IMO, a California politician would face an uphill battle in the general anyway.

Republicans have spent so long demonizing California as a place full of communists and corruption that any politician associated with California is going to be viewed with intense suspicion by the (unfortunately all-important) flyover states.

Now, to be clear, fuck those ignorant assholes. But we do kind of need their votes, regardless. And it would be a mistake to run a candidate in the general election who has this disadvantage in swaying them.