For years, Democrats have harbored fleeting hopes of toppling GOP Rep. Young Kim from her purplish SoCal seat, solely to see her decisively bat away any important problem.
However that hasn’t dissuaded Christina Gagnier, an legal professional and former member of the Chino Valley faculty board who’s framing her candidacy round a schoolyard theme: standing as much as bullies.
“The last word bullies are in control of Washington, and native households are feeling bullied … Our congresswoman just isn’t standing up and saying that something that is taking place out of D.C. proper now could be flawed,” Gagnier instructed Playbook in an unique interview launching her marketing campaign. “She’s sitting on the sidelines and mainly giving Donald Trump and Elon Musk a inexperienced gentle.”
Gagnier returned to the anti-bullying theme typically within the dialog — not simply in discussing the present president, however about her personal tenure on the college board, the place raucous debates round spiritual affect in colleges, COVID-19 masks mandates and insurance policies round transgender college students attracted nationwide consideration.
“In the event you can … handle a college board assembly and struggle via that, that positively is the struggle that you might want to go to Congress,” Gagnier mentioned.
She misplaced her faculty board reelection bid to Sonja Shaw, who went on to advertise a brand new coverage mandating that folks learn if their youngsters requested to make use of a reputation or gender pronouns that didn’t align with their beginning certificates or different measures. The coverage, which was struck down in courtroom, was criticized by pro-LGBTQ+ advocates as “pressured outings.”
Some Democrats, within the wake of Kamala Harris’ loss to Trump, have expressed hesitation in wading into the controversy over transgender rights. However Gagnier, who based the pro-public colleges nonprofit Our Colleges USA after leaving the board, mentioned it was the GOP, not her personal social gathering, that was fixated on the difficulty.
“It is the Republican Celebration, it’s Donald Trump that’s placing manner an excessive amount of of an emphasis on this,” she mentioned. “However I feel all of us want to face behind the truth that we should not be permitting youngsters to be bullied in our public colleges.”
Taking up Kim will probably be an uphill climb.
The consultant has largely averted the strident partisanship of the present period, preferring to play up her aisle-crossing bona fides.
“Rep. Younger Kim is concentrated on listening to her constituents, combating for her district, and delivering outcomes,” mentioned Sam Oh, her political guide. “That’s why Younger has repeatedly been ranked probably the most bipartisan and only members of Congress.”
The district — which spans components of Orange County and the Inland Empire, the place Chino Valley is positioned — has swingy tendencies: Joe Biden narrowly received it in 2020, whereas Trump bested Kamala Harris there by greater than two factors. However in different statewide races, together with in current gubernatorial and Senate contests, the Republican candidates have had a transparent benefit. And Kim simply coasted to reelection final 12 months by greater than 10 factors.
“It’s extra of an old-school Orange County Republican-type district, and Younger Kim has usually executed fairly properly with that sort,” mentioned Rob Pyers of California Goal E book, the nonpartisan marketing campaign almanac.
Gagnier joins a subject of Democratic candidates that already consists of Joe Kerr, Kim’s 2024 opponent, and Esther Kim Varet, an artwork supplier. The prospect of a messy Democratic major may suck up the dear sources that will be wanted to oust an incumbent within the state’s most costly media market.
However for Democrats seeking to construct on their silver-lining features in final 12 months’s California Home races, there are solely so many choices. The nationwide social gathering identified Kim as one in every of three focused incumbents in California for the upcoming cycle and are attempting to comply with their profitable playbook in defeating Republicans resembling Mike Garcia and Michelle Metal final November.
“We began concentrating on them early,” mentioned CJ Warnke of Home Majority PAC, the tremendous PAC affiliated with Home Democratic management. “We didn’t do this with [Kim] in 2024. However positively a precedence for us to do main as much as ’26 cycle is take a a lot more durable take a look at Younger Kim.”
The frenetic cost-cutting of Trump’s first weeks in workplace could present Democrats loads of ammo. HMP is churning out analysis figuring out what number of Medicaid beneficiaries per district may very well be harmed by the GOP’s proposed Medicaid cuts (roughly 74,000 individuals in Kim’s district). And Kim has already expressed reservations about Musk’s gutting of USAID, arguing such cuts may create an influence vacuum that China would swiftly exploit.
However Kim doesn’t have limitless room to distance herself from Trump. She spent more than $1 million within the 2022 major to defeat a vastly under-funded Republican opponent, an indication that she’ll must control her proper flank even when the spending cuts spark a backlash amongst liberal and impartial voters.
Amid that tough balancing act is the place Gagnier senses alternative.
“The truth is that in case you are in Washington, D.C., proper now, and also you’re presupposed to be a consultant, you might want to be anyone who’s keen to place your politics apart and do the job in Washington to get issues executed to the households within the Inland Empire and Orange County,” she mentioned. “That is why I am operating. That is precisely what I plan to do.”
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