California Democratic Party

The California Democratic Party is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in Sacramento, the state capital. With 43.5% of the state's registered voters as of 2018, the Democratic Party has the highest number of registrants of any political party in California. It is currently the dominant party in the state, and is one of the strongest affiliates of the national Democratic Party. The party currently controls the majority of California's U.S. House seats, both U.S. Senate seats, the governorship, and has supermajorities in both houses of the state legislature. History 1850s Since the beginning of the 1850s, issues regarding slavery had effectively split the California Democratic Party. By the 1853 general election campaign, large majorities of pro-slavery Democrats from Southern California, calling themselves the Chivalry (later branded as Lecompton Democrats), threatened to divide the state in half, should the state not accept slavery. John Bigler, along with former state senator and lieutenant governor David C. Broderick from the previous McDougall Administration, formed the Free Soil Democratic faction, modeled after the federal Free Soil Party that argued against the spread of slavery.