Blaine County is a county in the US state of California. The county is located in southern California, bordering Los Angeles County to the south and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Blaine County's traditional founding date was 1823, when the first American settlers arrived in the region, years ahead of California's annexation into the USA following the Mexican-American War. Blaine County remained a predominantly rural county despite the growth of the Los Angeles metropolitan area during the 20th century, but Blaine County experienced several migrations, starting with "Okies" fleeing the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma during and after the Great Depression, followed by several waves of Mexican immigrants starting in the 1940s, and later smaller waves of Chinese and Indian immigration starting in the 1990s. Blaine County is today a collection of unincorporated towns and villages, as much of the region consists of the Grand Senora Desert, Lake Zancudo, or mountain ranges. The largest town in Blaine County is Paleto Bay, while Sandy Shores and Grapeseed are its second- and third-largest towns, respectively. A significant percentage of its inhabitants are white rural Americans who live in trailer parks or cabins outside of the major cities. The region is also home to a large population of Hispanic Americans, mostly of Mexican descent; they are either descended from migrant workers or the original Spanish settlers. By the 2010s, Blaine County had a high crime rate due to the growth of the meth and arms trafficking industries in the region; local gangs such as the "Rednecks" and Trevor Philips Enterprises competed with newcomers such as The Lost MC, Los Varrios Aztecas, and the Los Angeles Triads, who attempted to muscle in on the local criminal enterprises from their main base in Los Angeles. As a rural county with a predominantly white population, it has a conservative tradition, and it voted heavily in favor of the Republican gubernatorial candidate Jock Cranley in 2013. By the 2020s, Blaine County was still predominantly Republican, but its growing populations of Asian and Hispanic immigrants made Blaine County more competetive, with Paleto Bay becoming a Democratic stronghold, while Grapeseed, Harmony, and Sandy Shores remained Republican-dominated locales.
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