A Fighter for You — Against the Swamp Special Interests
California Democrats have hurt our beautiful state with policies that caused skyrocketing crime, soaring cost-of-living, and a massive homeless crisis. And all the while, California Republicans have either been unable or unwilling to fight back — and many have even sold out to special interests! Dylan Martin is disgusted at the rot, failure, and cowardice that has ultimately hurt our hardworking families — and that's why he is fighting for you to drain the swamp and restore common sense in California — and empowering YOU to fight back as well.
Early Life and Financial Struggles
Dylan Martin was born in 1996 in La Jolla in San Diego County, and he grew up in San Marcos. Dylan's dad worked in the print sales industry, and his mom left her career as a pharmaceutical rep to be a stay-at-home parent. Dylan's dad was successful and decided to start his own printing company around 2006-2007, ultimately sinking in much of his life savings to make it work. But the 2008 recession hit, and Dylan's dad lost his company — and in 2011, Dylan's family lost their home to foreclosure.
The family moved into a tiny apartment — far too small for their cat and large golden retriever — but they made due until 2014 when they got back on their feet after Dylan's mom took on multiple part-time jobs, one of them as a special-ed teacher's aid at the local elementary school.
Dylan himself took on a job as soon as he turned 15 1/2 to help the family — working as a ride operator and customer service associate at Legoland California.
Throughout these experiences, Dylan witnessed what it was like to build a business and have it fail, work hard to support your family, and see the failures of the system — which made him determined to help improve the lives of our hardworking families.
Early Career
Dylan grew up with a passion for art — namely drawing and painting. And in 2011, while in 8th grade, Dylan was interviewed on the popular San Diego radio show the Jeff and Jer Showgram about his artwork. After the interview, Martin was contacted by an author who offered him a job illustrating her children's book. The book, The Gentle Pine's Purpose, went on to be carried in Barnes & Noble — and Martin was covered in local news media for illustrating a book so young.
Dylan graduated from San Marcos High School in 2015 and went on to attend UC San Diego, where he majored in media.
During college, Dylan took a job with the UC San Diego Bookstore's marketing department, where he worked his way up to Marketing Lead and oversaw the rebranding of the bookstore and 3 subsidiary businesses — one of which was a coffee shop, which resulted in increased sales volume by 15% to compete successfully with the campus Starbucks. Dylan also began his own design and brand consulting company on the side and helped lead multiple rebranding efforts.
Dylan graduated in 2019 before moving to Fullerton in Orange County.
Current Political Work
With a background as a professional graphic designer and brand consultant, Dylan has pursued work with the Republican Party and conservative organizations. He worked his way up from a volunteer knocking doors and making phone calls for Mimi Walters, Dana Rohrabacher, Ling-Ling Chang, and countless others (though he still helps when it calls for it!).
From 2018 to 2023, Dylan served in leadership at the California College Republicans (CCR) state committee, where he was Communications Director, Executive Director, National Committeeman, and Chairman over the years. In his roles, he helped to provide resources for, recruit, and amplify the voices of young Republicans. Dylan is credited for helping to make CCR the largest and most notable College Republican state organization in the country.
In 2018, Dylan worked with Reform California to design the "Yes on 6" gas tax repeal campaign collateral. In 2019 and 2020, Martin worked as Reform California and Carl DeMaio for Congress' Digital Director. As Carl's Digital Director, Dylan helped fuel a Republican primary campaign that set record fundraising goals for a non-incumbent.
Dylan is now the Communications Director for Reform California and Carl DeMaio for State Assembly, where he oversaw the building of and is now the Editor-in-Chief of Reform California News and the producer of the Reform California podcast. He manages a team of interns as well to ensure projects are completed. Dylan is also the co-author of the Reform California voter guide for Orange County — the most used conservative voter guide in the state. The guide and other efforts by Reform California and the DeMaio campaign have helped save taxpayers over $30 billion in tax hikes.
Dylan continues to be a dedicated volunteer for the Party in addition to his day job. In February 2022, Martin won the Republican Party of Orange County (OCGOP) "Volunteer of the Month" award for his work with students and knocking doors for OCGOP candidates. In 2021 and 2024, the College Republicans gave him their top "VIP" award to thank him for his work.
But Dylan is no stranger to calling out both sides of the aisle for corruption and hurting Californians. In 2024, Martin broke the news to California Republican Party (CAGOP) delegates and the public that party leadership had endorsed "neutral" on Prop 1 (March 2024) and "Yes" on Prop 2 (November 2024) — two bond measures that would cause billions in tax hikes and contained provisions to help fund Democrat political campaigns and special interests. Martin helped lead pushback against party leadership on Prop 2 to overturn their recommendation, which gathered support from Assemblyman Bill Essayli, RNC Committeewoman Harmeet Dhillon, Carl DeMaio, the College Republicans, and many others.
Meeting passionate conservatives across California through his work has inspired Dylan to continue to fight the culture war and make California red again.
