As former President Donald Trump prepares to hold a rally near Coachella, California, on October 12, recent polling data shows he could break his own record for futility in the Golden State.
At a news conference in September while visiting his National Golf Club in Ranchos Palos Verdes for a fundraiser, Trump called California “a mess” and blasted Vice President Kamala Harris and Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom over their handling of immigration, crime and local elections.
How to Watch Trump’s Coachella Rally
Trump is scheduled to speak Saturday at 5 p.m. PST, with doors opening at 12 p.m. at Calhoun Ranch near Coachella.
The event is open to the public, with online registration available through Trump’s campaign website.
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“Under Kamala Harris and her dangerous Democrat allies like Tim Walz, the notorious ‘California Dream’ has turned into a nightmare for everyday Americans,” states the campaign email announcing the event. “Californians are suffocating under rising prices for everything from groceries to housing, thanks to Kamalanomics.”
Newsweek contacted the Trump and Harris campaigns via email on Monday for comment.
Trump’s coming appearance at Calhoun Ranch marks his first public event in the Coachella Valley since a private fundraiser in 2020.
Trump’s Polling in California
According to FiveThirtyEight’s polling average for California, updated on October 7, 2024, Trump trails Vice President Kamala Harris by a substantial margin. The data shows Harris leading with 59.7 percent support compared to Trump’s 34.8 percent, giving the incumbent a 24.9 percentage point advantage.
The most recent survey included in FiveThirtyEight’s average, conducted by the University of Southern California and California State University Long Beach Center for Urban Politics and Policy from September 12-25, shows Harris leading Trump 58 percent to 36 percent among 1,685 likely voters.
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An ActiVote survey conducted from August 21 to September 21 among 400 likely voters found Harris leading Trump 64 percent to 36 percent. A Capitol Weekly poll from September 11-16, sampling 1,054 likely voters, showed Harris ahead 59 percent to 34 percent.
California’s political landscape has shifted dramatically over the past few decades. Once a reliable Republican stronghold in presidential elections from 1952 through 1988, except for Barry Goldwater’s loss in 1964, the state has become increasingly Democratic.
Trump’s performance in the 2016 election set a low bar for Republican candidates in California. He received 31.62 percent of the vote, the worst showing for a Republican presidential nominee in the state since 1856. Hillary Clinton won California with 61.73 percent of the vote, a margin of 30.11 percent and a vote difference of over 4.2 million.
Despite California being the most populous state, it only delivered Trump his third-largest vote count in 2016, behind Florida and Texas. Clinton’s victory marked the first time a Democrat had won Orange County since 1936, and only the fourth time in U.S. history that a Republican was elected president without carrying California.
In the 2020 election, President Joe Biden won California by approximately 30 points over Donald Trump, marking the fourth consecutive presidential election where the Democratic nominee secured over 60 percent of the vote in the state.
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With 54 electoral votes, California remains a crucial prize in presidential elections, despite losing one electoral vote after the 2020 Census. The state still commands more than 10 percent of the total 538 electoral votes.
Trump’s visit is already drawing attention from backers and opponents. In 2020, his fundraiser in Rancho Mirage attracted dozens of supporters to greet him at Palm Springs International Airport, while hundreds of foes held a counterprotest near the venue.
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, on September 13. Trump returns to California for a rally… Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, on September 13. Trump returns to California for a rally in Coachella on October 12. (Photo by Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)
California air quality officials have sued four truck manufacturers for breaching a voluntary agreement to follow the state’s nation-leading emissions rules, the state announced Tuesday.
What happened: Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office filed a complaint Monday in Alameda County Superior Court, arguing that the country’s four largest truck-makers — Daimler Truck North America, International Motors, Paccar and Volvo North America — violated an enforceable contract that they signed with the California Air Resources Board in 2023.
The lawsuit comes two months after the manufacturers filed their own complaint in federal court, arguing the agreement — known as the Clean Truck Partnership — is no longer valid after Republicans overturned California’s Advanced Clean Truck rule in June through the Congressional Review Act.
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Why it matters: The move sets up a fight to determine whether the federal system or state courts — where CARB would have a higher likelihood of prevailing — will review the case.
California, along with other states, has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Secretary Brooke Rollins for halting SNAP benefits, cutting off food aid for over 41 million Americans, according to Attorney General Rob Bonta.
About 85% of elementary schools studied in California experienced some loss of trees between 2018 and 2022, according to a paper from the University of California, Davis, published this month in the journal Urban Forestry and Urban Greening.
Members of the UC Davis Urban Science Lab found that while the average decline was less than 2%, some districts in the Central Valley — including schools with few trees to lose — lost up to a quarter of their tree cover. The most severe losses were concentrated in Tulare County, while the most notable gains were found in Imperial County.
This map, figure 2B from the study, illustrates the net change in tree canopy cover at urban school districts between 2018 and 2022. Canopy losses tended to cluster in the Central Valley and parts of Southern California. (UC Davis)
The findings are troubling as climate change will likely intensify extreme heat and drought conditions. The study underscores an urgent need to improve tree canopy in low-shade, high-need schools and to protect existing tree cover in areas facing loss.
“We are trying to measure to what extent we are exposing kids to temperatures that might be stressing their body to a level that becomes uncomfortable or dangerous,” said Alessandro Ossola, an associate professor of plant sciences who directs the Urban Science Lab at UC Davis.
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The team continued the research this past summer at elementary schools across the state, measuring tree canopies and maximum temperatures at playgrounds, basketball courts, soccer fields and other outdoor spaces.
UC Davis researchers discovered California school playgrounds are hitting a scorching 120°F heat index. Watch as they use high-tech sensors and a roving cart named MaRTyna to measure extreme heat across elementary schools. (Jael Mackendorf/UC Davis)
Tree canopies cover only about 4% to 6% of the average California school campus. That means the roughly 5.8 million K-12 public school students in California often take breaks and participate in outdoor activities under the glaring sun.
As part of the work, researchers mapped tree cover and heat over the course of a hot day at schools in inland and coastal areas of Northern and Southern California.
UC Davis student Tyler Reece Wakabayashi works with MaRTyna, a roving cart that measures information related to mean radiant temperature and other data points. (Jael Mackendorf /UC Davis)
The research is a joint effort with UC Davis, UC Berkeley and UCLA and is funded by the U.S. Forest Service and supported by the nonprofit Green Schoolyards America through its California Schoolyard Tree Canopy study.
“Most schools are actually a nature desert, which is antithetical because we know that early life exposure of humans to nature is critical for them to develop skills, improve their microbiome, become more environmentally active and so on,” Ossola said. “Trees are a hidden asset and an underutilized asset.”
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This news release is adapted from a longer article from the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Read their full feature story, “Researchers Measure Schoolyard Heat One Step at a Time.”
