The Former Californians Opposed to Kamala Harris — And Might Turn Nevada
A group of California expats, harboring grievances against their previous home state, may play a pivotal role in a closely fought battleground.
TroibNews 
**RENO, Nevada** — Jim DeMartini calculates that he effectively received his new McLaren for free.
“I was paying $200,000 a year in state income tax [in California],” he explains at his kitchen table in his home nestled in the foothills of western Reno. “I paid $440,000 for that car, and two years living here, we got it for free, right?”
For 46 years, prior to relocating to Nevada, DeMartini operated a farm that, at its height, covered 1,100 acres outside Modesto, California. However, in 2020, he made the decision to move across state lines.
“California just got to be a communist state,” he asserts. “[It was] Kamala Harris, it was Governor Newsom, it was a leftist, anti-business legislature who just felt they had to control everything. They even went so far as banning straws.”
As I step through the front door of DeMartini’s grand residence, it’s clear where his political allegiances lie. Two large metal elephants stand guard at the entrance, as if on patrol. A hat perched on a coat hanger proclaims, “I’m voting for the convicted felon.” His kitchen table is scattered with mail directed at Trump supporters, and the presence of a Trump flag on the veranda along with signs in the driveway leaves little doubt about his political stance.
DeMartini embodies part of a growing demographic that could threaten Harris’ prospects in this crucial state: ex-Californians disillusioned with their previous home state's politics.
Since 2020, more than 150,000 Californians have relocated to Nevada, leading California expats to make up over 20 percent of Nevada’s population. Migration data from the last census indicates that among the top 16 counties supplying new residents to Reno’s Washoe County, 11 are located in California.
The exact number of these voters who identify as Republicans remains uncertain. Nevada has certainly seen its share of California liberals moving in, leading many conservatives to grumble that liberal “refugees from Commie-fornia” have shifted Nevada's political landscape leftward over the last two decades.
Yet, the gap between registered Republicans and Democrats in the state has narrowed from 111,000 in 2020 to 71,000 in 2023, while the number of nonpartisan voters has expanded significantly. In a state where the 2020 election was decided by fewer than 34,000 votes, a group of highly motivated, California-hating ex-Californians could play a critical role in influencing the upcoming elections.
“I think ex-Californians could certainly be a significant help [to making Nevada red in November],” states Nevada Republican State Sen. Jeff Stone, a former California state legislator who now operates the website “Help Me Flee California.” “They can also explain to Nevadans what Kamala Harris did as a district attorney in San Francisco, as the attorney general in the state of California.”
Reno, unlike Las Vegas — Nevada’s largest city — exists under the shadow of California. It’s less than an hour's drive from the California side of Lake Tahoe, where luxury ski resorts and multimillion-dollar homes abound alongside numerous Harris/Walz lawn signs. Many California refugees have found a new, more accommodating home here, close to their former residence.
In the outskirts of Reno, a tech boom, fueled by a Tesla gigafactory, has drawn an influx of young, often Democratic tech professionals to the state. However, the city and state also boast a growing number of Republicans, many of whom are fleeing high taxes or view GOP Governor Joe Lombardo’s 2022 victory as an encouraging sign of a rightward trend.
Joe Dutra, calling himself the “cowboy Willy Wonka of Nevada,” is among those Republicans. His family's roots in Sacramento extend back to the 1800s. When he started his candy business, he packaged chocolate-covered sunflower seeds out of a 20-foot trailer in California’s capital. In 2006, as his business was expanding and California taxes becoming burdensome, Dutra invested in a building in Reno, envisioning a thriving candy empire to eventually pass on to his children.
After significant upgrades, he now operates a 47,000-square-foot factory producing large quantities of candy daily, with plans for further expansion.
“In California, you were just a business,” Dutra remarks in his office, adorned with pictures of him with politicians from both sides, including Donald Trump in 2017, along with a hat that says, 'Make Candy Great Again.' “Here, you’re somebody that’s bringing jobs to the community … [Nevada’s government] was easy to work with, as compared to doing something in California.”
Dutra believes most ex-California business owners he knows share his sentiments — staunch Republicans advocating for reduced regulations and lower taxes. He also thinks a growing base of reliable Republican voters is emerging in Nevada.
“I think I’ve seen a lot more people moving out in the last four years,” he observes. “It’s been a big push.”
Chuck Muth, a veteran Republican consultant in Nevada, claims these voters left California specifically to escape figures like Harris. “There are Californians who fled California and moved to Nevada because they wanted to get away from [Harris’] types of policies … there absolutely is potential in a messaging campaign that suggests, ‘hey, this is what you fled in California, you sure as hell don’t want it in Washington, D.C.’”
