California National Party

California National Party Partido Nacional de California
Abbreviation	CNP
Founded	2015; 9 years ago (2015)
Headquarters	Sacramento, California
Membership (January 2022)	413[1]
Ideology	Californian nationalism‌ Social democracy Environmentalism
Political position	Center-left
Colours	Yellow   Blue
Seats in the U.S. Senate	0 / 2
Seats in the U.S. House	0 / 52
Statewide Executive Offices	0 / 8
Seats in the State Senate	0 / 40
Seats in the State Assembly	0 / 80
Website
www.californianational.party
Politics of California Political parties Elections

The California National Party (CNP; Spanish: Partido Nacional de California^[2]) is a progressive and secessionist political party in the United States. CNP operates within California and supports Californian nationalism.^[3][4] CNP formed in 2015.

CNP's name and purpose are partly inspired by the Scottish National Party, a social democratic, civic nationalist, center-left party that advocates independence for Scotland.^[5][3]

CNP was registered with the California Fair Political Practices Commission, California's equivalent of the Federal Election Commission, in 2019^[6] but not in 2021^[7] or 2023.^[8]

Membership

In January 2022, CNP had 413 registered voters in California.^[1] After April 2022, the Secretary of State no longer listed the CNP in its voter tallies.^[9] To achieve qualified party status, the CNP would need 0.33% of total registered voters, or about 73,000.^[10][11] In May 2022, CNP claimed "a few thousand people" on its email list.^[12]

History

CNP was created in August 2015,^[13] with the intent of creating a political platform centered on California's needs and Californian identity.^[14] CNP filed intent to qualify as a political party on December 7, 2015. The Secretary of State approved this, assigned the code "CNP", and notified county offices of this on January 6, 2016.^[15]

CNP held its first convention in June 2016 in Sacramento, California. CNP elected Theo Slater as Chair, Andria Franco as Vice Chair, and Jed Wheeler (founder of Californians for Independence) as Secretary. In September 2016, CNP merged with Californians for Independence (CfI) and adopted a new platform, based on the CfI platform.^[16]

CNP has distanced itself from Yes California and its founder Louis J. Marinelli and its "Calexit", for its ideology and for its alleged connections to Russia.^[17][14][18] Jed Wheeler, CNP Secretary, stated to Politico that "Yes California is a movement whose optics are all designed for a Russian audience to reinforce Putin" and stressed that CNP is a progressive party.^[19][14]

Ideology

CNP's "core values" are "building and defending California", "fact-based, compassionate policy", "individual rights and social responsibility", "locally-focused political empowerment", and "prosperity for all Californians"^[20] CNP supports greater powers and funding control for local government in California.^[20]

Election results

CNP has fielded electoral candidates for local and state offices. CNP candidates run on the CNP ballot line, rather than as independents or on the Green ballot line.

No CNP candidate has yet won an election.

Statewide elections

Year	Candidate	Office	State	District	Votes	%	Result	Notes	Ref
2021	Michael Loebs	Governor	California	At-Large	25,468	0.35%	Lost	recall election	[21][22][23][24]
2018	Gayle McLaughlin	Lieutenant Governor	California	At-Large	263,364	4.0%	Lost	ran as No Party Preference (NPP) candidate; founder of Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA); endorsed by CNP, DSA, GPCA, OR, PFP, PP, and RPA	[25][26]

State legislature elections

Year	Candidate	Office	State	District	Votes	%	Result	Notes	Ref
2018	Michelle Gomez	Assembly	California	76	0	0%	Lost	did not appear on ballot	[25][26]
2016	Louis J. Marinelli	Assembly	California	80	4,753	6.43%	Lost	all-party blanket primary, did not advance to general; ran as Independent candidate	[27][17]

Local elections

Year	Candidate	Office	City	District	Votes	%	Result	Notes	Ref
2024	Ash Seiter	Board of Supervisors	Inyo County	5th	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	[28][29]
2022	Aaron Reveles	School Board	Montebello	At-Large	7,020	14.17%	Lost	nonpartisan election	[30][31]
2022	Carlos Ovalle	City Council	Long Beach	7	1,770	30.6%	Lost	nonpartisan election	[32][31]
2022	Steven Estrada	City Council	Long Beach	1	441	8.5%	Lost	nonpartisan election	[33]
2020	Scott Schmidt	Los Rios Community College District Trustee	Sacramento	7th	37,476	37%	Lost	nonpartisan election	[34][35]
2018	Micheál O’Leary	Board of Equalization	Los Angeles	3rd	43,084	3.4%	Lost	all-party blanket primary, did not advance to general; ran as Independent	[36][37]

See also

• Secession in the United States
• Partition and secession in California
• California Freedom Coalition
• Yes California
• American Left
• History of the socialist movement in the United States
• Democratic Socialists of America
• Green Party of the United States

