This seat, which blends portions of Kim and Calvert’s current districts, spans from Mission Viejo in Orange County up into Woodcrest, Menifee and Murrieta in Riverside County. The district was reconfigured under Proposition 50, the ballot measure that passed last year to redraw the boundaries of the state’s congressional districts. The new district includes pieces of the current ones represented by Kim and Calvert and is considered a fairly safe Republican seat.

President Trump would have won this district by 12 points in 2024.

Who are the candidates?

• Ken Calvert: Republican, incumbent member of Congress

Calvert, the longest-serving Republican member of California’s congressional delegation, is a Corona native who was first elected in 1992. He serves on the House Committee on Appropriations.

His legislative priorities, according to his district website, include strengthening the economy, fixing what he calls “our broken immigration system,” advocating for veterans and service members and coming up with solutions for California’s water issues.

• Young Kim: Republican, incumbent member of Congress

Kim was one of three Korean American women who were the first to be elected to Congress in 2020. She won reelection in 2022 and 2024. Kim serves on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, House Committee on Financial Services and House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party.

Before she was elected to Congress, she served in the state Assembly for two years. Kim also worked for more than two decades for Orange County’s Rep. Ed Royce during his stint as a U.S. House member.

• Esther Kim Varet: Democrat, art gallery owner

Varet, who lives in Trabuco Canyon, has a Ph.D in art history, criticism and conservation from Columbia University. She is the founder and director of the contemporary art gallery Various Small Fires.

Her priorities include protecting reproductive rights, strengthening schools, combating climate change, immigration reform and rebuilding the country’s middle class, according to her campaign website.

• Lisa Ramirez: Democrat, immigration attorney

Ramirez, a Southern California native, is the owner and partner of U.S. Immigration Law Group. She attended Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and has a Bachelor of Arts from Scripps College in political science and religious studies, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Affordability is a cornerstone of her campaign along with immigration reform, climate stewardship, education and women’s health.

• Joseph Kerr: Democrat, retired fire captain

Kerr spent 34 years as a fire captain with the Orange County Fire Authority and served 17 years as president of the Orange County Professional Firefighters Assn., a labor union that represents more than 1,100 firefighters. He ran unsuccessfully for the Orange County Board of Supervisors in 2018, the state Senate in 2022 and Congress in 2024.

• Claude Keissieh: Democrat, electrical engineer

Keissieh is a U.S. Army veteran who served four tours in Iraq and later on a mission in Afghanistan, a small business owner, an adjunct college professor and an electrical engineer, according to his campaign website.

He previously worked with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to teach incarcerated people how to become electricians, his website says, and last year joined the California Department of Transportation as an electrical engineer.

• Nina Linh: Independent, nonprofit executive director

Linh started the WonderSeed Foundation, a nonprofit that uses neuroscience and technology to help at-risk youth, in 2018 after grappling with her son’s mental health struggles. She previously was a television producer and wrote a parenting book and a series of children’s books.

She’s running as an independent because she feels the “two-party system is broken” and the public is tired of hyperpartisan politics.

Democrat Francis Xavier Hoffman also is running.

Where they stand on immigration

Calvert for years has advocated for immigration reform, which he says must begin with controlling the U.S.-Mexico border to prevent people from entering illegally.

In 1996, he authored legislation that later became the E-Verify program, a tool used by employers to check the immigration status of newly hired employees. In 2023, he introduced legislation that would expand the use of the program. The bill, the Legal Workforce Act, was referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary and the House committees on Ways and Means and Education and Workforce last year.

Calvert told The Times he favors passing legislation that guarantees a secure border and “ends the job magnet.”

“I support a system that rewards those who follow the rules and wait their turn, not one that gives a fast pass or grants amnesty to those who cut in line,” he said.

Last year, Calvert voted in favor of the Laken Riley Act, which allowed the Department of Homeland Security to detain noncitizens who have been arrested for burglary, theft, larceny or shoplifting. Kim also voted in favor of the legislation.

Kim has identified border security as a key issue in her campaign. She voted in favor of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which allocated $46.5 billion for border wall construction and additional funds for hiring Border Patrol agents. Calvert also voted in favor of the bill.

On her campaign website, Kim states that former President Biden “opened our border and purposely created a crisis that overwhelmed law enforcement and allowed deadly fentanyl to flood into our country.”

“It’s simple: enforce our laws, secure the border, no amnesty and put American safety first,” she wrote.

Varet supports the DREAM Act, which if passed would offer a path to legal status and citizenship for thousands of DACA recipients — undocumented people who were brought to the U.S. as children and given federal protections — and other undocumented minors, according to her campaign website. She also is in favor of legislation that would reduce green card backlogs, establishes a path to citizenship for people who have been in the country for a certain number of years, for people who have passed a background check and those who have worked in the agricultural industry.

She wrote that “undocumented immigrants already living in the U.S. and their children cannot and should not be removed other than for legitimate criminal justice or immigration law violation convictions.”

She supports providing a path to amnesty and providing funds to boost the number of immigration judges, consular officers and naturalization officers.

Linh, who came to the United States as a refugee from Vietnam as a young child, told The Times she supports “secure, orderly and lawful immigration.” She added that a functioning immigration system would protect everyone, including those who seek to enter the country.

