There’s a leadership problem within the Santa Barbara County Republican Party.

That’s according to conservative activist Justin Shores, who says that the the local and national party is in search of an identity, at a crucial time when it is headed into 2024 elections.

Shores, a Goleta resident and a vocal activist in local government circles, broke down the state of the party in a conversation with Josh Molina’s Santa Barbara Talks podcast.

“We have the same issue locally as we do nationally with the Republican Party,” Shores says. “The voters are not showing up for the party because the party is not showing up for them.”

He said that people do not respect the party locally, statewide and nationally, as evidenced by the fact that Donald Trump, facing multiple indictments, is still the favored candidate among Republicans.

“Love him or hate him, they show up for Trump because they felt like he fought for them, he was the outsider, he is a big turnout for the party,” Shores said. “As much as people hate Trump, he was that character for us to rally around.”

Shores said he is disappointed with the Ron DeSantis presidential campaign. He was briefly excited about Robert F. Kennedy Jr., he said, but when Kennedy registered as an Independent, he took himself out of contention, Shores said.

And he’s no fan of GOP candidate Nikki Haley.

“Nikki Haley is the media’s favorite right now,” Shores said. “She absolutely is not the grassroots favorite. She is by far the least popular when it comes to people I talk to.”

He said she is the “establishment candidate” and that “she loves war” because she works for Boeing.

“I am against the wars, of all of them,” Shores said. “Stop them. Cease fire everywhere. Stop spending our money on foreign wars and killing people.”

Shores also opens up about the local party and believes the best Republican candidates are not emerging because of the GOP political leaders.

“We’ve been calling for leadership change for years and it is not happening,” Shores said.

“Bobbi (McGinnis), she needs to step down,” Shores said. “She needs to let somebody else lead.”

McGinnis, chair of the county Republican Party, spoke with Santa Barbara Talks recently in an interview you can watch here.

Shores also talks about Democrats in this podcast interview, and explains his views on the nonpartisan Third District Santa Barbara County Supervisor’s race. Incumbent Joan Hartmann, a Democrat, faces a challenge from Frank Trois, a registered Republican, and Jenelle Osborne, the mayor of Lompoc, who is registered with no party preference.

Shores said he thinks Trois would not win today, but he might be able to squeak into a November runoff with Osborne in the race.

“I don’t think he has reached out to the people he needs to reach out to,” Shores said. “Some pretty generic emails we’re getting, but I don’t think they are on the pulse of the voter yet.”

He said that “too many times Republicans see the money and think that is going to win a race,” Shores said. “It’s not. It’s not about money. It’s do you have the connections? Do you have the ground game?”

Joshua Molina is journalist who currently writes for Noozhawk and teaches journalism at Santa Barbara City College. Santa Barbara Talks is an independently owned podcast where Molina looks to bring together voices from all perspectives to discuss and provide solutions to the challenges related to housing, education, transportation and other community issues. Subscribe his newsletter here. Subscribe to his podcast here and consider a contribution here.