But a second Trump presidency, which reordered California’s place in the national hierarchy, appeared to give the issue new life. In January, a YouGov poll commissioned by the San Diego-based Independent California Institute, a think tank focusing on self-governance issues, showed that 61 percent of Californians believed the state would “be better off if it peacefully seceded.” A YouGov nationwide poll asking voters about state independence earlier this year showed interest from Californians behind only Alaskans and Texans, and with no partisan split. Meanwhile, the California National Party, a progressive and libertarian-coded group intent on secession, has increasingly been fielding candidates in races for local offices as it works to build party membership from the ground up. (The California National Party has not publicly supported the ballot measure, and has disavowed Calexit in the past.)