LOS ANGELES (AP) – Imagine Ted Cruz walking precincts in Haight-Ashbury, the hippie homeland in Nancy Pelosi’s district. Or Donald Trump stumping in Compton, the West Coast capital of hip-hop.
In California, expect the unexpected.
A possibly decisive presidential primary June 7 is going to take Republican candidates where they haven’t been before, since they need to collect as many delegates as possible toward the nomination. California awards 172 delegates, the most of any state.
Home to 1 in 8 Americans, California is usually an afterthought in presidential elections, with its June primary arriving long after nominations have been settled. But an erratic Republican contest this year, reordered by the Trump insurgency, has transformed the nation’s most populous state from campaign also-ran into potential kingmaker.
California’s primary amounts to 54 separate races on a single day – one in every congressional district across the sprawling, diverse state, or 53, one statewide. The winner in each district collects three delegates; then, the candidate who gets the largest number of votes statewide claims a bonus of 10 more, plus the state party chairman and Republican National Committee members for a total bonus of 13.