After years of partisan feuding, California's new generation of Congress members tries to get along. Will it work?

WASHINGTON — Over homemade tacos at a Capitol Hill row home, several of California's members of Congress did something unusual last year: they gathered for a bipartisan, home-cooked meal where politics were not on the menu.

The table full of Republicans and Democrats represented an opening salvo in a push by some of the state's newest representatives to build collegiality and cross party work in a place that in recent years has supported neither.

"We just sit down and break bread and get to know each other," said the event's host, Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Big Bear Lake), who was elected in 2020. "We try and invite diverse groups of people that don't know each other or haven't had an opportunity to even meet and just introduce everyone, no agenda."

Obernolte said he hosted a similar bipartisan dinner series when he was an assemblyman in Sacramento. After Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles) was elected to Congress in 2022, she became his first Democratic co-host in Washington.

"It's about socializing, and fellowshipping and finding places for common ground," said Kamlager-Dove, who served in the state Legislature with Obernolte.

There's no evidence that the bipartisan fellowship has led to bipartisan policy yet. The 40 Democrats and 11 Republicans California voters have sent to the House of Representatives remain closely aligned with their respective parties on most matters.

The 12% of seats Californians hold in the House could be a powerful voting bloc if they chose to stick together, but they rarely do.

"I'm just amazed. We could have so much power to do things that are good for California. And yet, it seems like we abdicate some of that because we don't get together on a regular basis," Obernolte said.

The quest for collaboration by a new generation of House members comes at an inflection point for California's representation in Washington.

For many years, California's delegation included two of the most powerful and polarizing members of Congress — former speakers Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield). But their roles as national party leaders are subsiding. Pelosi stepped down from House leadership at the end of 2022 and McCarthy resigned from Congress last year after he was ousted as speaker.

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