SAN JOSE, Calif. — Mark Meuser is no stranger to uphill battles in California politics. The Republican, running a longshot bid to unseat Sen. Alex Padilla in the deep blue state, is a staunchly conservative lawyer who opposes abortion rights and believes the 2020 presidential election is still unresolved.
In an interview this week with the Bay Area News Group about what motivates him to keep running for office after two previous landslide defeats, Meuser likened his campaign to a Christian missionary spreading the gospel of Republicanism in the “dark continent of Africa.”
“If you wanted to be a missionary, do you go to the Bible Belt? Or do you go to the dark continent of Africa?” Meuser said when asked why he runs in progressive California. “If you want to make the biggest change, and if you want to help the people, you go to where there’s the biggest needs.”
His reference to the “dark continent” sparked condemnation from Democrats and provided what political analysts say is an illustration of why the GOP has been wandering the political desert in the increasingly diverse Golden State for more than a decade.
A Padilla campaign spokesman called it “racist” and “disqualifying.”
“This loyal Trump disciple has shown once again that he is unfit to represent Californians,” Padilla spokesperson Diana Marin-Melo said. “There is no room for this bigotry in our politics or in our country.”
But Harmeet Dhillon, a colleague of Meuser’s at the Dhillon Law Group and a Republican National Committeewoman, said criticism of his phrasing is couched in “modern woke baggage.” In Meuser’s defense, she said Africa “was an unknown, uncharted territory, there were not a lot of Christians there.” She pointed out a 2014 headline in the Economist referred to Africa as a “dark continent” because of its power shortages and a 2008 instance when an NPR reporter apologized for her use of the phrase.
She said the analogy characterized how Meuser is a political maverick offering voters a Republican option in a state controlled by a Democratic super-majority. He is “not going where it’s easy,” Dhillon said, “but going where it’s hard.”
While both candidates are residents of Los Angeles County — Meuser in Pasadena and Padilla in nearby Pacoima — their politics could not be farther apart.
Padilla, the former secretary of state, is the son of immigrants from Mexico whose life story is held up by Democrats as a vision for a progressive California helmed by a diverse coalition of voters. In his nearly two years filling Vice President Kamala Harris’s vacated Senate seat, Padilla has focused on priorities that poll well with the majority of Californians: immigration reform, COVID-19 response, wildfire preparedness and expanding voting access.
“If Republicans regain the majority (in Congress), you can kiss away immigration reform, kiss away an aggressive attack on climate change,” Padilla said. “You can forget about ensuring your voting rights.”
Meuser has a nearly two-decade career in law. He attended Oak Brook Christian, a correspondence college, which trains religiously-minded attorneys “who desire to advance the gospel” through their work. In one case Meuser won an airline passenger the right to sue United Airlines under the Americans with Disabilities Act. He also spearheaded an unsuccessful attempt to virtually ban abortions in Colorado under the state constitution.
Now he is back at it in California, where he has lost elections for an East Bay state Senate seat in 2012 and for secretary of state in 2018 against the incumbent — none other than Padilla. In both elections, Meuser lost by more than 20 percentage points.
But in recent years Meuser’s stature has grown among Republicans as he fought California’s COVID-19 lockdowns and vaccine mandates. His campaign platform includes being involved in 22 lawsuits against Newsom, and Meuser’s social media is rife with anti-vaccination content.
“That is one of the reasons why I am running for U.S. Senate. Because I saw what happened during COVID,” said Meuser. “This unelected bureaucracy gaining way too much power.”
Will his recent comments make any difference for Meuser or his party?
Bruce Hall, a UC Berkeley professor of African history, said the “dark continent” analogy is steeped in a racialized 19th-century European worldview that saw African people as “racially inferior” and paved the way for brutal colonialism on the continent. “They basically start to think of Africa as irredeemable, even as they try to Christianize them,” said Hall. “It feeds into the same denigration of Africa. … It’s a view that justified all kinds of inequality, violence and colonialism.”
Political analysts pointed to Meuser’s comment as symbolic of a California Republican party that has turned its focus away from key statewide races increasingly giving space to hardline conservatives prone to “self-immolate.”
“We’re seeing a fundamental disregard for the social standing and the moral worth of others,” said Desmond Jagmohan, a political science professor at UC Berkeley. “The Republicans have not been able to field a Senate candidate that even takes himself seriously.”
Dan Schnur, a former GOP consultant and USC professor, rejected Meuser’s phrasing but argued that his sentiment is likely shared by longshot candidates across the political spectrum.
“Committed Democrats running in southern Orange County probably feel the same way, even if they use different language,” he said. “In most cases, you have self-described true believers who believe it’s their job to convert the unconverted.”
Despite Meuser’s — and his fellow Republicans’ — track record of landslide defeats, Dhillon insists the repeated losses at the ballot box do not mean Meuser will never win in California.
“Lincoln lost elections before he became president,” she said.
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