California Rep. Ken Calvert will challenge incumbent Rep. Young Kim for the state’s newly drawn 40th District, he announced Wednesday, teeing up a contentious face-off between two battle-tested Republicans in a redefined, deep-red seat.
Calvert has represented California’s 41st District, encompassing parts of Riverside County, following redistricting in 2022. But the Republican lawmaker’s formerly deep-red seat has now been redrawn as a Democratic stronghold under Proposition 50, which resoundingly passed Tuesday and will allow the state to redraw congressional lines in favor of Democrats.
Calvert announced in a press release Wednesday that he will instead run in the redrawn 40th District — which now bleeds into more than half of the representative’s current 41st District, he said in the statement, and is now set to be an even safer net for Republicans than in past cycles.
“Californians in the newly drawn 40th District deserve a proven conservative they can trust and a fighter who has delivered results for Riverside and Orange County for decades,” Calvert said in the release. “No one else comes close to my record of service to the new 40th. I’ve lived here my entire life and already represent the majority of this district in Congress.”