“Real reform means a funded immigration court system, smart technology at ports of entry, and cooperation with origin countries on root causes. It means agents who identify themselves, follow the law, and are held accountable when they do not. It means a legal pathway that works, not one so backlogged that doing things right means waiting 15 years,” she said.

As an immigration attorney, Ramirez believes America should provide permanent legal status and a path to citizenship for Dreamers and immigrants who have contributed to the country for years.

“Our immigration laws need an overhaul and to be brought into the 21st century, giving workers more flexibility and options for people who are waiting decades to complete the legal process,” she told The Times. “In the meantime, we need to keep our communities safe from unlawful ICE enforcement while supporting effective community policing, accountability and trust in law enforcement…”

Kerr said immigration policies aren’t working, noting that it’s not simply a choice between “open borders and cruelty.”

He supports expanding immigration courts to eliminate backlogs, protecting Dreamers and creating a pathway to citizenship for people who contribute to the U.S., simplifying the process of legal immigration and boosting accountability for Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations to ensure enforcement is focused on real public safety threats.

“We can enforce the law with strength and we can do it with basic human dignity. These goals are not in conflict,” he wrote on his campaign website.

Where they stand on climate change

In 2024, Kim co-sponsored the Championing Local Efforts to Advance Resilience Act, proposed bipartisan legislation that would authorize $100 million annually over five years to help states strengthen infrastructure and prepare for extreme weather and natural disasters. The bill was referred to the House Committee on Financial Services.

In May 2025, Kim partnered with Rep. Dave Min (D-Irvine) to introduce the Building Resiliency and Understanding of Shrublands to Halt (BRUSH) Fires Act, which aims to boost wildfire mitigation efforts in shrubland ecosystems.

Kim and Calvert also co-sponsored bipartisan legislation to improve the health and resiliency of giant sequoias, which have been threatened by California wildfires.

But Kim also faced criticism from environmental groups for voting for legislation that reduces environmental regulations.

Calvert told The Times he favors focusing on “mitigating for a changing climate instead of imposing more taxes and regulations that kill jobs and make everything more expensive.”

He opposes California’s Cap-and-Invest program, which sets a declining cap on greenhouse gas emissions from major polluters, and believes the Trump administration was right to stop the state’s efforts to ban the sale of gas-powered cars by 2035.

The solution to climate change, Calvert said, is “water storage … better forest management to stop these catastrophic fires before they start and investing in infrastructure so we can better handle whatever Mother Nature throws our way.”

In February, Calvert announced he’d helped secure $67 million for Riverside County infrastructure projects, including several water-related projects, as part of an appropriations package.

On her campaign website, Varet said she will “demand responsible, science-based solutions” to protect the public and keep the country competitive.

She vows to support legislation that would hold large fossil fuel companies accountable for climate change, repeal tax breaks for the oil and gas industry and advance the transition to renewable energy.

“Pollution and climate change threaten not only our national forests but our health, our homes and our quality of life,” she wrote.

Linh told The Times she will push for mandatory modernization of utility infrastructure to prevent power lines from sparking fires, invest in forest and vegetation management and modernize water infrastructure and early warning systems.

On emissions, Linh said she believes “incentives and innovation will always outperform heavy-handed mandates.” She supports expanding clean transit options, incentivizing employers to adopt flexible work policies to reduce commute emissions, deploying smart traffic technology and giving small businesses tiered time lines and tax credits to transition.

She also vows to push for federal oversight of insurance companies that abandon fire-prone states like California.

“The climate crisis has become an affordability crisis,” she said. “People who were already struggling to stay housed are now one policy cancellation away from financial collapse. This is not an abstract environmental issue. It is happening to families right now.”

Ramirez supports policies that call for responsible energy development, innovation in renewable technologies, improving energy efficiency in buildings and transportation, and strengthening infrastructure to withstand stronger storms and higher temperatures. It’s critical, she said, to restore the historical function of the Environmental Protection Agency and reinstate protections for air and water.

“Environmental stewardship and economic growth are not opposing goals — they reinforce one another,” she told The Times.

As a firefighter, Kerr said he saw the effects of climate change firsthand. He supports funding for advanced wildfire detection technology, more resources for firefighters, strengthening incentives for homeowners to harden against wildfires, clean energy and climate resilient infrastructure and strengthening federal disaster relief programs.

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Earlier this month, President Donald Trump approved $5 million in funding for the project at 37600 Sky Canyon Drive in Murrieta. The federal dollars are part of a package of appropriation bills that included more than $67 million for Riverside County projects. 

Rep. Ken Calvert (R-41) secured the funding for the county projects through the Community Project Funding process. The program provides investment in a wide variety of projects such as housing, homelessness prevention, workforce training, public facilities, parks, resilience planning and other critical infrastructure and services.

The public-use French Valley Airport is county-owned, and Riverside County Supervisor Chuck Washington said a new tower is needed. (The airport is located within Washington’s Third District.)

“This $5 million federal investment is a major step forward for French Valley Airport and the region,” Washington said. “It moves us closer to delivering an air traffic control tower that will improve safety, support local jobs, and strengthen the continued growth of our regional aviation economy. I’m grateful to our Congressional delegation for their partnership and commitment to our community.”

