California National Party

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.

California National Party Partido Nacional de California
Abbreviation	CNP
Founded	2015; 10 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

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