Trump’s awkwardly timed fundraising swing through California

It’s about to get way harder for California’s vulnerable Republicans to avoid Donald Trump.

The former president comes to California this week for his first fundraising tour since the historic verdict that found him guilty on all 34 charges in a hush money trial, stopping by San Francisco on Thursday to court wealthy tech investors at the home of venture capitalist David Sacks before heading to fundraisers in Beverly Hills and Newport Beach.

It’s routine for presidential candidates to make cash swings through the wealthy pockets of the Golden State. But Trump’s visit will put a spotlight on his recent convictions — and the fact that California Republicans have stayed relatively quiet following the verdict.

Two California Republicans in tough races — Riverside County Rep. Ken Calvert and Scott Baugh, who is running for an open Orange County seat — made statements in the immediate aftermath of the verdicts decrying the prosecutions as having partisan motivations.

But the instinct among some of the state’s swing seat Republicans over the past five days has been to say nothing at all. GOP Reps. Mike Garcia, Michelle Steel, and David Valadao have laid low since the verdicts, despite multiple requests to their campaigns for comment.

Rep. John Duarte, who is running for reelection in a closely-contested Central Valley seat that Biden won in 2020, broke his silence Sunday morning in an interview with a local TV station, saying he was “disappointed with the whole prosecution.”

Trump’s convictions represent a tricky calculus for the handful of California candidates who could decide control of the House come November.

If they come out in support of Trump, they run the risk of alienating some of the swing voters that could decide their races. If they say nothing, they could be subjected to a public flogging from Trump world, similar to the one doled out to former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan after he urged Americans to respect the verdict.

California’s Republican House candidates are largely expected to keep their distance from Trump this week, but that doesn’t mean they’re turning their backs on him. Many have already endorsed the former president for reelection, including Garcia and Duarte. In March, Steel quietly signed on as a delegate for Trumpin the presidential primary.

Although Trump often demands total loyalty from within the party, there’s an assumption among California Republicans that he understands the stakes — control of the House — and won’t hold anyone’s silence against them.

“At the end of the day, despite the veneer that he puts out, [Trump] understands that to win each of these individual House seats, the candidates have to have their own strategy to win,” said former California GOP executive director Jon Fleischman. “And he knows that there are districts where raising a Trump flag does not help you.”

Meanwhile, some of of the nation’s wealthiest citizens are pulling out their checkbooks for Trump, galvanized by the verdict.

Sequoia Capital Partner Shaun Maguire donated $300,000 to Trump following the news, noting on X that the timing was “not a coincidence.” Another Sequoia partner, billionaire Doug Leone, announced Monday he would back Trump’s reelection bid, despite renouncing his support after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Harmeet Dhillon, the national committeewoman of the RNC for California, plans to attend the Thursday fundraiser at the Sacks’ home. She said Trump’s stances on deregulating business and technology such as cryptocurrency are likely to resonate with the Silicon Valley elite.

“You don't really need to agree with Donald Trump on a lot of issues, or his style, or even like him, to understand where your business interests are aligned,” she said.

Melanie Mason contributed to this report.