In a May 23, 2025, letter from Calvert to Rep. Tom Cole (R), Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, the local lawmaker said the money would be used to begin construction of a new Contract Air Traffic Control Tower.

A “Contract” Air Traffic Control Tower is an airport tower where the Federal Aviation Administration contracts with private companies to provide air traffic services rather than using its own employees.

Plans for the project include a 448-square-foot octagonal tower built 93 feet above ground level. A chain-link security fence would surround it, and an emergency generator with designated parking for a fuel truck would be on-site. Ten parking spaces for tower employees would be constructed.

“The project is an appropriate use of taxpayer funds because this project would improve airspace and passenger safety, support regional growth, and increase economic development in the region,” Calvert wrote in the 2025 letter.

According to environmental documents filed with the state, the new tower would “enhance aviation safety by improving air traffic communication, providing improved aircraft separation, and reducing the risk of mid-air collisions and other accidents, runway incursions, and other hazards.”

The proposed project would not affect air traffic patterns or increase airport capacity. Additionally, the tower would be constructed entirely within airport boundaries, and no property acquisition is required, according to the documents.

The airport currently has one runway, which is 6,000 feet long and 75 feet wide. Aircraft operations at French Valley average 290 per day, according to the county’s website.

Construction on the tower is planned to begin this year and would require approximately six months to complete.

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The redrawn maps, unveiled Friday afternoon, Aug. 15, would radically reshape the Inland Empire’s political landscape and put Calvert, R-Corona, and Issa, a San Diego Republican who represents southwest Riverside County, in hostile territories compared to their current districts.

As for Jay Obernolte, R-Hesperia, a proposed district would be similar to the one he currently represents.

“We strongly believe that this map serves the best interest of California voters, while also attempting to push back against the corrupt scheme occurring in Texas and other Republican-majority states where Republicans — doing the bidding of their DC party bosses — are considering adopting a clearly racially gerrymandered, partisan map at the expense of their voters,” Julie Merz, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee executive director, said in a letter attached to the proposed maps.

Calvert took to social media Friday to denounce the redrawn districts.

“I’m committed to defeating Newsom’s power grab in this special election,” the congressmember posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Voters decided to give redistricting powers to the Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission and take it away from politicians drawing their own districts.”

“The gerrymandered maps released today are exactly why voters don’t trust Sacramento politicians. I will fight to keep redistricting power with our citizens.”

Calvert currently represents a district that includes Calimesa, Canyon Lake, Indian Wells, Lake Elsinore, La Quinta, Menifee, Norco, Palm Desert, Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage, Wildomar and parts of Corona, Eastvale and Riverside. Issa’s current district includes Murrieta and Temecula, along with much of San Diego County.

The new districts would split up Norco and Canyon Lake — both solidly red cities — and replace them with bluer communities. Murrieta and part of Temecula — both GOP bastions — would be stripped from Issa’s district.

Calvert narrowly won reelection in 2022 and 2024 in a purple district. Giving him more Democratic voters would make it harder to extend a congressional career that started in the 1990s. Similarly, adding deep blue Palm Springs to what’s essentially Issa’s current district would pose a challenge for him.

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday, Aug. 14, launched California’s campaign to redraw congressional boundary lines, a partisan effort meant to favor Democrats in the state as a counter to similar, Republican-led plans elsewhere in the country in the battle for which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives.

California’s redistricting efforts would only apply to congressional boundary lines, and the changes, should voters approve them, would only be implemented if Republican-led states also move forward with partisan redistricting at the behest of President Donald Trump for the 2026 midterm elections, Newsom said.

These new congressional lines would be in place for elections in 2026, 2028, and 2030, and then the state would revert to having an independent commission decide congressional district boundaries.

The draft maps still need to be approved by the California Legislature, and with a Democratic majority in the statehouse, that’s expected to happen. Both the state Senate and Assembly elections committees have hearings scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 19.

Voters would then need to give final approval to the maps in a special election on Nov. 4.

California Republicans have largely decried efforts to redo California’s congressional maps mid-cycle. Redistricting is typically done every 10 years, consistent with new census data, and boundary lines are decided by an independent group.

Merz, though, said the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s proposal for California keeps communities together better than what has been proposed in Texas, where Republicans are hoping to shore up extra House seats in 2026.

“Our proposed map was created using traditional redistricting criteria, consistent with guidelines laid out by the California’s Citizen Redistricting Commission,” Merz said.

“It allows for more compact districts than in the current Commission-drawn map, keeps more communities and neighborhoods together, splits fewer cities and makes minimal disruptions to the Commission-drawn map so as to impact as few residents as possible.”

Here’s a look at the proposed maps for Riverside and San Bernardino counties:

23rd Congressional District: Big Bear City and Yucaipa would be part of a sprawling district stretching north of Barstow and out to Blythe. It’s similar to Hesperia Republican Jay Obernolte’s current district.

Thirty-eight percent of the district’s voters would be registered Republicans, compared to 32% for Democrats and 29% for no-party-preference and third-party voters.