The influx of Californians has not been universally welcomed in Nevada. Many locals feel newcomers are driving up housing prices, worsening social issues, and even driving erratically. T-shirts and bumper stickers in downtown Reno proclaim “Don’t California My Nevada.” A recent poll revealed that 51 percent of Nevada residents believe the government should impose restrictions on Californian immigration.
Kathy Benson, a retired CPA from the Bay Area, shared a memory from when she first moved to Nevada in 2009. “We got to a signal light after we first moved here, and there was a car in front of us and it had a bumper sticker,” she recounts while seated on the patio of Centro Bar & Kitchen, a small-plate restaurant downtown. “The bumper sticker said ‘we don’t give a shit how you did it in California.’ So [my husband] and I looked at each other and said ‘we are going to like this state.’”
Nevada Republicans view this demographic as receptive to Trump’s messaging, particularly regarding opposition to Harris, who served as a senator and attorney general in California. Trump has been vocal in condemning California’s governance, often criticizing California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom and affirming the choices of those fleeing California’s high taxes for Nevada’s lack of such burdens.
This sentiment aligns with national Republican messaging targeting Harris for her “California-ness,” labeling her a “California radical” and a “San Francisco liberal.”
“I think the theme of the message is, do you want to ‘California’ the United States? It’s the way cancer metastasizes,” Stone states. “People were tired of it, and so they're coming here, and they're telling their neighbors why they moved here. And I think it's having an effect on people that don't have firsthand knowledge of what Kamala Harris has stood for and what she's done in the past to decline the quality of life of people that live in California.”
This message is also being emphasized by the Republican Party and Trump’s campaign in Nevada. Their mailers highlight Harris' policies from her time as San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general to emphasize her liberal credentials, including her opposition to concealed carry permits and her “shield[ing] of convicted crack dealers.”
“I truly believe that the people that are moving from California can help turn the state [red],” asserts Erica Neely, a former south central Los Angeles resident who is now a Nevada candidate for the state Assembly.
Her campaign focuses on how Nevada begins to resemble the high-cost, troubled state she left behind. Her campaign website features an article that resonates with her theme: “Escaped from California: I'm Running to Save Nevada from the Same Fate.”
Stone emphasizes that locals strongly associate Harris with her home state’s challenges, despite her election as vice president four years ago.
“[Crime in San Francisco] is a shining example of one of California’s failures, and it’s got Kamala Harris’s name written all over it,” he conveys. “And so there’s a deep association with the failures of San Francisco and Kamala Harris, and I think those are going to be used against her as she runs for president of the United States.”
Debra A Smith contributed to this report for TROIB News
“I was paying $200,000 a year in state income tax [in California],” he explains at his kitchen table in his home nestled in the foothills of western Reno. “I paid $440,000 for that car, and two years living here, we got it for free, right?”
For 46 years, prior to relocating to Nevada, DeMartini operated a farm that, at its height, covered 1,100 acres outside Modesto, California. However, in 2020, he made the decision to move across state lines.
“California just got to be a communist state,” he asserts. “[It was] Kamala Harris, it was Governor Newsom, it was a leftist, anti-business legislature who just felt they had to control everything. They even went so far as banning straws.”
As I step through the front door of DeMartini’s grand residence, it’s clear where his political allegiances lie. Two large metal elephants stand guard at the entrance, as if on patrol. A hat perched on a coat hanger proclaims, “I’m voting for the convicted felon.” His kitchen table is scattered with mail directed at Trump supporters, and the presence of a Trump flag on the veranda along with signs in the driveway leaves little doubt about his political stance.
DeMartini embodies part of a growing demographic that could threaten Harris’ prospects in this crucial state: ex-Californians disillusioned with their previous home state's politics.
Since 2020, more than 150,000 Californians have relocated to Nevada, leading California expats to make up over 20 percent of Nevada’s population. Migration data from the last census indicates that among the top 16 counties supplying new residents to Reno’s Washoe County, 11 are located in California.
The exact number of these voters who identify as Republicans remains uncertain. Nevada has certainly seen its share of California liberals moving in, leading many conservatives to grumble that liberal “refugees from Commie-fornia” have shifted Nevada's political landscape leftward over the last two decades.
Yet, the gap between registered Republicans and Democrats in the state has narrowed from 111,000 in 2020 to 71,000 in 2023, while the number of nonpartisan voters has expanded significantly. In a state where the 2020 election was decided by fewer than 34,000 votes, a group of highly motivated, California-hating ex-Californians could play a critical role in influencing the upcoming elections.
“I think ex-Californians could certainly be a significant help [to making Nevada red in November],” states Nevada Republican State Sen. Jeff Stone, a former California state legislator who now operates the website “Help Me Flee California.” “They can also explain to Nevadans what Kamala Harris did as a district attorney in San Francisco, as the attorney general in the state of California.”
