|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
In the battle to secure the vacant U.S. House seat left behind by former Republican leader Kevin McCarthy California House Race as Law-and-Order, sparks are flying between a pro-Trump state legislator and a no-nonsense county sheriff. The high-stakes race in California’s 20th Congressional District has become a proxy war between the MAGA movement’s firebrand wing and the more traditional law-and-order conservatives.
On one side stands State Assemblyman Juan Rendon, a staunch ally of the former president who has embraced Donald Trump’s combative style and refusal to concede the 2020 election results. Rendon, 48, has made
election integrity
a central plank of his campaign, vowing to investigate what he claims were widespread irregularities.[1]
Facing off against Rendon is Kern County Sheriff Calvin Donner, a 30-year veteran of law enforcement who has positioned himself as a tough-on-crime candidate focused on securing the U.S.-Mexico border. While also a Republican, the 58-year-old Donner has sought to distance himself from the most extreme Trump loyalists.[2]
The race has taken on heightened significance as a bellwether for the direction of the Republican Party heading into the 2024 elections. As former House Speaker McCarthy’s successor Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) tries to unite the GOP’s divergent factions, the nasty California primary has exposed the lingering civil war between Trump die-hards and the party’s establishment wing.
This is a battle for the soul of the Republican Party,
said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a retired professor of public policy at the University of Southern California.
Rendon is the poster child for the MAGA base that still can’t move on from 2020, while Donner represents the more traditional conservative values of law and order.[3]
The Trump camp has rallied behind Rendon, with the former president holding a raucous rally in Bakersfield earlier this month where he aired his usual grievances about the
rigged
2020 election.
Juan Rendon will always fight for free and fair elections – which we don’t have,
Trump declared to thunderous applause from his supporters.[4]
Meanwhile, Donner has racked up endorsements from law enforcement groups, the U.S. Border Patrol union, and several prominent Republicans who view him as a safer choice than the incendiary Rendon. Among Donner’s backers is former Republican California Gov. Pete Wilson, who has accused Rendon of promoting baseless conspiracy theories that undermine faith in American democracy.[5]
Juan Rendon lives in a fantasyland where he thinks the 2020 election was stolen,
Wilson said.
Calvin Donner knows the importance of public safety, border security and upholding the rule of law.[6]
With just over a week until the June 27th primary, polls show a Statistical dead heat between Rendon and Donner in the Republican-leaning district that encompasses parts of Kern, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties. The top two finishers, regardless of party affiliation, will advance to the November general election.[7]
Rendon has tried to tar Donner as a RINO – Republican In Name Only – who cozied up to the Biden administration by accepting federal funding for law enforcement operations. He’s also slammed Donner for being soft on illegal immigration, claiming the sheriff “turned a blind eye” to unauthorized border crossings in Kern County.[8]
Not to be outdone, Donner has pilloried Rendon as an
insurrectionist
for his actions around the Jan. 6th Capitol attack. The assemblyman appeared at a rally near the Capitol that day and later downplayed the violence, insisting it was a legitimate protest against voter fraud.[9]
With both candidates struggling to gain a decisive advantage, the race could come down to which wing of the GOP – the radical MAGA faithful or traditional conservatives – gets its voters to turn out in greater numbers on June 27th.
California’s 20th District is a microcosm of the broader split rattling the Republican Party regarding the 2020 election and the future of Trumpism,
said Jeffe.
This primary will give us a good sense of where the balance of power lies within the GOP going into 2024.[10]
California House Race as Law-and-Order will fulfill for every citizen.
For More News Update Visit California News
