CFER was a faithful witness to the electoral defeat of Proposition 16, a race-preferential ballot measure initiative presented to California voters in 2020. Even though proponents of racial preferences waged a $33 million-dollar campaign attempting to legalize discrimination under the banner of diversity, over 9.65 million Californians (57.2% of the electorate) voted to keep California’s constitutional guarantee of equal treatment. The No on 16 campaign, backed by a grassroots coalition and endorsed by the California Republican Party (CAGOP), successfully challenged the political and corporate establishment behind Prop. 16.

Not only does the public opinion support race-blind public policies, American higher education, dominated by progressivism, has also begun to catch up in defiance of the woke orthodoxy. On February 25, 2023, the University of North Carolina (UNC) system announced plans to drop statements on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as a hiring requirement.

However, it is under this context of growing optimism that CFER becomes aware of a concerning development pertaining to a high-level CAGOP candidate. After being alerted to the fact that Ms. Corrin Rankin, who is running for the position of CA GOP Vice Chair, had supported Prop. 16 in 2020, we reached out to Ms. Rankin for clarifications. To our great disappointment, Ms. Rankin clearly demonstrated little knowledge about the cultural war we Americans are facing in her response**.** Her positions on race, education policies and other relevant issues are thoroughly misinformed and infiltrated by the woke dogma.

She didn't even understand what DEI stands for until we explained it to her after mentioning the term twice. She thought the fight against racial preferences “is over” despite that the radical left relentlessly seeks to keep this topic alive. While we presented CFER’s views and empirical evidence backing our views, Ms. Rankin continued to cite phrases like “anti-racist,” “living experience,” and “my people.” These facts had us concerned about her ability and willingness to fight this cultural war in a leadership capacity. While I respect diversity of thoughts, California Republicans need to elect leaders who are in line with their values.

In fact, counter-cultural conservatives and heterodox thinkers, including Republicans, should do everything they can to stay away from this, when exercising their voting power. Identity politics doesn't work. The outgoing CAGOP Vice Chair Peter Kuo is a glaring example of how identity politics undermines political leadership.

Politics is downstream from culture: taking a firm position against racial spoils and identity balkanization has helped independent candidates flip school board positions even in the state’s more progressive areas. After all, supporting equal opportunity regardless of race is a winning issue for Independent and conservative candidates.

In 2022, Parent Revolt, a new program within CAGOP, did tremendous work to help strong independent candidates win school board campaigns up and down the state!

The overwhelming repudiation of Prop. 16 was part and parcel of a steadily growing bipartisan national consensus against racial preferences. CFER believes that confronting the cultural war requires strong leadership and political willingness, on the part of elected leaders, to engage in open dialogues with stakeholders, especially those with knowledge on the topic.

In this spirit, we want to encourage you to reach out to your local CAGOP delegates to express your concern about how a popular candidate’s weak position on racial preferences can damage the party platform and to demand competent leaders.

As always, CFER, as a watchdog group that monitors relevant policy and political issues, has been fighting to restore America’s traditional, classical liberal values of equality, liberty and merit at the forefront of the cultural war. If you believe in what we do and what we stand for, please consider making a kind donation to us today!