25th Congressional District: San Jacinto and much of the Coachella Valley would become part of this district. Roughly 4 in 10 voters in this district are registered Democrats, 28% are Republicans and 28% are no party preference/third party.

28th Congressional District: Part of Rancho Cucamonga would be merged into a district stretching north to Wrightwood and east to include Pasadena, Altadena, Arcadia, San Gabriel, Rosemead and Monterey Park. The voter registration breakdown is 45% Democrat, 31% no party preference/third party and 23% Republican.

31st Congressional District: Chino, San Dimas, Montclair and La Verne would be part of a district stretching to Monrovia and West Covina. Forty-four% of its voters would be Democrats, compared to 25% for Republicans and 28% for no-party-preference and third-party voters.

33rd Congressional District: This district would encompass San Bernardino, Rialto, Highland, Colton, Redlands and part of Rancho Cucamonga. Its voter registration would be 44% Democratic, 30% no party preference/third party and 25% Republican.

35th Congressional District: Claremont, Upland, Ontario, Fontana, Chino Hills, Eastvale, Norco and part of Corona would be in this district. Its voter registration would be 43% Democratic, 29% no party preference/third party and 26% Republican.

39th Congressional District: Jurupa Valley, Riverside, Moreno Valley and Perris would be included in a district similar to the current 39th, which is represented by Riverside Democrat Mark Takano. It’s a blue district with 44% of voters being Democrats, 29% registered as no party preference/third party and 25% registered as Republicans.

40th Congressional District: Rancho Santa Margarita and Villa Park would be included in this district that would stretch east into the Inland Empire, picking up the Temescal Valley, Lake Elsinore, Menifee and Murrieta.

Registered Republicans would have the advantage, making up 40% of the proposed district, compared to 31% Democratic and 27% no party preference/other.

48th Congressional District: Hemet, Palm Springs and part of Temecula would join a district stretching into northern San Diego County. The district would be 37% Democratic, 33% Republican and 29% no party preference/third party.

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Rollins, who also failed to unseat Calvert in 2022 and 2024, is not running again in 2026. 

But seven other Democrats and one Republican are challenging Calvert for his Riverside County seat in one of California’s key swing districts.

Calvert, the longest-serving GOP member of California’s delegation, has held office for three decades in what was once a reliably conservative district. But recent redistricting made it closer to an even split. In February, Republicans held less than a two-point voter registration edge over Democrats, according to the California Secretary of State. 

Calvert’s campaign brushed off the challenges, saying he expects to prevail again next year. 

“It’s clear by the growing list of radical liberals jumping in the 41st District race that Democrats are in disarray,” his campaign said in a statement to CalMatters. “Rep. Calvert continues to deliver results for his constituents and just recently fulfilled his promise to lower taxes for Riverside County voters.”

Cody Wiebelhaus, a Palm Springs health care executive, is his Republican challenger.

The Democratic candidates are lawyer Anuj Dixit, school board member Abel Chavez, entrepreneur Brandon Riker,  investment banker Dave Karson, software engineer Jason Byors, small business owner Ferguson Porter and musician Tim Meyers, formerly the bassist for the pop band OneRepublic.

In campaign messages some are tying Calvert to President Donald Trump’s tariffs and federal funding cuts and other policies.

Republicans are “trying to repackage the same old politics with shiny words and hidden agendas,” Chavez said in a video, referring to the GOP budget bill that reduces taxes for many while slashing social services.

Meyers argues on his website that Calvert has not delivered for constituents, as the Trump administration has waged trade wars and cut cancer research and veterans’ services.

“Our Congressman, Ken Calvert, has spent his entire career running for office, rather than solving problems for working families,” Meyers said on his website. 

The seat is one of a handful that could flip the balance of power in the midterm election. The top two vote-getters in the June 2 primary next year will face off in the general election.

Dixit grew up on March Air Force Base and has worked as a lawyer defending voters against “extreme and illegal forms of gerrymandering,” he stated on his campaign website.

He said he’s trying to “shake up a system that’s been rigged for decades by insiders” and pledges to “go after big businesses that buy elections and dodge taxes.” 

Chavez grew up in the Riverside County communities of Romoland and Nuevo, California, and  attended UC Riverside as a pre-med major.  He switched to business and banking, then became a high school science teacher but said he saw flaws in the schools.

“Underfunded schools, outdated curricula, and rigid bureaucratic policies were preventing students from truly thriving,” he stated on his website.

In 2022 Chavez became a board member for Nuview Union School District, a small district in Nuevo, California. He advocates for education reform and wants to help first-time home buyers.

Riker is a fourth-generation Californian who works as an investment manager and entrepreneur. He became involved in politics by demonstrating against the Iraq war as a teenager, he stated on his website. 

In 2008 he worked as an organizer for former President Barack Obama’s campaign. Now he serves on the board of SafePlace International, which works to find safe spaces for LGBTQ people around the world. His priorities are helping small businesses and improving education.

Pop rock star Meyers grew up in Corona and played for OneRepublic before founding his own label, Palladium Records. He lives in a neighboring area of Los Angeles County now, but unlike California state representatives, congress members don’t need to live in the district they represent. 

Meyers said in a campaign video the cutthroat business environment he experienced in the entertainment industry mirrors the country’s economic system, where he says “the playing field is stacked against hard working people.”

