Los Angeles Trump Voters: Where and Why?

By Lea Zaharoni '21 & Liam Waldman '22

The New York Times’ Extremely Detailed Map of the 2016 Presidential Election revealed a more right-leaning Los Angeles than one might expect. Two notable red precincts — one in Los Feliz and one in Beverly Hills — beg the question: how did residents of one of the most liberal cities in the country find themselves voting for Donald Trump?

Los Angeles, formerly part of Mexico, is now home to what many deem “coastal elites.” The city is undoubtedly a liberal stronghold, known for its Democratic infighting as a result of a prominent progressive sect fueled by Bernie Sanders type-popularity. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 4.4 to 1 in Los Angeles County. The blocks of Trump voters who live in the handful of precincts that went red in 2016 are fascinating outliers. Beyond the peculiarity lies a deeper truth: these are people, just like the rest of Angelenos. Each of the precincts/neighborhoods has its own motives and reasons to vote for Trump, and thus become interesting case studies. The greater motive for identifying the Trump voter of each region is to understand and contextualize the rise of such a fascinating political figure in a broader context. Moreover, Los Angeles is the most populous county in the nation, leading to interesting conclusions about how Trump precincts can impact such a diverse and populous county as a whole.

If there’s one thing Beverly Hills is known for, it is affluence. In a place where the median house cost is a whopping $3.7 million, there are bound to be residents out of touch with the average American’s political priorities (healthcare, jobs, etc.). Perhaps one function of this bubble of wealth is political affiliation — Beverly Hills is home to three precincts which, although narrowly, went to Donald Trump in the 2016 election (the other two, Trousdale Estates and a small neighborhood just east of UCLA have median home costs of around $15 million). While these voters share a certain financial class, they also share other key characteristics that may have turned them towards Trump’s Republican Party. 

Every Sunday, a group of ten elderly white men, mostly Jewish, meet for coffee and fiery political discourse. While all ten live in Beverly Hills, only three harbor a generally liberal ideology. The other seven consume exclusively right wing news sources, like Fox News or OANN. It is from these sources that they receive dangerous half-truths that quickly become embedded into their worldview. Recent protests about the validity of the past election swept through Beverly Hills, and multiple residents of the neighborhood were arrested for engaging at the capitol insurrection. For example, as one unnamed Israeli immigrant put it, “Ilhan Omar hates America, you know. She said she wants to tear up the Constitution.” The other Trump voters at the table vehemently agreed. What Omar, a Somali immigrant representing Minnesota’s 5th congressional district really said was that we should work to “dismantle the whole system of oppression wherever we find it,” in reference to racial tensions during summer 2020. This take, along with the assertion that “Mexicans are taking jobs away from the low-class — and they refuse to assimilate!” or “the Blacks oppress themselves,” reflect a troublingly racist and classist outlook, echoed by one former President Donald Trump. 

Despite harboring what seems to be an obliquely socially conservative outlook, these Trump voters decline the label “conservative.” 

“It’s a very confusing term,” said one unnamed Santa Monica radiologist, the youngest of the group by several decades. In fact, they decline to label themselves at all. Rather, they adopt (only for the sake of the interview, they stressed) a moniker commonly used by rich people seeking to justify their red vote: fiscally conservative, socially liberal. To evidence their social and cultural progressiveness, they quip, “I don’t care what the gays do,” or “I definitely think Jim Crow was bad.”

Suffice it to say, it is difficult to conduct a productive conversation with those who dabble in what are widely perceived to be bigoted viewpoints. But in a country, for lack of original word, divided, we must figure out how to do exactly that. So, what turned these Americans, by birth or otherwise, towards such a figure? The most effectual, it seems, is their willingness to forgive a controversial personality for what they see as positive policies. When asked about Trump’s unconventional demeanor, they are quick to voice discomfort. 

“I never listen to him.”

“None of us admire him.”

“I can’t even look at his tweets.”

Where they diverge from traditional Westside views is their belief that personality generally doesn’t matter in a president. It took minutes of coaxing to get their opinion on his personal antics, as they continued to argue that it didn’t matter. Instead, they prefer to focus on the cold hard policies. As older Jewish immigrants, many from Middle Eastern countries, they enthusiastically approve of Trump’s effect on the Middle East. In December of 2017, he moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. That action, which acknowledged Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and symbolically invalidated Palestine, was a highlight of his presidency in their collective opinion. This, along with his unwavering support of Israel assisted by his devil-may-care attitude when it comes to following international consensus, creates a clear path to Trump’s Republican Party for those loyal to their Israeli identity — a large demographic in Beverly Hills.