Reno, unlike Las Vegas — Nevada’s largest city — exists under the shadow of California. It’s less than an hour's drive from the California side of Lake Tahoe, where luxury ski resorts and multimillion-dollar homes abound alongside numerous Harris/Walz lawn signs. Many California refugees have found a new, more accommodating home here, close to their former residence.
In the outskirts of Reno, a tech boom, fueled by a Tesla gigafactory, has drawn an influx of young, often Democratic tech professionals to the state. However, the city and state also boast a growing number of Republicans, many of whom are fleeing high taxes or view GOP Governor Joe Lombardo’s 2022 victory as an encouraging sign of a rightward trend.
Joe Dutra, calling himself the “cowboy Willy Wonka of Nevada,” is among those Republicans. His family's roots in Sacramento extend back to the 1800s. When he started his candy business, he packaged chocolate-covered sunflower seeds out of a 20-foot trailer in California’s capital. In 2006, as his business was expanding and California taxes becoming burdensome, Dutra invested in a building in Reno, envisioning a thriving candy empire to eventually pass on to his children.
After significant upgrades, he now operates a 47,000-square-foot factory producing large quantities of candy daily, with plans for further expansion.
“In California, you were just a business,” Dutra remarks in his office, adorned with pictures of him with politicians from both sides, including Donald Trump in 2017, along with a hat that says, 'Make Candy Great Again.' “Here, you’re somebody that’s bringing jobs to the community … [Nevada’s government] was easy to work with, as compared to doing something in California.”
Dutra believes most ex-California business owners he knows share his sentiments — staunch Republicans advocating for reduced regulations and lower taxes. He also thinks a growing base of reliable Republican voters is emerging in Nevada.
“I think I’ve seen a lot more people moving out in the last four years,” he observes. “It’s been a big push.”
Chuck Muth, a veteran Republican consultant in Nevada, claims these voters left California specifically to escape figures like Harris. “There are Californians who fled California and moved to Nevada because they wanted to get away from [Harris’] types of policies … there absolutely is potential in a messaging campaign that suggests, ‘hey, this is what you fled in California, you sure as hell don’t want it in Washington, D.C.’”
The influx of Californians has not been universally welcomed in Nevada. Many locals feel newcomers are driving up housing prices, worsening social issues, and even driving erratically. T-shirts and bumper stickers in downtown Reno proclaim “Don’t California My Nevada.” A recent poll revealed that 51 percent of Nevada residents believe the government should impose restrictions on Californian immigration.
Kathy Benson, a retired CPA from the Bay Area, shared a memory from when she first moved to Nevada in 2009. “We got to a signal light after we first moved here, and there was a car in front of us and it had a bumper sticker,” she recounts while seated on the patio of Centro Bar & Kitchen, a small-plate restaurant downtown. “The bumper sticker said ‘we don’t give a shit how you did it in California.’ So [my husband] and I looked at each other and said ‘we are going to like this state.’”
Nevada Republicans view this demographic as receptive to Trump’s messaging, particularly regarding opposition to Harris, who served as a senator and attorney general in California. Trump has been vocal in condemning California’s governance, often criticizing California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom and affirming the choices of those fleeing California’s high taxes for Nevada’s lack of such burdens.
This sentiment aligns with national Republican messaging targeting Harris for her “California-ness,” labeling her a “California radical” and a “San Francisco liberal.”
“I think the theme of the message is, do you want to ‘California’ the United States? It’s the way cancer metastasizes,” Stone states. “People were tired of it, and so they're coming here, and they're telling their neighbors why they moved here. And I think it's having an effect on people that don't have firsthand knowledge of what Kamala Harris has stood for and what she's done in the past to decline the quality of life of people that live in California.”
This message is also being emphasized by the Republican Party and Trump’s campaign in Nevada. Their mailers highlight Harris' policies from her time as San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general to emphasize her liberal credentials, including her opposition to concealed carry permits and her “shield[ing] of convicted crack dealers.”
“I truly believe that the people that are moving from California can help turn the state [red],” asserts Erica Neely, a former south central Los Angeles resident who is now a Nevada candidate for the state Assembly.
Her campaign focuses on how Nevada begins to resemble the high-cost, troubled state she left behind. Her campaign website features an article that resonates with her theme: “Escaped from California: I'm Running to Save Nevada from the Same Fate.”
Stone emphasizes that locals strongly associate Harris with her home state’s challenges, despite her election as vice president four years ago.
“[Crime in San Francisco] is a shining example of one of California’s failures, and it’s got Kamala Harris’s name written all over it,” he conveys. “And so there’s a deep association with the failures of San Francisco and Kamala Harris, and I think those are going to be used against her as she runs for president of the United States.”
Debra A Smith contributed to this report for TROIB News