Though campaign finance reports for most of the challengers aren’t available, some have announced early fundraising windfalls. On April 3, Riker stated on his campaign website he raised $250,000 from individual donors during the first 24 hours of his campaign. Dixit reported he raised $150,000 shortly after jumping into the race, according to Politico.

They’ll have to catch up with Calvert, whose campaign committee reported $1.3 million in contributions and transfers, according to the Federal Election Commission. 

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Myers, who is also the CEO of Palladium Records and founder of Californians for Climate Action, is the highest profile challenger to enter a race that Democrats see as one of the best chances to overturn the GOP’s slight majority in the House of Representatives

Calvert has held the seat for 30 years, but due to redistricting that brought liberal Palm Springs into the district, he’s faced tight races over the last two elections.

Myers, whose office is in Corona, is laying the groundwork for 2026 midterms.

The sitting congressman is also a Corona native. His career has spanned from working at restaurants to owning a business to serving as the chair of the Riverside County Republican Party. In the Nov. 2024 race, Calvert won 51.7 percent of the vote over Democrat Will Rollins, who received 48.3 percent, according to Ballotpedia.

At a time when competitive House contests are becoming scarcer nationwide, Democrats consider Calvert’s closely divided California district one of the party’s best opportunities to gain ground in the chamber, where Republicans hold a fragile 220-213 majority, according to the AP. Of Myers’ campaign announcement, spokesperson for the House Republicans’ campaign arm, Christian Martinez said, “Democrat Tim Myers is everything wrong with today’s radical left: a Hollywood liberal trying to fake his way into Riverside County.”

Myers’ bio shares that most of his career has been spent working for and helping others get their fair share. According to his announcement video below, and his website, www.TimMyersForCongress.com.

“Ken Calvert has been in Congress for 30 years. All he’s done is make himself millions. Status quo isn’t working,” said Myers. “We need leaders who will stand up and say Enough.

“I’m a pastor’s son who learned how to stretch a dollar in Corona, California. I turned a love of music into a career. With luck and a lot of hard work, I made it big. But it wasn’t always easy. I got signed, got dropped, and started over. I saw how the industry took advantage of people, so I built a business that puts artists first. It reminds me a lot of what we are seeing now.

“The people in charge are screwing us over just to make a buck. Trump, Musk, and these clowns in Washington are cutting cancer research, veterans’ health care, and getting into trade wars, making everything we buy more expensive.

“All while giving billionaires another tax cut they don’t need. And where’s my hometown congressman?

“One voice is weak, but a chorus is strong,” he added. “Let’s write a new song for California. Together.”

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The Associated Press declared Calvert the winner of the competitive district on Wednesday afternoon. He is now poised to serve a 17th term, making him the longest-serving Republican in the California congressional delegation.

Ahead of his projected victory, GOP incumbent posted a message to his followers on social media on Monday, announcing his defeat of Rollins and thanking voters for their support. Calvert (R-Corona), 71, has served in various congressional districts — 42nd, 44th, 43rd and now 41st — since 1993.

“I’m honored that Riverside County voters have once again placed their trust in me to continue delivering results for them in Washington,” Calvert said. “This is a hard-fought victory that shows voters want someone who will put results over partisan politics.”

But his 40-year-old competitor from Palm Springs has not conceded and said earlier this week that it was still too soon to declare victory.

Coby Eiss, Rollins’ campaign manager, told Patch that they would have a statement after Wednesday night’s votes are tallied.

After Calvert declared a win on Monday, Eiss responded with a statement on Monday, insisting that there are tens of thousands of votes left to be counted across the Inland Empire. With vote-by-mail ballots and conditional ballots still rolling in, it’s too soon to declare victory, according to Eiss.

“We view the race as too close to call and will continue to monitor the results as we wait for potentially 20% or more of the electorate to have their voice heard,” Eiss said.

According to the latest tallies from the Secretary of State, Calvert was pulling ahead with 51.3% of the vote (161,202) and Rollins was trailing close behind with 48.7% of votes (153,079).

Across Riverside County, an estimated 70,000 vote-by-mail and 35,000 conditional ballots remain to be counted, according to the latest update from the Riverside County Registrar of Voters.

The 41st Congressional District is diverse and encompasses a vast swath of Riverside County. It includes the cities of Corona, Norco, Lake Elsinore, Wildomar, Canyon Lake, Menifee, Calimesa, Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, La Quinta, Indian Wells, and portions of Eastvale and Riverside. The district also includes the unincorporated areas of El Sobrante, Woodcrest, Temescal Valley, Lakeview, Nuevo, Homeland, Winchester, Cherry Valley, Anza, Pine Cove and Idyllwild.

The latest public disagreement from the candidates comes as many races balanced on a knife’s edge in the days following the election. In California, many neck-and-neck races are being closely watched as election officials work through hundreds of thousands of ballots.

The 41st is a closely watched race nationwide because it could help determine the balance of power in the U.S. House of Representatives next year.

Statewide, only about three-quarters of its votes have been counted. This isn’t unusual or unexpected, as the nation’s most populous state is consistently among the slowest to report all its election results.