Another thing that binds this group together is their Eastern European heritage. All ten could trace their lineages back, at some point in history, to Russia. This specific identity comes with, in these ten cases, a wariness of one controversial leftist economic system. As consumers of media that so often compares the implementation of a livable minimum wage or universal healthcare to Communism or Marxism or Socialism (it seems the terms are interchangeable); it’s not a huge leap to start to distrust and even hate the Democratic Party. To call someone a Communist, a Socialist, a Marxist, is synonymous with insult. This was a genuine political strategy to win over Cuban immigrant voters in Florida — portray the Democratic candidates as Socialists in disguise. Trump won Florida in 2016 and 2020. All throughout Beverly Hills are male breadwinners, those who immigrated to this country, paid their way through a public college, and worked for decades to end up in such an affluent community. To offer what is often persuaded to them as free handouts to lower class people is almost a slap in the face, evidenced by the screaming matches they partake in when the topic of healthcare or student loan forgiveness comes up. The same goes for systemic racism or male privilege. These social justice struggles seemingly invalidate the very real lifelong work these men have done to support their families. This is the crux of their political philosophy — they worked hard, why can’t you?

What’s most unfortunate about talking with Trump voters is the seemingly different reality that liberals and conservatives inhabit, mostly due to media consumption. They often echo Tucker Carlson’s hypocritical hatred of “elites” or Rush Limbaugh’s Covid-19 conspiracies. As one unnamed Iranian immigrant arrived at the Sunday meeting, he was already touting the apparent validity of Covid’s birth in a Chinese laboratory. Another Russian immigrant said he loved how Trump signed less executive orders than any president ever, saying that executive orders are like a dictatorship — Trump actually signed the most executive orders in one term since Jimmy Carter. It’s clear that two universes exist just a few channels away from one another, and they might be mutually exclusive. It’s basically impossible to communicate the vastness of systemic racism to a Trump voter, and liberals seem to be unwilling to hear about a Trump voter’s genuine feelings of voicelessness. Beverly Hills Republicans are no exception to this pattern.

Los Feliz is a bit of a wildcard. Firstly, the precinct that went to Trump in 2016 is far smaller and less populous than the others. That means that the results are far less indicative of the surrounding area, which tends to vote straight-ticket for Democrats. Secondly, this pocket of Los Feliz is really quite unique in terms of its context in the broader area; this precinct is home to the Church of Scientology, and its followers who live on “L. Ron Hubbard Way.”

Scientology’s in-house publication wrote about the street’s creation in 1996, saying that there were “hundreds of neighbors and local volunteers who pitched in to help lay the more than 150,000 bricks – a job normally estimated at eight weeks, but with the dedication of those hundreds, it took only four days.” This dramatization of the road’s construction underlays two clear points. First, it shows that the naming of the street—which was overwhelmingly supported by city council—was in line with the views of the surrounding neighborhoods of the church.

One 2020 presidential election poll worker in the district quipped that “there were crazy people there” voting. He noted that he was shocked to observe that about two-thirds of the ballots he counted were votes for Trump. He added that he only counted in-person votes, which nation-wide tended to skew in favor of Trump. Nevertheless, he was somewhat surprised by the fact that his polling station was in one of the very few precincts in LA that voted more for Trump in 2016 and 2020, although it validated his hypothesis. Many of the voters “would look around them to make sure there were no cameras” and a few even asked to switch voting booths. He added that he didn’t notice any ‘obvious’ Scientologists but responded by asking “What would a Scientologist even look like?” Understanding Scientology as a social and religious group is far more challenging than—for example—understanding the Amish. 

Understanding the mind of Scientologist today requires a much more contextualized analysis of their movements of choice. The last decade has seen a vast amount of staunch anti-Scientology movements. From media in the US such as Leah Remini’s Netflix show, “Scientology and the Aftermath,”  to censorship and a near banning of Scientology in Germany, there’s a real chance that Scientologists are feeling threatened. So, noting that background, what made them vote for Trump in this tiny slice of Los Angeles? 

