Facing a tough election challenge is a cost of doing business for members of Congress. But when that challenge comes from a colleague, things can get personal quickly.
That’s what’s happening right now in Southern California, where tensions between Republican Reps. Ken Calvert and Young Kim are boiling over after Democratic redistricting forced them into a fight for their political lives ahead of June’s primary.
Kim is panning her colleague, a 30-year veteran of Congress, as a creature of Washington. Calvert is calling her insufficiently conservative on issues like immigration. And Calvert even accused Kim, after the recent attempt to assassinate President Donald Trump, of contributing to “the heated environment and violence we’ve seen” because she has criticized Trump in the past, leading Kim to retort that Calvert is running a “desperate” campaign.
The messy intraparty fight is a result of state Democrats’ aggressive redistricting efforts last year, which carved up Republican-held seats in Southern California to create more blue-leaning districts. Along the way, they crammed into one red district a powerful member of the House Appropriations Committee, Calvert, and a battle-tested incumbent who has won tough races in recent years, Kim.
“Love and war have rules,” said Rep. Darrell Issa, a retiring Republican also from Southern California. “Politics doesn’t.”