New O.C. GOP chair lauds ‘good competent conservative governance’ pushing back on state, calls on grassroots candidates to seek office

The Orange County Republican Party’s new chairman, former Newport Beach Mayor Will O’Neill, believes “good competent conservative governance” can bring voters back to the GOP who are put off by unpopular policies championed by liberal lawmakers in Sacramento.

To accomplish that, the party will need to “recruit candidates from communities who reflect the community’s values,” O’Neill told the Daily Pilot during an interview at the Upper Newport Bay Nature Preserve Thursday. He said bringing grassroots leaders who are already advocating for their neighbors to the forefront of the O.C. GOP will be his focus as the head of the organization.

“The truth is, the face of the party is always the person knocking on a door and asking someone for a vote,” said O’Neill, who was elected to his new role on Jan. 13. “... Ideal candidates at the local level are people who are already doing the work. Sometimes they’re coaches in Little League. Sometimes they’re Rotarians. Sometimes they’re working in the PTA.”

New Orange County GOP Chairman Will O’Neill says people like Little League coaches and others well known in their communities are needed to step up to further conservative causes.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

O’Neill won what wound up being the first contested race for the chairman’s seat since 2011. He enters the role as Republicans trail Democrats in Orange County by about 40,800 registered voters, according to the county registrar’s office.

That shift in what had traditionally been known as a Republican stronghold in deep blue California happened around 2019, after a wave of Democratic challengers won upset victories in the previous year’s midterms. Since then Orange County has become a battleground, with Democrat Derek Tran’s ousting of longtime Republican incumbent Michelle Steele from her seat in the House of Representatives documented as one of the most expensive campaigns in the country in 2024.

Regaining an advantage over Democrats at the polls will mean rebuilding trust with Orange County’s more than 3.1 million residents, O’Neill said. He believes Republicans are already accomplishing this at the local level by enacting conservative policies that focus on the needs and desires of their constituents. He pointed to the Huntington Beach and Newport Beach city councils, which are now both comprised entirely of conservative-leaning members following November’s general election.

New Huntington Beach Mayor Pat Burns, third from left in the front row, flashes the “shakra” with his conservative supporters at City Hall on Dec. 3, 2024.

(James Carbone)

“If every day all we’re doing is fighting over the differences between presidential candidates, we’re never going to be talking about the cleanup efforts in the Back Bay of Newport Beach, or the need for undergrounding of electricity in Laguna Beach, or the traffic congestion concerns that they have in Irvine,” O’Neill said.

The newly elected GOP chairman went on to say that many are dissatisfied with liberal leadership in Sacramento. He pointed to widespread voter approval in the most recent general election for Proposition 36, a ballot initiative restoring harsher penalties for property crimes and drug-related offenses, as well as pushback from cities in response to the state’s efforts to dramatically increase zoning for housing or mandates to include ethnic studies in the curriculum of California’s classrooms as evidence of a “rightward shift.”

Huntington Beach residents hold signs during a City Council meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023.

(James Carbone)

“If we agree 80% of the time it doesn’t mean we’re enemies 20% of the time,” O’Neill said, “and in a state right now where I think most people will find themselves disagreeing with the policies coming out of Sacramento probably 80% of the time, we are at that moment where a big tent Republican Party is very realistic.”

Looking forward, O’Neill said he would like to put more of the party’s energy into Orange County’s school board races. He also highlighted Huntington Beach Councilman Tony Strickland’s bid to replace newly elected County Supervisor Janet Nguyen in the state Senate, as well as a special election for the Irvine City Council Seat vacated by recently elected Mayor Larry Agran as key upcoming races for the O.C. GOP.