On December 3, Huntington Beach held its swearing-in ceremony for the new city council, which is now made up entirely of MAGA Republicans. It’s a status they have fully embraced. At the ceremony, the seven members donned red “Make Huntington Beach Great Again” hats with “7-0” emblazoned on the sides. Councilmember Tony Strickland has been using the moniker, “the MAGA-nificent 7” to describe he and his colleagues.
The Right’s total victory in Huntington Beach follows two years of infighting by a divided city council. Before the November election, Republicans held a 4-3 majority on the ostensibly non-partisan body. Dan Kalmick, Rhonda Bolton, and Natalie Moser frequently battled their four Republican colleagues as they pursued controversial policies dealing with housing, voter ID, library books, prayer, transgender privacy laws, flag displays, and more.
Kalmick, Bolton, and Moser were all on the ballot this fall. They were unseated by a slate of right-wing candidates known as “HB3” — Butch Twining, Chad Williams and Don Kennedy. It was the same strategy that gave Surf City its Republican majority two years ago. In 2022, a slate of four conservative candidates known as “the Fab Four” won seats on the council.
“We finally figured out the recipe that works, and people understand it,” one of those members, Mayor Pro Tem Casey McKeon, told SF Gate. “It doesn’t mean that anyone can’t run, but if the conservatives really want to be successful in a non-primary election, then that’s what you have to do.”
In retrospect, the writing was on the wall in March. Despite pushback from local Democrats and lawsuits from the state, Huntington Beach Republicans scored major policy wins in the primary election. As we wrote at the time, “Huntington Beach voters have spoken, and they like what the conservative city council is selling.”
The pendulum could always swing back. Huntington Beach is facing a projected deficit of $7.4 million. It’s also awaiting the outcome of a housing lawsuit with the state (a separate state lawsuit over the city’s voter ID law was dismissed yesterday). Whether Surf City Republicans can sustain their outsized popularity may depend on how they respond to those and other future challenges.