Polling released by the Public Policy Institute of California ahead of the election showed Xavier Becerra with a commanding lead in the Governor's race, with 61% of likely voters supporting Becerra compared to just 37% for Steve Hilton.[1] As I'm writing this, I don't yet know the results of the 2026 California election. Maybe things turned out far better than the polling anticipated! But that 24-point gap gives us reason to prepare for the possibility that things didn't go our way, at least when it comes to the Governor's office.
Regardless of what happens in that particular race, we know that not every proposition, every legislative seat, or every local measure will produce the outcomes conservatives were hoping for. Which means that, on some level, conservatives are going to have to reckon with a measure of disappointment.
Elections bring out a lot of different emotions for conservatives in California. There’s the hope and excitement of finally having an opportunity to make our voices heard, to see meaningful change, and to move our state in a better direction! But there's also the anger, disappointment, and even despondency when we don't see those hopes become a reality. And so, as we wake up the day after the election, you might be asking yourself: What happens next?
What happens when we do everything we can to change California, and California still doesn't change?
That's the question I want to address today. My hope is that by the end of this article, you'll walk away with a renewed sense of purpose and a grounded hope in knowing that your political engagement is not for nothing…even when it feels like it is.
Disappointment is Real and Good
I want to start by saying that it is completely justified to feel disappointed, sad, and even angry about election results when they don't reflect what we believe is true or good for our state. Now, I want to reiterate that I don't yet know the election results as I'm writing this. Maybe they turned out far better than polling anticipated! However, it's unlikely that every race went the way of conservatives, and so there will almost certainly be some measure of disappointment.
We had a lot of opportunities to make our state better on this year's ballot. Think Steve Hilton for Governor, Proposition 39 for Voter ID, and Proposition 45 for CEQA reform. We also had plenty of opportunities to make our state much worse. This included Xavier Becerra for Governor, Proposition 40 for the wealth tax, and countless new bonds, taxes, and financial burdens on California taxpayers. As I think about the possibility of walking into 2027 with Xavier Becerra as Governor, a lifelong loyal Democrat who seems to have only ever failed upward, or with a host of new taxes imposed on us, making our lives even more expensive than they already are, I think it's right to acknowledge that those would be terrible outcomes.
I am not going to lie to you or sugarcoat those possibilities. If that's what happened, then I think we need to be honest about what that means. The next several years may bring more of the same policies and political decisions that have made California increasingly difficult to live in. That is something worth grieving. You are allowed to feel disappointed, angry, and frustrated at having to reckon with the reality that the conditions around us may continue to decline. In fact, I think it's important that we do.
We should never bury our heads in the sand or become so preoccupied with “looking on the bright side” that we forget to lament evil and brokenness. We should be grieved when we see unrighteousness prevail, when people are deceived, when injustice is celebrated, and when decisions are made that harm our neighbors. We should never become so desensitized to the brokenness around us that we no longer recognize it or mourn it. There is something deeply important about refusing to become indifferent to the things that are wrong in our state.
But, as always, I want to challenge your thinking. As justified as disappointment is, I don't want us to confuse disappointment with defeat. When we allow ourselves to become defeated, we often conclude that because we didn't get the political outcomes we hoped for, our efforts were wasted. I don't believe that's the case.
That belief stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of why we engage in politics in the first place. Now, I regularly make the argument that voting matters because it is one of the greatest privileges and rights we have in this country, because participation is a responsibility, and because it is an opportunity to make your voice heard. I deeply believe all those things. But none of those reasons should lead us to conclude that achieving a particular political outcome is the only reason to engage in politics.
In fact, I would argue that if we rightly understand why we engage in politics, it will fundamentally inform both how we engage and how we continue to engage, even in the face of great disappointment. With that, I want to give you two much more fundamental reasons why we have a responsibility to remain engaged in politics in California, even when our engagement produces no measurable societal change.
Exposing the Works of Darkness
The first and most important reason for staying informed and involved in the politics around us is rooted in Ephesians 5:11, which says, “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.”
We cannot ignore injustice, wickedness, dishonesty, and moral darkness when they are happening around us. Most of the time, when I write or speak about a new law passed in California, a report issued on government fraud, or any number of other issues – I don't have a particularly actionable call to give you. I can encourage you to write to your representatives, because we have that privilege in America and we should use it. I can encourage you to tell others about what is happening. But I cannot give you a simple set of steps to roll back laws that have already been passed by our legislature. I cannot guarantee that when you vote for different representatives in the future, they will actually be elected.
But here's the thing about evil: there is great importance in exposing it, even when we cannot immediately stop it. And yes, I mean true evil. It is evil to take children from their parents in the name of gender ideology. It is evil to pass laws that target journalists for exposing fraud and the abuse of taxpayer money. It is evil to enshrine abortion through all nine months of pregnancy into our state's constitution. These are not simply political disagreements or differences in policy preference. They are moral issues, and we should be willing to call them what they are.
Wrongdoing thrives in darkness. Those responsible for it would much rather have the public looking the other way! Gavin Newsom would certainly prefer that everyone sing his praises and gloss over his failures. But when we expose wrongdoing, when we make it known in our churches, in our communities, and across our state, we refuse to let it thrive uncontested. We refuse to let it become so normalized that people no longer recognize it for what it is.
There is a moral purpose in bringing bad public policies and harmful legislation into the light of public conversation and scrutiny. Sometimes that exposure will lead to reform. Sometimes reform will take time, requiring the faithfulness of several generations to slowly change the hearts and minds of the culture around them. And yes, sometimes we will not see or experience that reform in our own lifetime. But the absence of immediate change does not make honest scrutiny pointless. It does not make telling the truth a wasted effort.
