How can Republicans win back Orange County, Calif.?

[Suburbia]

A longtime Republican Party and conservative bastion, voting for the Republican Party presidential candidates from 1940 to 2012, until that Republican streak was broken when Democrat Hillary Clinton won the OC by 8 points.

How do Republicans win the conservative bastion of Orange back? It's the equivalent of Dane, WI, Montclair, NJ.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-election-aftermath-updates-trail-orange-county-turns-1478716018-htmlstory.html

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-orange-county-20161101-story.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_County,_California#Politics

[Suburbia]

A longtime Republican Party and conservative bastion, voting for the Republican Party presidential candidates from 1940 to 2012, until that Republican streak was broken when Democrat Hillary Clinton won the OC by 8 points.

How do Republicans win the conservative bastion of Orange back? It's the equivalent of Dane, WI, Montclair, NJ.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-election-aftermath-updates-trail-orange-county-turns-1478716018-htmlstory.html

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-orange-county-20161101-story.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_County,_California#Politics

Sorry, when were either of Dane or Montclair considered conservative? I'm legitimately lost on this comparison. Orange is nowhere near as left as those areas, nor were they ever as conservative as Orange was just 4 years ago. Mad Men even shouted out Montclair as the faux-hemian Mecca of the mid-60s.

Anyway, I assume you mean President, since Orange can still be considered extremely R at the state level. It was R+31 for Kashkari in 2014. (I'd like to see more data from other statewides to confirm this.)

Orange remains easily winnable for a Republican presidential candidate, even in a close national race. Just takes a better candidate for the wealthy cosmopolitan suburbs than Trump (or a worse one than Clinton, like Sanders). Romney still won Orange by 6 and Bush won by 20.

I think Rubio, Haley, Kasich, Romney would all be expected to carry the county in 2020 or 2024. A more evangelical candidate like Pence, Cruz, or Sasse could still win OC depending on their message and opponent.

It does also hurt that CA at large is a vote sink for the party. There's just no reason to campaign in California, even in the pockets like Orange County that have a ton of conservative voters. There are probably more conservatives in California than in any state other than Texas, but there's no reason to get them out to vote for President. Part of the reason Bush ran up the score to 20 in 2004 was that he at least made a play for CA, if only for the show prize of winning the national vote after losing it in 2000.

I'd like to see a study that checks if California has more extreme swings than the rest of the country, and if those swings have become more extreme in recent elections. I would think that increased national coverage of Election Night on TV and online might exaggerate the swing toward Democrats in California in 2008 and 2012, if not 2016. Big wins for Obama before the CA polls closed probably evaporated turnout for McCain and Romney.

Anyway, that's a lot of words to say: run a better candidate.

What I mean it is like liberal Dane and Montclair.