GOP's Future Could Be Californian

A revived and more electable GOP could be on its way to the White House by way of California, writes David Frum. Ronald Reagan's state turned blue in the '90s as its economy and demographics changed, causing Texas to replace California as the party's anchor. The Texas-led GOP found it much harder to win over the rest of the country, but a new generation of Republican leadership is rising in the west, Frum writes at CNN.

Meg Whitman will be a likely presidential candidate for 2016 if she wins the governorship, Frum writes, and either candidate vying to be the first Republican senator California has elected since 1988 will bring a strong and distinctive voice to the caucus. California's Republicans are poised to "impart to Reagan's former party his message of hope, optimism, and conservative reform," he concludes. (More Republican Party stories.)