Los Angeles, There is a special election in the U.S. House to fill the rest of the term of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, which ends in January. The candidates are a California lawmaker backed by former President Donald Trump and a sheriff who promises to make the country’s borders stronger.
There are a lot of Republicans running for the seat that McCarthy vacated when he quit last year. Two of them are Vince Fong, a member of the State Assembly who used to work for McCarthy and has his support, and Mike Boudreaux, the sheriff of Tulare County.
Because Trump is running, the race will likely be seen as a vote on his political power as he prepares for his almost certain run against Vice President Joe Biden in November.
McCarthy had a shocking fall in the House—he is the only speaker in history to be voted out of office. His removal caused a messy race to replace him, which is still going on and has shown divisions within the GOP.
It’s likely that Republicans will easily keep the seat, and their tenuous control in the chamber is not at risk. The district, which includes parts of Bakersfield and Fresno and runs through the Central Valley farm belt, is the most conservative in California, which is mostly Democratic.
Republicans only hold 11 of the 52 House spots in the state; McCarthy’s seat is currently open.
It’s possible that a lot of people won’t bother to vote because they saw some of the same names on the March 5 primary ballot for the full 20th Congressional District term that starts in January. In that race, Fong and Boudreaux have made it to the November election.
The special election is only for the time left in McCarthy’s term, which ends early next year. They will run against each other in a May 21 election if no one gets more than 50% of the vote.
There are nine candidates for the spot, so it doesn’t look like anyone will get more than nine votes to win outright on Tuesday. Marisa Wood, a public school teacher who is running as a Democrat, also ran for the full term.
Five different votes could have Fong and Boudreaux on them between March and November.
After supporters called to try to figure it out, Boudreaux’s team sent out texts to voters to remind them that there was a separate election on Tuesday. In the same way, Fong’s team is telling people about the second election, which happens only two weeks after the primary.
“This is a strange process,” said Ryan Gardiner, a Fong assistant. He said that the campaign just kept going after the primary because of the conditions.
In February, Trump backed Fong and called him “a true Republican.” Ric Grenell, who used to be acting director of national intelligence in the Trump administration, and Republican state Sen. Shannon Grove of Bakersfield, which is where Fong lives, are both on Boudreaux’s side.
Fong and Boudreaux agree on a lot of policy issues, and they are both conservatives who back Trump.
One difference between the candidates is that Fong was chosen by McCarthy and is a result of his political operation, while the sheriff is not.
Their cultures are also different.
Fong is a lawmaker who used to work with McCarthy and now says he offers “trusted, tested leadership.” He has raised more money than anyone else in the race. He talks about his many years of experience as a police officer and says he has “the know-how to keep us safe.” Boudreaux is the son of a detective.
The crisis at the border is the most important topic in the race.
Fong is based in Kern County, which has the most people in the area. In Tulare and Kings counties, Boudreaux is a well-known name. Unfinished results show that the race could be decided in Fresno County, where the two candidates came in very close in the March 5 primary.