrats outnumbering the GOP 43% to 28% in the district’s voter registration.
Republican Jeff Gonzalez overcame a similar voter registration gap to win an Assembly district spanning desert communities in Riverside and Imperial counties. GOP wins extended to Inland school boards, where conservatives won seats in Redlands and Temecula.
Nationally, Republicans made inroads with Latino voters who helped Trump win back the presidency. If that trend continues, it could boost the GOP in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, which are majority Latino.
Recent voter registration trends also are encouraging for California Republicans.
Since 2022, GOP registration statewide has risen slightly along with a decline in voters registering as Democrats and independents, the Public Policy Institute of California reported in October.
Since October 2020, Republican voter registration grew roughly 13% compared to 9% for Democrats, data show. During the same timeframe, the number of San Bernardino County voters registering as Republicans rose 15.5% while the number of registered Democrats climbed 5.6%.
That said, Democrats maintain comfortable voter-registration edges in both counties and in California as a whole. The party also might take solace in 2024 being a relatively low turnout election, leaving the possibility that Democrats might do better if more voters cast ballots.
In plotting a comeback, Democrats must deal not only with how to reach voters, but how to appease their own.
A recent visit to Norco by Democrat and Silicon Valley Rep. Ro Khanna highlighted voters’ frustration with national Democratic leadership, which they believe isn’t doing enough to stop Trump and Musk.
“I want to know why in the world the Democratic Party hasn’t fought yet?” Riyad Cooper, 45, told Khanna during his visit, according to POLITICO. “I’m sorry but you’re the only Democrat standing here, so you’re the only person I’ve got to ask.”
Nash, the Democratic political candidate from Murrieta, shares the frustration.
“You have a base that wants to act, and you have Democratic leaders who are basically just” doing the same old thing, he said using an expletive.
Nash added that he and his wife left a local Democratic club in part over its poor outreach to young voters.
“The lack of interest and engagement in working with young people, or even if there is interest, the lack of ability to do so just because they’re so far removed from being young themselves — they’re just not hitting that mark at all,” Nash said.
“And nationally and locally, you see young people kind of leaning more and more right because of it.”
With the 2026 midterm election on the horizon, Inland Democratic leaders say better communication is key to a comeback.
In 2024, “We learned that disinformation is easily spread through alternative media channels and that repeating lies creates a platform for the opposition’s deception,” Joy Silver, Riverside County Democratic Party chair, said via email.
“We will fight back by correcting the record whenever and wherever possible.”
Washington, the San Bernardino County party chair, said Democrats “need to improve our overall messaging, deliver our messages in shorter, easier to remember sound bites, and create more effective ways to reach more voters. We also need to define who we are and then push back harder when the values and issues we stand for are mischaracterized.”
It’s not enough to be anti-Trump, said Gonzalez, of the San Bernardino County Young Democrats.
“We can’t always just sit here and say what Trump is doing is bad and this is illegal,” he said. “Pointing the finger is not doing us any good. And we saw that in these elections.”
Party leaders also hope to win more hearts and minds as the Trump administration’s budget cuts and tariffs take effect.
“Anger is energizing and this administration is energizing the vote to turn out against it,” Silver said. “The untold story is that more voters are joining our efforts every day. We are being flooded with people who want to do something about the destruction caused by this regime.”
It’s important for Democrats to “engage outside of your community” and talk to independent non-voters who don’t feel heard by either party, Nash said.
“For people out there that are frustrated right now, don’t give up hope. There are people that are going to come out of this and be the leaders that we need.”
