Far outnumbered, Sonoma County Republicans rejoice in Donald Trump’s election

Dan Ramirez, a Petaluma Republican who stayed up late Tuesday night, was thrilled to see his candidate, Donald Trump, chosen the 45th president of the United States.

“I believe he’s really the one who’s going to get things done and done rapidly,” said Ramirez, 62, a retiree who worked in law enforcement and real estate. “I think Donald Trump speaks from his heart. He’s not a politician.”

Ramirez was among tens of thousands of voters who gave Trump just over 22 percent of the ballots cast for president in a deep-blue county that went for Democrat Hillary Clinton by nearly 70 percent and hasn’t backed a Republican for the White House since Ronald Reagan in 1984.

Since Republicans account for only 20 percent of the county’s 273,432 registered voters, Trump earned a modest number of crossover votes, which analysts attributed to independents, who outnumber Republicans with 22  percent of the electorate, and a smattering of disaffected Democrats.

Ramirez was all-in for Trump, who he expects to appoint conservative Supreme Court justices, protect gun owners’ rights, support a strong military and “clean up a lot of the corruption in politics - period.”

He also thinks Trump will make good on his campaign promise to build a wall at the Mexican border to halt illegal immigration and the flow of drugs into the United States.

Sonoma County Republicans are a diverse group: wealthy and working class, professionals, tradespeople, educators and salespeople, young and old, minorities and whites.

“Now we’ve become the adorable deplorables,” joked Edelweiss Geary, chairwoman of the Sonoma County Republican Party, using Clinton’s ill-chosen “basket of deplorables” characterization of Trump supporters.

Local Republicans are also accustomed to life in the shadow of a Democratic monolith that dominates politics - with 53 percent of the registered electorate - and culture. Democrats have had a vice grip on legislative and congressional seats representing the region for decades and races for those seats are seldom competitive.

It a rare Republican who posts a GOP campaign sign at their home, and political talk is often reserved for gatherings of the like-minded, Geary said.

That was the case Tuesday night, when about 45 party leaders had a fine time “yelling, eating and drinking” at an election watch party at a Santa Rosa restaurant, she said. In 2012, fewer than a dozen ate quickly and went home as Barack Obama secured his re-election early in the evening.

Although the mainstream media and most polls consistently forecast a Clinton victory, Geary said she had a feeling they were missing the mark. Trump rallies drew huge crowds, and people came by the local GOP headquarters to buy campaign materials.

“They were absolutely fired up,” Geary said of Trump’s showdown against Clinton. “Absolutely committed to keeping her out of the White House.”

Not all Republicans were enamored with Trump, however.

Ellen O’Neel of Santa Rosa, who described herself as “conservative by nature,” said she voted for Trump “with trepidation.” His sometimes-coarse campaign rhetoric had her wondering how well he would fit in the White House, but ultimately she voted to keep Clinton away from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

“I have no problem with a woman president, but it can’t be Hillary Clinton,” she said.

O’Neel, 78, said she was enthralled with John F. Kennedy and the Camelot aura of his presidency in the early 1960s, but has voted Republican ever since. Trump’s appeal a half century later, she said, represents a backlash against politics and government under eight years of a Democratic administration.

“They’re boasting they they’ve done so much, (but) then how are so many people in dire straits?” O’Neel said.

Linda Duncan of Santa Rosa said she leaned toward Texas Sen. Ted Cruz early in the primary election, then latched onto Trump as she determined he was the only Republican who could “fight the Clinton machine.”

Duncan, a 78-year-old retired teacher’s aide, said she has always voted for the GOP presidential candidate. Trump’s wealth frees him from special interests, she said, and his business acumen suggested he could handle economic issues.

“I like somebody who is truly an outsider,” she said, adding that she nevertheless was repelled by some of his inflammatory comments, disparaging people of color, women and immigrants. “There were many times when I was screaming at the television,” she said.

Watching the election returns come in Tuesday night was nerve-wracking, Duncan said, admitting that she would not have bet on Trump’s chances. The outcome was rewarding.

“I’m thrilled,” Duncan said. “I really did see this as a make or break election. We need to put the American people first and we haven’t been doing that.”

Greg Karraker of Penngrove said he had mixed feelings about Trump in the spring, and swerved away as the campaign progressed.

“I didn’t want to see the conservative cause destroyed for 20 years,” he said.

Karraker, 70, a local advertising company owner, said he felt Clinton would do equal damage to the Democratic Party’s future so he cast a write-in vote without a person’s name attached.

“I had the luxury of voting my conscience,” he said, because California was a lock to support Clinton, which it did with 62 percent of Tuesday’s vote.

Karraker noted Trump fared worse in Sonoma County than his Republican predecessors, Mitt Romney and John McCain, who earned 25 percent of the vote in 2012 and 24 percent in 2008, respectively.

Herb Williams, a Democrat who voted for Clinton and a Santa Rosa political consultant, said Trump’s success was founded on pervasive dissatisfaction that transcended party lines.

“Who have you talked to in the last 24 months that’s happy with government? No one,” said Williams, 80.

Trump’s unabashed claim that he was smart to have avoided paying taxes “resonated with a lot of people,” he said. “Hillary wasn’t talking their language.”

Duncan and O’Neel said they’re a bit uncertain how Trump will perform as the leader of the free world, but Ramirez has no doubts.

Trump will appoint a solid cabinet and “listen to the people he puts there,” Ramirez said. “Donald Trump always wants to win.”

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 707-521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @guykovner