The average age in Los Feliz is nearly parallel to Los Angeles as a whole, and the income is just slightly above. Overall, nothing really stands out to hint as to why this precinct voted for Trump. The only differing factor is religion. Los Feliz is the center of the Scientology universe. First, there’s the “Scientology Pacific Area Command Base” known to Angelenos as “the big blue building on Sunset.” That building is home to offices, meeting spaces, and a plethora of speculation about its 7th floor that has been rumored to house a rehabilitation program akin to a prison. Slightly north of the big blue building is the heart of Los Feliz, and the core of Scientology’s outreach. In a block that includes the porn-theatre-turned-indie-film-screener known as Vista Theatre, lies Scientology’s newest project: their media complex. The 50 million dollar compound, formerly home to the KCET studios, is now Scientology’s media headquarters. Perhaps the most pressing question is what are they communicating to their followers, and why has that impacted their followers to vote for Trump so overwhelmingly that it flipped a precinct from blue to red?   

The first finding is that if there is a message from Scientology to voters, it’s not a direct one. After calling multiple different Scientology-affiliated organizations we were repeatedly told that Scientology does not endorse specific political figures. One receptionist, however, pointed us towards one of Scientology’s websites, thewaytohappiness.org, and specifically to its 10th commandment which says “Support A Government Designed and Run For All The People”. The website is an offshoot of L. Ron Hubbard’s book of the same name, although the website calls itself non-religious. The answers we got were not unexpected. Scientology has been a tax-exempt charity since the ’90s, which involves not endorsing specific candidates. 

Nevertheless, Scientology has used politics to maintain its charity status. According to opensecrets.org, since 2016, Scientology has employed The Mitchell Firm, a lobbying/consulting firm to lobby on behalf of the group. Greg Mitchell, who was a former Bill Clinton impersonator-turned-Republican fundraiser, is a Scientologist who aligns the group’s interests with greater policies of religious freedom abroad. Furthermore, Mitchell was photographed at a meeting with former vice president Mike Pence. Scientology’s reach into the Trump administration doesn’t end with clear-cut lobbying. Musician Joy Villa, who gained notoriety for wearing dresses adorned with messages such as “Build The Wall,”  was a Scientologist who was also a key operative for the Trump campaign’s advisory board. Her role in both facets of society may provide some insight into the overlap between Scientology and Trumpism. The “Scientology Newsroom” published an article about Villa in 2016 entitled “The Magic of Scientologist and Singer-Songwriter Joy Villa.” The group’s followers—if they kept up with Joy Villa—could very easily have been swayed by a talking head of the group, and her avid promotions of Trump and other conservative causes. In the earlier stages of the Coronavirus pandemic, Scientology received over four million dollars in PPP loans, something typically reserved for small businesses.

The fact that former President Donald J. Trump managed to flip a single precinct on the eastside of Los Angeles twice (2016 and 2020) is somewhat remarkable. This feat says less about his success as a whole, but instead gives us an insight into the mind of a group that is characterized by its insularity, and quiet about political and social matters. The celebrity nature of the organization, as well as its gravitation towards supporting perceived allies, led directly to a fundamental political shift in this slice of LA. The image of Trumpism and Scientology is now faced with a much more unpredictable question; will it last?

When faced with the reality of Trump voters in their city, LA liberals and generally left-leaning folk may find themselves confused, even angry. But the truth is, Los Angeles is much less a city and more of a collection of historically segregated neighborhoods, the defining factors in their separation being race and economics. These partitions exist to a similarly intense extent between the different types of media we consume. A viewer of MSNBC, or even of CNN, exists in a completely different plane of reality than a viewer of Fox News or OAN. These divisions leave us with two different countries, just as decades of redlining, poor transportation, and plain bigotry have left us with dozens of cities within Los Angeles. 

These divisions only grew in 2020, when Los Angeles saw a notable shift to the right — Trump even flipped precincts from 2016, including the historically Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Pico-Robertson. We truly cannot mend our hatred for one another unless we are living in the same place, which we aren’t, both in the geographical microcosm of LA, and subsequently of the United States, and in the more abstract realm of the media. Beverly Hills and Los Feliz are just two examples of how race, religion, and religion can dramatically change the typical political leanings of neighborhoods and precincts, even in a city such as LA that is known for its relative political homogeneity.