Although the results are far from final, Republicans in California appeared to gain ground in several races. For the presidential race, voters just barely flipped the county red, according to the latest returns. But ultimately, voters seemed to be split evenly when choosing between President-elect Donald Trump, who received 407,140 votes and Vice President Kamala Harris, who got 403,588 from county voters.

There’s still room for Trump’s near 40% margin to shift in the Golden State as the Associated Press estimates elections officials have only counted about 76% of the vote. Vice President Kamala Harris currently leads Trump by 20.8 points in California, with 58.9% of the total — or 7,721,839 — votes.

Lawmakers in California designed their elections to improve accessibility and increase turnout. Whether it’s automatically receiving a ballot at home, having up until Election Day to turn it in or having several days to address any problems that may arise with their ballot, Californians have a lot of time and opportunity to vote. It comes at the expense of knowing the final vote counts soon after polls close.

“Our priority is trying to maximize participation of actively registered voters,” said Democratic Assemblymember Marc Berman, who authored the 2021 bill that permanently switched the state to all-mail elections. “What that means is things are a little slower. But in a society that wants immediate gratification, I think our democracy is worth taking a little time to get it right and to create a system where everyone can participate.”

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Rep. Ken Calvert, a Republican who has represented parts of Riverside County for more than three decades, was leading challenger Will Rollins in a rematch of their 2022 race for California’s 41st Congressional District. The Associated Press hasn’t called the race yet, but Calvert claimed victory on his social media accounts Monday, thanking Riverside County voters who have “once again placed their trust in me.”

Rollins wasn’t giving up. There could still be at least 80,000 votes left to count between mail ballots and conditional ballots, he said in a statement Monday, declaring the race “too close to call.” 

The Rollins campaign cited discrepancies in the total number of ballots the Riverside County Registrar of Voters has reportedly received by mail. There are more than 40,000 unprocessed ballots from the district, more than 35,000 uncounted ballots and more than 11,000 conditional ballots, his campaign estimated.

The 41st District also has the highest number of “uncured” ballots — those with small technical errors — of any competitive congressional race in California. Rollins argues the remaining ballots could still move the needle on the race.

“Our campaign is following the election results extremely closely, with eyes and ears at the Registrar of Voters every single day,” Rollins said. 

His challenge to Calvert was one of a handful of swing races that could decide which party controls the House of Representatives. But Republicans are well on their way to taking both the House and Senate, along with the White House, regardless of final results in the Inland Empire.

Palm Springs Councilmember Lisa Middleton conceded her race for California’s new 19th Senate District to incumbent State Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh. The candidates were statistically tied when polls closed last week, but Ochoa Bogh’s lead widened in the following days to more than 7 points Tuesday.

“I congratulate my opponent Senator Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh,” Middleton said in a statement. “I wish her success and promise cooperation in representing the people of Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. … We have lost a race. We remain steadfast to our values. I will continue to work with all who are committed to freedom, fairness, and opportunity for all.”

And Republican Assemblymember Greg Wallis inched ahead of Palm Springs City Councilmember Christy Holstege by a fraction of a point in the race for the 47th state Assembly District, reversing her slight lead. That race, divided by just a few hundred votes, is still listed as a close contest on the Secretary of State’s website.

The state Senate and Assembly races won’t change the political equation in California’s legislature, where Democrats still hold a supermajority.

However, all three races dampen their supporters’ hopes of increasing LGBTQ representation in California. Rollins, a former federal prosecutor, is gay. Middleton is a former state administrator, and hoped to become the first transgender lawmaker in California if elected. Holstege, a civil rights attorney, identifies as bisexual.

None of them made sexual or gender identity a centerpiece of their campaigns, instead focusing on issues such as infrastructure, the environment and public safety. But LGBTQ leaders in the Coachella Valley, which is part of all three districts, said they’re bracing for rollbacks of civil rights including attacks on same-sex marriage and transgender protections under a second Trump administration, the Desert Sun reported. 

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But that evaporated in 2022, when Calvert was nearly toppled by a fresh-faced Democratic insurgent.

Will Rollins’ candidacy in California’s 41st District was made viable by redistricting changes the year prior that swapped Republican havens like Temecula and Murrieta for a swath of the Coachella Valley that included overwhelmingly liberal Palm Springs, home to one of the largest concentrations of LGBTQ+ voters in the country.

The 2022 race didn’t draw much attention at first. That quickly changed in the months prior to the election when the former federal prosecutor, now 39, showed he might have an actual shot at unseating the entrenched Republican stalwart. Rollins was briefly ahead on election night, though Calvert ultimately bested him by more than 11,000 votes.

Two years later, Rollins and Calvert are set for a 2024 rematch in what is now one of the most closely-watched races in the country.

The seat will likely play a crucial role in deciding which party dominates the U.S. House of Representatives next year, with partisan control of the House set to be determined by a handful of competitive seats in New York and California.

One story line drew particular attention during the last election, particularly in national media.

In a twist that one advocate described as “poetic justice,” Rollins was a young gay candidate battling an older Republican who had voted against LGBTQ rights in the past in a district that now included Palm Springs, the first city in the nation to elect an all-LGBTQ city council. (Calvert has said his views have since evolved, and the congressman voted in favor of a 2022 bill that affirmed same-sex marriage.)

