Two House Republicans Will Face Off for California’s 40th District

California voters passed a redistricting ballot measure last year that altered the lines of California’s 40th Congressional District. That change forced two Republican House members into a primary race for the redrawn seat, and those two incumbents will now move on to November’s general election, according to Associated Press projections.

Rep. Ken Calvert and Rep. Young Kim advanced in the nonpartisan primary, topping six other Democratic or politically unaffiliated candidates to square off for a seat Cook Political Report categorizes as solidly Republican.

If Kim loses in the general election, her ouster would be one of the first Republican casualties in California in the aftermath of Proposition 50, the redistricting measure California Democrats launched to counter Republicans’ redistricting in Texas. Under the new maps, the 40th District includes parts of Calvert’s former 41st District, which led to Calvert and Kim each claiming the heavily red district as their own in what became a bitter primary.

Kim, who was first elected in 2020, announced her plans to run for reelection in the 40th District last summer. But hours after the passage of Proposition 50, Calvert announced he would abandon the 41st District, which had been redrawn as a solidly Democratic seat, per Cook Political, to challenge Kim in the neighboring district.

Calvert, who’s served in the House for 33 years, is the chairman of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee. Throughout his reelection campaign, his campaign committee attracted donations from a range of defense executives or their associated political action committees, including in the days after the Iran war began.

Both candidates raised and spent millions during their primary fight. According to FEC filings reported on May 21, Calvert’s campaign raised over $5.7 million in total through May 13 and spent over $3.6 million in that time. Kim’s campaign raised over $8.2 million through May 13 and spent $6.6 million, according to her campaigns’ May 21 FEC filings.

In a rabidly red district in staunchly blue California, each candidate has spent time and advertising dollars arguing their opponent isn’t sufficiently loyal to Donald Trump’s MAGA movement, but the president declined to make an endorsement in the primary race.

“We need a conservative who’s been with President Trump through thick and thin, not just when it’s politically expedient,” Calvert told The New York Times, referring to Kim. “She’s part of the more moderate group in the House, and she has separated herself from President Trump on numerous occasions.”