Nearly 100 Democratic activists and politicians crowded an Irvine office Saturday, scrawling messages such as “Blue wave 2020” and “Let’s do this” on a banner hanging in the national party’s new Orange County headquarters.

Over the next few months, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee expects hundreds more volunteers to visit what they’re calling their “battle station” along Barranca Parkway for training, voter registration drives and phone bank work that they hope will help Democratic candidates get elected or re-elected in 2020.

After decades of being written off as a GOP stronghold, Orange County is a battleground for the national operations of both major parties. For the second consecutive election cycle, both parties are on the ground locally hoping to defend or win back Orange County congressional seats now held entirely by Democrats. And, beyond federal races, both parties also hope to defend or gain a toehold in state and local seats that remain dominated by the GOP.

“We have a lot of work to do, up and down the ballot, to elect people who share our values,” Rep. Katie Porter, D-Irvine, told the crowd at Saturday’s event. “That work has just begun.”

Ada Briceno, chair of the Democratic Party of Orange County, before the opening of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s battle station for the 2020 election in Irvine on Saturday, Nov. 9, 2019. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Ada Briceno, chair of the Democratic Party of Orange County, speaks to supporters during the opening of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s battle station for the 2020 election in Irvine on Saturday, Nov. 9, 2019. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Rep. Katie Porter posses with supporters after the opening of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s battle station for the 2020 election in Irvine on Saturday, Nov. 9, 2019. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Rep. Katie Porter speaks to supporters during the opening of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s battle station for the 2020 election in Irvine on Saturday, Nov. 9, 2019. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Rep. Katie Porter talks with Mary Ribando, of Laguna Woods, as supporters take photos after the opening of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s battle station for the 2020 election in Irvine on Saturday, Nov. 9, 2019. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)



Rep. Katie Porter speaks to supporters during the opening of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s battle station for the 2020 election in Irvine on Saturday, Nov. 9, 2019. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Supporters enter the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s battle station for the 2020 election in Irvine on Saturday, Nov. 9, 2019. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Field Manager Kristin Von Ohlsen speaks to supporters during the opening of their battle station for the 2020 election in Irvine on Saturday, Nov. 9, 2019. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The DCCC’s counterpart, the National Republican Congressional Committee, has leased an office nearby in Irvine since March 2018, when the party began gearing up for last year’s midterm election. It was the NRCC’s first California office, and the first to open outside of Washington, D.C.

The California director for the NRCC has been working out of the Irvine office since it opened, and GOP officials said it is used regularly for meetings and to train GOP groups and candidates.

But, so far, that operation has been more low-profile, with no NRCC kickoff event for the 2020 cycle planned since party officials said the office never closed.

In terms of momentum heading into 2020, Democrats currently have the advantage in Orange County.

On Aug. 7, the county officially became home to more registered Democrats than Republicans, when the Registrar of Voters reported the Democratic registration advantage at just 89 voters. Though the edge was tiny, it was noteworthy because it marked the first time that blue voters outnumbered red voters in Orange County since a short-lived swap in 1978 following the Watergate scandal.

Since August, the Democratic edge has grown steadily. As of Nov. 9, there were 11,895 more registered Democrats than registered Republicans in Orange County, a 34.6% vs. 33.9% advantage, with Democrats picking up about 900 more voters each week.

The blue trend countywide — driven largely by increased ethnic and racial diversity, the GOP losing its grip on local young voters and, recently, the unpopularity of President Donald Trump — is also playing out in local cities.

In October, for the first time in decades, Democrats outnumbered Republicans in Aliso Viejo and Westminster. Costa Mesa saw a similar flip earlier this year. And while more than half (18) of Orange County’s 34 cities remain majority GOP, four of the five biggest cities in the county (excluding Huntington Beach) are now Democrat majority. And, overall, 64% of the county’s residents live in a city with more registered Democrats than Republicans.

Those trends helped Democrat Hillary Clinton beat Trump locally in 2016, the first time in 80 years a Democrat presidential candidate won in Orange County. The rise of Democrat registration also drove a blue sweep of all seven local congressional seats in 2018 — a trend that has local Republicans looking for ways to tweak their game plan for 2020.

But beyond federal offices, the GOP still holds an advantage.

At the state level, three out of five senators from Orange County and four out of seven local assembly members are Republicans. And though local seats are technically nonpartisan, only about 30% of Orange County’s 318 elected positions are held by Democrats.

So while 2018 may have been a blue wave, Porter reminded volunteers at Saturday’s event that it “wasn’t a tsunami.”

Flipping more state and local seats will be a focus for Orange County’s blue activists in the months ahead. But they said they’re also not taking their newly gained House seats for granted.

“These seats are still vulnerable,” said Kristin Von Ohlsen, a field manager for the DCCC who is focused on the 45th district. “The better they do, that puts a target on their backs. So it’s not going to be easy.”

Porter told Saturday’s crowd that she is concerned about winning re-election, but she also said she’s glad her team will have to campaign hard again this cycle.

“We’re not going to be able to build the kind of community we want if we don’t do the hard work of democracy,” she said.

Volunteers Saturday were fired up, chanting Porter’s name and waving signs in support.

Ramona Shashaani, 62, of Laguna Woods came to the event wearing a t-shirt that said “Impeach him now.” The retired attorney said she became politically active in 2017 following Trump’s election. She also said she converted half a dozen Republicans in her senior community to register as Democrats for the 2018 midterm.

Her plan for for the 2020 cycle? To knock on more doors.