Former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a rally on the Cal State Fullerton campus on Oct. 4, in Fullerton. | Chris Carlson/AP Photo Elections Biden boosts Democrats on the rise in Reagan Country

FULLERTON, Calif. — Former Vice President Joe Biden hit the heart of Reagan Country on Thursday, riding a wave of Democratic grassroots anger over the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation to boost the party’s House candidates, who he said would “go about resetting the moral compass of this country.”

“Our core values, the American story is being assailed,” Biden told a raucous crowd of 500 at California State University Fullerton. “The fabric that has always held us together, in good times and hard times, is being shredded before our eyes.’’


In an impassioned call to arms, and with new polls raising hopes of a “blue tide” to swamp incumbent House Republicans in next month’s midterms, Biden told Democrats that in places across the country like Orange County — a traditional GOP stronghold — their party faced the most important choices in a lifetime.

America is “an idea manifested in a thousand little things: how we treat each other, whether we afford people the dignity … whether we act fairly, whether we speak with dignity, leaving nobody behind,’’ he said.

“This president has put his own interests before the nation,’’ Biden added. And while the Republican Congress, “to my overwhelming disappointment,’’ has failed to act, he said, “our kids are listening, our kids are watching. Our children are hearing all this. And our silence is complicit.”

“Folks, America knows who Donald Trump is — the question for all of us is: Who are we? How do we reassert what we stand for?”

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Biden made the comments at an energetic rally in the college student union, where he aimed to boost a crowd of candidates running in districts that are held by Republicans but that voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. Appearing alongside Biden were Democratic candidates T.J. Cox (CA-21), Gil Cisneros (CA-39), Katie Porter (CA-45), Harley Rouda (CA-48) and Mike Levin (CA-49)

Motioning to them, the former Vice President said that “the folks standing here with me today, in a Democratically controlled Congress, are going to take this president on.’’

As the crowd cheered and hooted, he added: “I’m so tired seeing Democrats walk around with their heads down, ‘woe is me.’ … It’s totally within our capacity to restore civility and respect.”

The former vice president’s appearance came as Democrats in the region were buoyed by a new poll — released by the Institute of Governmental Studies for The Los Angeles Times — showing that none of the Republicans on the ballot in six of the most competitive Southern California districts now held a lead.

With incumbent GOP Reps. Mimi Walters, Steve Knight, Jeff Denham and Dana Rohrabacher appearing on the verge of being swept out of office, Democrats also may be close to flipping two other House seats held by retiring Republicans Reps. Darrell Issa and Ed Royce, as well as the seat held by indicted Rep. Duncan Hunter, the poll showed.

Biden’s effort to rev up voter turnout comes at the tail end of a political firestorm over Trump’s nomination of Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. On the day of the release of an FBI report exploring allegations of sexual assault — an investigation that many Democrats called a sham — those who turned out at the rally on Thursday appeared particularly energized and motivated.

The former vice president’s appearance and message were welcomed by many of the candidates who aim to push the Democratic momentum across Orange County, a region once lauded by Ronald Reagan as the place where “good Republicans go to die.”

“Vice President Biden is signaling to everyone in Orange County that the eyes of the nation are upon us,’’ said Porter, the UC Irvine law professor and consumer advocate who has mounted a strong challenge to Walters in the state’s 45th Congressional District.

Until recent years, “we haven’t had strong candidates here,” she said. “When was the last time a Democrat held this seat … like ever?” she added, as a group of young women volunteers in orange “Katie Porter” T-shirts cheered her on in the crowd.

Coming on the heels of an appearance here by former President Barack Obama less than a month ago, “the vice president, by his physical presence here, is saying that this is a national priority,’’ Porter said.

Eric Bauman, chairman of the California Democratic Party, joked: “I’m not sure why it is, but I’m spending an awful lot of time in Orange County these days.” He called Trump’s reaction to the Kavanaugh hearings “beyond despicable, it’s beyond disrespectful,’’adding that with the help of Orange County, Democrats were “going to once and for all shut him down.”

With just days until California voters begin voting by mail, the rally dramatized how the Kavanaugh hearings were especially motivating to suburban women voters — even in formerly conservative districts — who may be key to Democrats’ hopes of flipping the House.

“Women are incensed. The anger, the pent-up anger is there, because they are not being believed,’’ said Maria Norman, 61, a retired attorney from Indio and a campaign volunteer, who wore a shirt supporting candidate Gil Cedillo, her nephew. “I think we’re going to see the women’s vote be huge — because the energy has been amazing. And it’s not dissipating.”

Her friend Camille Kuichmar, a retired office worker from Laguna Beach, nodded in agreement, saying that she, too, was very angry. “There was no investigation,” she said grimly about the FBI’s work.

That anger wasn’t limited to older suburban women.

Riley Goodfellow, 17, a senior at San Juan Hills High School in Orange County — who won’t even be able to cast a ballot until the 2020 election — said that among many of her peers “the excitement is really high” to elect Democrats in districts that have been held by Republicans throughout her lifetime.

In recent weeks, Goodfellow, who described herself as a lifelong Democrat — she was just 8 when Obama became president — said she’d found herself in discussions with boys at her school about the Kavanaugh revelations.

“You have to tell them that coming out with a story of sexual assault is hard,’’ she said. “And remember, (Kavanaugh) was in high school when these things happened.”

Today, she said, she has become an intern in the campaign of environmentalist Democrat Mike Levin, a job she has taken on “hoping to flip the 49th” District.

“Clearly, what we are seeing and hearing here is that Democrats, Republicans and independent voters are not fans of President Trump’s reaction to a survivor of sexual assault. It’s pretty pure. It’s pretty plain,’’ said Democratic strategist Jack D’Annibale, spokesman for the campaign of Harley Rouda, who is challenging Rohrabacher. “And they think Dana’s response is outrageous,’’ he said, in a reference to Rohrabacher’s eyebrow-raising statement dismissing Christine Blasey Ford’s sexual assault charges against Kavanaugh. “Give me a break.”

In addition to what they reported as increased grassroots energy, the Democratic campaigns across California — including those centered in Orange county — have also reported robust fundraising this month.

In California’s 22nd Congressional District, Fresno prosecutor Andrew Janz, who has never run for political office, said he raised $4 million in the last quarter alone in his battle to unseat Rep. Devin Nunes, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee.

And Levin reported raising more than $2 million this quarter in the race against Harkey in California’s 49th Congressional District. The latest L.A. Times/IGS poll showed him leading Harkey, 55 percent to 41 percent.

Levin, who ran the Orange County Democratic Party more than a decade ago, told POLITICO that the demographic and political shifts here were finally bearing fruit this cycle.

“Look at the movement behind this … it’s clear there is something very special going on,’’ he said, as crowds of young volunteers wearing his campaign shirts gathered inside the student ballroom. Today, even among Republicans in the region, “there’s a feeling that the Congress and the president are out of touch with the people,” he said.

As he stood before the packed crowd, Levin noted that Harkey, a member of the Board of Equalization, recently warned Breitbart News that if Democrats take back the House, “it will be like California, all over the nation.’’

The crowd cheered and screamed their agreement.