All of those dynamics remain at play, and the addition of the Coachella Valley is precisely what made the district competitive.

But the Inland Empire suburbs still account for the vast majority of its voters, and it’s there, in the bedroom communities and increasingly diverse cul-de-sacs, that the battle for Calvert’s seat is really being fought.

Both sides say this year’s race will likely be dominated by kitchen-table issues including the daily cost of living, crime and housing, rather than the divisive culture wars that permeate the national political narrative, and that results will come down to what happens in the western Riverside suburbs.

“Corona, Lake Elsinore, Menifee, Eastvale, Canyon Lake, Norco — those are the cities that are going to decide the outcome of this election,” Rollins said, sitting at an oversize table in a Corona fire station. The local firefighters he’d been meeting with had just rushed out on an emergency call and the smell of their chorizo and eggs lingered, along with several hastily abandoned breakfast plates.

Those western Riverside enclaves are also the cities where Rollins is least well-known and Calvert — the son of a former Corona mayor — has long been a fixture.

“That’s why I’m here today in Corona,” Rollins said, noting that he’d been at the Corona Chamber of Commerce earlier that morning and tries to be in his Corona field office five days a week, about an hour-and-a-half commute from his Palm Springs home.

Though he is slightly graying at the temples, the 39-year-old candidate looks disarmingly boyish and could pass at first glance for an eager college student volunteer. Like Calvert, Rollins and his campaign team underscore the importance of turnout in the western part of the district, which has historically been far lower than in the Palm Springs area.

Those familiar with it describe the district as having two distinct hubs: a corner of the Inland Empire, which includes suburbs like Corona and Menifee and accounts for nearly 80% of voters, and a portion of the Coachella Valley, which includes communities like Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert, along with Palm Springs.

“I know this district inside and out, I was born here. I went to school here. I did business here, and have been representing this district,” Calvert said by phone on a recent Friday from his Corona real estate office in a Spanish-style building a stone’s throw from the 91 Freeway.

About 50 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles at the western edge of the Inland Empire, Corona is the biggest city in the district and Calvert’s hometown.

Once dubbed “the lemon capital of the world,” it was a town dominated — and perfumed by — citrus for the better part of a century.

But orchards eventually gave way to new homes, neighborhoods and industry, and the Sunkist plant shut down in the early 1980s — the same decade the Riverside County city’s population began to explode, with aspiring suburbanites from Los Angeles and Orange counties driven inland for their slice of the American dream.

Amid a seemingly intractable state housing crisis, Corona and other inland cities in the district, such as Menifee and Lake Elsinore, have continued to boom. Spacious single-family homes can still be had for a fraction of what they would cost in coastal cities, though emigres to the Inland Empire often face lengthy commutes.

The families who arrived during the first waves of Corona’s population boom leaned more conservative, said Wes Speake, a Corona City Council member and president of the Corona Historic Preservation Society. Registered Democrats now slightly outnumber Republicans in the city, though folks still tend to be more fiscally conservative regardless of party affiliation, Speake said.

Speake — a Republican who has endorsed Calvert — attributes Corona’s shift to the center-left to a number of factors, including an “exponential” increase in diversity over the last two decades, younger and more liberal arrivals from Los Angeles and Orange counties, and Republicans changing their registration to no party preference.

More broadly speaking, the 41st District stands out as a rare piece of truly purple topography in a national landscape dominated by red and blue congressional districts.

Former President Trump won the district by just 1% in 2020, down five points from 2016, according to data from California Target Book. As of late May, Republicans held a razor-thin registration advantage, overtaking registered Democrats by a few thousand voters. But that advantage has see-sawed in the past, with Democrats holding an equally narrow upper hand during the 2022 election. Independents account for roughly 1 in 5 voters.

Trump endorsed Calvert in 2022, and the congressman has endorsed Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. Rollins, a former assistant U.S. attorney in the National Security Division at the Department of Justice, has blasted Calvert for his continued support of Trump, even after Trump became the first former president to be convicted of felony crimes last month, with Rollins saying on the social media site X that the district deserves “a representative who cares more about the 750,000 of us in Riverside County than one convicted felon in New York.”

It remains unclear how Trump’s guilty verdict might affect Republicans congressional candidates in competitive districts like Calvert’s, or whether the conviction could nudge swing voters away from supporters of the former president.

“Riverside of 2024 is not Riverside of 1994,” said Sky Allen, executive director of Inland Empire United, a progressive political group that has endorsed Rollins. “The community looks different, our needs are different. And also, there’s a lot of people in our community that were never really represented by someone that holds conservative values.“

Allen cited the increased racial and ethnic diversity, more LGBTQ+ and immigrant families and more organizing from nonprofits like hers as factors shaping the district. In coordination with the super PAC Battleground California, Allen’s organization will be administering an independent expenditure in support of Rollins, with the bulk of its efforts concentrated on canvassing in the district.

Calvert and Rollins diverge on a number of pivotal issues. Calvert has said decisions on abortion should be left to the states and has an A+ rating on SBA Pro-Life America’s “National Pro-Life Scorecard,” whereas Rollins has been outspoken on protecting abortion rights and is backed by Planned Parenthood California’s political action committee. Rollins has advocated more gun-safety restrictions, whereas Calvert has voted against more stringent restrictions and received high marks from the National Rifle Assn.

