Republican John Cox Survived California’s Wild Primary by Running a Quietly Intriguing Campaign: New at Reason

These days, it’s accepted wisdom that—after 20 years of political and demographic changes—California is a one-party state and that Republicans can do well only in a narrowing group of legislative and local races. New figures show that Republicans now trail independents in the registration game, which has got to hurt the party’s image. And, most strikingly, the GOP has a tough time fielding top-tier candidates to run for the plum governor’s spot.

California did have a two-term Republican governor named Arnold Schwarzenegger, who preceded Jerry Brown’s return to power in 2011. That was fewer than eight years ago, although Schwarzenegger was an outlier—a moderate Republican movie star who won a free-for-all election after a bizarre recall of a sitting governor. Even then, however, it was already an accepted belief that the GOP needed big-name celebrity candidates to have a shot any more.

This year, ironically, it’s a buttoned-down, little-known businessman named John Cox who is shaking up the race in a relatively new “top two” system that had everyone fighting for the second spot. (The top two vote-getters in the June primary face off in the November general election, regardless of their party affiliation.) Cox surged past former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and on Tuesday and gained the right to challenge Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, despite massive spending on attack ads by a Super PAC funded by Villaraigosa backers. Newsom had 33 percent of the vote, with Cox gaining 26 percent. Villaraigosa was in third with less than 14 percent.

Stephen Greenhut sat down with Cox this week to ask whether the Republican has a hope of winning the governorship this year.

Read the whole thing here.