Rob Bonta wins another term as California AG

All right, here's a look at the Attorney General race. It has been called for the incumbent, Rob Bonta, 65% to Michael Gates, the former Huntington Beach City attorney. And Gates is speaking live from Huntington Beach right now. Let's take you there live. To fight for safe neighborhoods, to fight the corruption in government, this is an opportunity. But we've got to do this in 2028. Now, it didn't happen in 2026, but it will happen, mark my words, in 2028. We can do this. Keep fighting forward. Don't lose the faith. You've got to keep the faith. We can fight forward, ladies and gentlemen. We can do this. So thank you all very much. Thank you for the support. Thank you. All right, there you have it. We just caught the final remarks from Michael Gates, again, former city attorney there in Huntington Beach. This is a small gathering in Huntington Beach. Christy Fajardo is the reporter on assignment. I just want to check to see. There she is. Christy, can you hear me? And Mr. Gates is right behind you. I'm not sure if you're going to get a one-on-one with him, but we welcome it if you are. Sure. Hi, Mr. Gates. We're actually live on Fox 11. I know that you just addressed your supporters and you saw the projections, your reaction. Well, I mean, California looks a lot like the rest of the country and on many of the races where there was an unexpected slaughter. I mean, it was not good. You can't, there's no way to put it, no other way to put it. California, the margins of the victories was much greater than any of the polling suggested. So something is happening across the nation, something's happening in California. And all I can say is people have got to keep the faith. I mean, those, look. There's 40 million people in the state of California. There's 23 million registered voters in works. We'll wait for the final numbers, but maybe only about 12 to 13 million people voted in the first place. And the majority of that is, what, 6.5 million people are determining the fate of California with 40 million people. That's not a high rate of participation. We have got to get people participating in our elections. We've got to get better candidates running. We've got to get people voting. And we've got to take matters into our own hands in California. To allow this low participation to determine the outcome of the state is not healthy for democracy, representative democracy. It's not healthy for the state of California. And you mentioned the national trend. Do you believe that a Republican can win here in the state of California? I think a Republican can win in the state of California. That's what I do. What candidates in California need to stop doing is playing this party politics. If you're a Republican in California with Republican registration so low relative to the Democrat registration, you can't keep running as a Republican. And that's one of the things that I was critical of the Hilton campaign, Steve Hilton campaign about. He constantly kept running as a Republican and saying the Republicans, people need to vote Republican for a change. No, it's not about party. Look, when people want lower gas prices. When people don't want to pay $7 a gallon, when people want lower crime, when people want to fight corruption, hold people accountable, those are nonpartisan issues. Those aren't Republican issues. Those aren't Democrat issues. Those are everyday Californian issues. And so candidates, if you're listening, future candidates, you have got to not make it about party. You've got to make it about the issues because there are people suffering in California. From high gas prices, high income taxes, high crime, high rates of homelessness, high levels of corruption, and then people want to talk party politics when it comes to the campaign. During my campaign, I never mentioned the word Republican or Democrat. Why? Because all of the issues I was fighting for were nonpartisan issues. It was meant to restore law and order to California, to reduce the suffering, reduce the corruption, reduce the crime. These are everyday issues for everyday Californians. These are nonpartisan issues. So in California, to answer your question, yes, a Republican can win, but how do they do that? Stop talking about party politics. Stop it. And you did work for the Trump administration as assistant deputy U.S. attorney. Do you think that hurt you in this campaign? No, I didn't see much that was made of that. I didn't see any campaigning about that. So I don't know if that had anything to do with anything. I worked as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice in the Civil Rights Division, and so I know a lot of people in California relate to the civil rights issues or are concerned about civil rights issues. So if given the opportunity to talk about my experience in Washington, D.C., I think people would see, hey, he was fighting for everyday Californians, he was fighting for everyday people across the nation and their civil rights. So I think in that respect, I think a lot of people would actually be proud of the work that I did for the Trump administration.