Both candidates have criticized the country’s broken immigration system and advocated securing the country’s borders, but Rollins’ positioning also focuses on creating a path to citizenship for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and other “qualified immigrants.”

Rollins’ unexpectedly narrow loss in 2022 left some prognosticators wondering whether more Democratic Party involvement in 2022 could have flipped the seat blue. Those what-ifs won’t be a question in 2024, regardless of what happens in November.

The Democratic establishment is putting its full backing behind Rollins. He’s one of the top candidates on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s “red to blue” list, a program that provides organizational and fundraising support, and he has also been the beneficiary of high-profile fundraising efforts, with Orange County Rep. Katie Porter blasting emails to her supporters on his behalf and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries swinging through Southern California to headline a fundraiser.

The Republican party is putting similar institutional might behind Calvert, with significant investments in the district ranging from field support to TV.

Calvert retains the advantages of incumbency and ample name recognition, but Rollins has been a particularly prolific fundraiser. The Democratic challenger had roughly $500,000 more in his war chest than Calvert as of the end of March, according to federal filings. Money will be critical to either candidate getting their message out, especially with the western portion of the district overlapping with the extremely expensive Los Angeles media market.

“If you’re looking at the trend line, this new district is definitely moving toward Democrats after redistricting,” said Erin Covey, a House analyst at the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, citing the addition of Palm Springs and the fact that parts of the historically conservative Inland Empire have also shifted slightly to the left.

Calvert benefited from a newly-drawn Inland Empire district in 1992 when he was first elected to Congress, squeaking by just a few hundred votes. His fate now likely hinges on a narrow margin once again.

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SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA — California’s representatives serving in the U.S House appear nearly united in response to the wave of protests at U.S. college campuses — including in Riverside County — that have erupted amid Israel’s actions in Gaza.

In a bipartisan move Wednesday, Riverside County’s Congressional members, along with their colleagues in California and across the nation, passed H.R. 6090, otherwise known as the Antisemitism Awareness Act.

Advocates say the legislation would empower the federal government to crack down on current campus protests by creating “a clear definition of antisemitism” that encompasses threats against Jewish people and certain criticisms of Israel. If it becomes law, the Education Department could use it to cut off funding to colleges that, for example, allow protests like those happening today.

First Amendment advocates, however, say the legislation is dangerous in that it would undo longstanding rights.

In a released statement Thursday, the American Civil Liberties Union said H.R. 6090 “threatens to censor political speech critical of Israel on college campuses under the guise of addressing antisemitism.”

Christopher Anders, director of ACLU’s Democracy and Technology Policy Division, said, “Addressing rising antisemitism is critically important, but sacrificing American’s free speech rights is not the way to solve that problem. This bill would throw the full weight of the federal government behind an effort to stifle criticism of Israel and risks politicizing the enforcement of federal civil rights statutes precisely when their robust protections are most needed. The Senate must block this bill that undermines First Amendment protections before it’s too late.”

California has 52 House seats, with one vacancy. During Wednesday’s vote, 27 Golden State Democrats and 11 Republicans voted in favor of H.R. 6090. Eleven California Democrats cast no votes and two did not weigh in. With the exception of Mark Takano (D-39), all Riverside County representatives were in favor. Nationally, the bill was approved by a vote of 320-91, with a majority of Democrats — 133 — joining Republicans.

Congressman Darrell Issa (R-48) represents a large swath of Southwest Riverside County, as well as central and eastern parts of San Diego County. He released a statement following his yes vote. It read, in part, ” … after witnessing for more than six months a widespread and growing tide of antisemitism in America — much of it centered on the campuses of our colleges and universities – a bipartisan supermajority of the Congress took appropriate action.”

Republican Congressman Ken Calvert represents District 41, which stretches from Lake Elsinore to part of the Coachella Valley. After his yes vote, he posted a statement on X.

“I just joined a bipartisan majority of the House of Representatives in passing the Antisemitism Awareness Act on the first day of Jewish American Heritage Month. This bill reinforces Civil Rights Act protections for Jewish students who are subjected to antisemitism,” he wrote.

But in nearby San Diego, Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-51), who is Jewish, cast a no vote. In a released statement, she expressed deep concern about rising antisemitism but said H.R. 6090 is not the answer:

It’s unclear what the prospects are for the Antisemitism Awareness Act in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

As Washington debates the legislation, campus protests continue in California. Students at UC Riverside established a campus encampment Monday to protest Israel’s actions in Gaza. The students are calling for the school to end “all investments and endowments” benefiting the Jewish state.

“We are joining the student movement, the student Intifada,” a spokesperson for Students for Justice in Palestine, UCR chapter, told City News Service. “We are not leaving this encampment day and night until the university complies and meets with us to discuss our demands.”

There have been no reports of violence at UCR amid the protest, unlike others in the Golden State. A nine-hour standoff came to a tense and chaotic end at UCLA when police in riot gear breached and dismantled a pro-Palestine encampment at the school early Thursday, terminating a weeklong protest and taking over 100 into custody.

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