BURLINGAME, California — California Republican state Senator Joel Anderson, who endorsed GOP frontrunner Donald Trump on Friday when he introduced the billionaire at a sold out luncheon that kicked off the California GOP Convention, spoke exclusively to Breitbart News about the Trump campaign’s strategy in California.
“A lot of the Trump people left because our campaign is one in the streets, not at the convention,” Anderson said of the mood at the convention on Saturday, taking a jab at Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) right off the bat.
There was noticeably more Trump supporters at the gathering on Friday to see the billionaire than were present on Saturday. Cruz supporters mostly dominated the area as Cruz spoke during Saturday’s lunch, which was sold out as well.
“I’m glad that Cruz has used all his signs for this location. Our signs are out in the districts where people vote,” Anderson again jabbed, referencing the decked out walls of Cruz signs.
.@tedcruz signs out in full as you enter the #CAGOPConvention #cagop @BreitbartNews pic.twitter.com/a1nkjCrKPI
— Alex Swoyer, esq. (@ASwoyer) April 29, 2016
Breitbart News then asked which districts Trump will be spending the most time in while campaigning in the Golden State ahead of the primary on June 7th, but instead of laying out a specific ground game, Anderson differentiated Trump’s campaign strategy from that of Cruz.
“Trump is not like any other candidate. You can’t think of it in those terms,” Anderson began. “We gave a 48 hour notice to have a rally in Orange County, 31,000 people RSVP’d.” He went on:
He is not the same. While Cruz has to think linearly, and you know Cruz has started nine months ago and he barely has two people to rub together here. When you look at Trump, everywhere he goes is a mob of supporters and so I don’t think we’re going to look at it in the same way that you would look at a traditional candidate that’s boring and dull.
“Last couple weeks we had a central committee meeting in San Diego and Cruz was the speaker and they had a big rally and they advertised it for almost a month in advance and fewer than 3,000 people showed up, in contrast to Trump who gave 48 hours notice and over ten times as many people showed up organically,” Anderson said, touting Trump’s ability to swell massive support on short notice. “And we don’t know if they’re Republicans or Democrats or Independents because it doesn’t matter because Trump is going to represent everybody.”
Anderson said he thinks jobs is a key issue for Trump supporters:
The biggest thing and the reason why everyone I talk to is supporting Trump is because they’re underemployed or unemployed and they just want to go back to work. They want a level playing field. They want to make America great again and they want to work hard. They understand Trump owes no one and he’s not going to cow down to the Washington elites. He’s not going to have all these people coming out and try to game the system. He’s going to earn it because the people support him and they understand that he doesn’t care. He just wants to make America great again.
Anderson represents the 38th District in California, which is rural. The Times of San Diego describe it as “heavily Republican.”
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