References

1. "Registration by Political Bodies Attempting to Qualify by County" (PDF). California Secretary of State. January 4, 2022.
2. "We Build Opportunities – Not Walls!". California National Party. February 2017. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
3. Mike Pearl (17 February 2016). "Meet the California Separatists Leading a New Movement to Secede from the United States". VICE. Archived from the original on 1 April 2016. Retrieved 20 March 2016.
4. Tomlinson, Bill; Torrance, Andrew (2020). "Fault Lines: An Empirical Legal Study of California Secession". Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental & Innovation Law (SJTEIL). 11: 1.
5. Jim Miller. "California could see new political party with independence goal". Sacramento Bee. Archived from the original on 8 March 2016. Retrieved 19 March 2016.
6. "Drawing Schedule: General Purpose Committees 2019". California Fair Political Practices Commission. Archived from the original on 2020-04-12.
7. "Drawing Schedule: General Purpose Committees 2021". California Fair Political Practices Commission. Archived from the original on 2022-02-18.
8. "Drawing Schedule: General Purpose Committees 2023". California Fair Political Practices Commission. Archived from the original on 2024-05-24.
9. "Registration by Political Bodies Attempting to Qualify by County" (PDF). California Secretary of State. April 8, 2022.
10. "Political Party Qualification". Archived from the original on 2014-12-27. Retrieved 2021-05-13.
11. "Historical Voter Registration Statistics for 15-Day Reports" (PDF). elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov. California Secretary of State. August 30, 2021.
12. California National Party (May 19, 2022). "Our email list has a few thousand people. Our Gov. Candidate got around 26,000 votes".
13. Hastings, Tom; Center for Peace and Justice Education at Villanova University (2022). "Most Likely to Secede: Can the US "Go Gorbachev"?". Journal for Peace and Justice Studies. 31 (1): 65–80. doi:10.5840/peacejustice20223114. ISSN 1093-6831.
14. Melia Robinson (31 January 2017). "Californians are calling for a split from the US — but one secessionist group has odd ties to Russia". Business Insider. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
15. "Political Body: California National Party" (PDF). California Secretary of State. 6 January 2016. Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 February 2016. Retrieved 19 March 2016.
16. "The California National Party Platform". California National Party. Archived from the original on 28 March 2017. Retrieved 27 March 2017.
17. Alexei Koseff. "These 578 voters want California to form an independent country". Sacramento Bee. Archived from the original on 2020-04-26. Retrieved 20 March 2016.
18. "Statement on Yes California's Russian Embassy and the Crimean Model". California National Party. 19 December 2016. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
19. Casey Michel (15 January 2017). "Why Russia Loves the Idea of California Seceding". Politico. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
20. "About the California National Party". California National Party. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
21. Ting, Eric (June 18, 2021). "This SFSU lecturer and California secessionist may be Gavin Newsom's most fascinating recall foe". SFGATE.
22. "Official Certified List of Candidates September 14, 2021, California Gubernatorial Recall Election" (PDF). California Secretary of State's Office. July 21, 2021. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-07-22.
23. Weber, Shirley (22 October 2021). "STATEMENT OF VOTE, SEPTEMBER 14, 2021 CALIFORNIA GUBERNATORIAL RECALL ELECTION" (PDF). Office of the California Secretary of State. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
24. Lescure, David (September 28, 2021). "Our Own Michael Loebs gets 25,000 votes for Governor — Now Let's Register More Supporters!". California National Party.
25. "Statewide Direct Primary Election - Statement of the Vote, June 5, 2018" (PDF). California Secretary of State.
26. "Introducing Gayle McLaughlin for California Lieutenant Governor and Michelle Gomez for CA State Assembly, District 76, two candidates that California National Party is proud to endorse". California National Party. January 20, 2018.
27. "Louis J. Marinelli, III". Ballotpedia.
28. "Our candidate for Fifth District, Ash Seiter sits down for an interview". California National Party.
29. "Ash Seiter". Ballotpedia.
30. "General Election November 8, 2022". Los Angeles County.
31. "7TH CNP ANNUAL NATIONAL CONVENTION 2022". California National Party Central Valley.
32. "Carlos Ovalle". Ballotpedia.
33. "Steven Estrada". Ballotpedia.
34. 2020 California National Party Convention, retrieved 2021-07-22
35. "Election Night Results". Sacramento County. Archived from the original on 2020-11-26.
36. "Micheál O'Leary". Ballotpedia.
37. "Here are a couple photos from our meeting of the Los Angeles Chapter of the California National Party". California National Party. February 20, 2018.

External links

• www.californianational.party
  • Archived older website
  • 2020 bylaws