Galatians 6:9 tells us not to “grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” Micah 6:8 tells us that the Lord requires us to “do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” We are called to do these things regardless of the culture around us. Our responsibility to pursue what is good and right does not disappear when the culture rejects it, and it does not depend on whether we see the results we hoped for. We are called to be faithful and to trust God with the outcomes.
That brings me to something we need to remember, especially when the political landscape feels so discouraging. Do you believe that God has ultimate power and authority over the world He created, California included? Or do you really think that one state, one governor, or one election could thwart His purposes? Isaiah 40:17 says, “All the nations are as nothing before Him, they are accounted by Him as less than nothing and emptiness.” Verses 22 and 23 of that same chapter go on to say:
“It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.”
The people who hold political power today are not beyond God's authority. Neither are the institutions, governments, or cultural forces that seem so immovable to us. He is sovereign over all of it. So, when God tells us to keep doing what is good, to refuse to participate in darkness, and to expose it – we should do exactly that. We do not need to know how or when the culture will change in order to be faithful today. When He tells us not to grow weary, I am going to believe Him. Because He is the God who sits above the earth, who brings princes to nothing, and who remains sovereign over every outcome.
Doing What is Right
Which leads to the second reason for staying engaged in politics, and that is because faithfulness to what is morally good and true is our primary responsibility, no matter how many people agree with it or not.
If you think about it, we don’t really have an alternative. We ask ourselves, what are we going to do now? But the answer to that question is very simple: we are going to keep doing what we have been doing. Whether 100% or if 1% of my fellow Californians agree with me doesn’t change if what I am saying or advocating for is true.
Think about other areas of your life, outside of politics, where this is the case. When I was working in public accounting, I encountered situations where I was expected to sign off on work that I didn't believe was accurate or adequately supported. If you've ever worked in an environment like public accounting, where there's pressure to get something across the finish line, you can likely understand the tension that pressure creates. Sometimes it's easier to just go along with what everyone else has decided. Sometimes raising concerns doesn't change anything. But regardless, if you commit to having integrity in your work, that means you continue to ask questions and dig into the work that you are putting your name on.
If you discover your company is participating in unethical practices, your integrity requires you to remove yourself from that. Sometimes everyone goes along with it as a well-known fact – and your leaving that company doesn’t change or shut down the company! But it changes you. It preserves your integrity. It’s the right thing to do, regardless of the outcome.
We need to apply that same principle to politics. If we believe that a law is unjust, that a policy is harmful, or that our elected officials are acting dishonestly, then we have a responsibility to speak up and oppose those things. If something is wrong, it's still wrong when the majority supports it. Abortion is still murder even though 60% of Americans in 2026 say it should be legal in all or most cases.[2] Race-based, harsh slavery practices that dehumanized African Americans in our country was still morally wrong even though it was legal in our country for decades.[3]
Our responsibility is to remain faithful to what is true, to speak up when something is wrong, and to continue advocating for what is good. Of course we are going to care about the outcomes. We should work toward better laws, better leadership, and a better future for California! But whether we achieve those things or not does not determine whether our efforts were worthwhile. We are ultimately responsible for our faithfulness.
A More Durable Hope
So, here’s the thing: I cannot promise you that California will turn around in the next few elections, or that a conservative candidate will eventually win. I would like that very much! But I can’t promise that to you. Instead, all I can do is offer you a more durable kind of hope: the belief that doing what is right remains worth doing no matter the circumstances. You need to center yourself on that hope, because if the results go the way the polling predicted, we have a tough next few years ahead of us. But I need you to stay committed, to remain informed, to keep speaking out, and to hold out hope for a better future.
We fight for the ability for average citizens to live their lives, free of government overreach. We fight for the parents who want to raise their children in line with their religious values and beliefs. We fight for the babies who are being murdered en mass in the womb. We fight for the children in foster care, who need loving parents who can teach them what is right and protect them from the radical ideology of the state. We fight for the churches who preach against what our state would seek to require them to believe. We fight for the women who are lied to and told that pursuing sex without consequences and careers without marriage is the most fulfilling end. We fight for the teenagers who are uncomfortable in their bodies and are preyed upon by radical gender theory. We fight for families pushed into living beyond their means, or below the poverty line, because of the outrageous cost of living and taxes. We fight for the homeless and drug addicted who need to take accountability and responsibility for their choices rather than lied to out of toxic empathy. We fight for taxpayer who faithfully and legally pays their taxes and watches it wasted and abused by their government. We fight for the truth – and the truth remains, no matter who believes or disbelieves it.
So, keep showing up here with me. Keep speaking the truth. Keep exposing the works of darkness. Keep doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with the God of the Bible. Do not grow weary of doing good, and don't allow political disappointment today to turn into political apathy tomorrow.
References:
[1] Ordaz, Leticia. “New California Poll Shows Record Pessimism Ahead of Election Day, Wide Lead in Governor’s Race.” KCRA, October 28, 2026. https://www.kcra.com/article/ppic-election-day-poll-governors-race-lead/74274575.
[2] Pew Research Center. “Public Opinion on Abortion,” March 12, 2026. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/fact-sheet/public-opinion-on-abortion/.
[3] “Slavery in America - Timeline - Jim Crow Museum,” n.d. https://jimcrowmuseum.ferris.edu/timeline/slavery.htm.
