BROLLEY, Calif. — While newly elected Republican Rep. Jeff Gonzalez was being sworn in in Sacramento last week, two supporters from Imperial County called and heard from his staff about his first day at the Capitol. An exciting update rang out.
Outside the new office was Gonzalez’s nameplate and a photo of a freshly printed business card. One showed a piece of paper with his new letterhead on it.
Which supporters received the photos? El Centro resident Tony Gallegos and his fiancée Olga Moreno. they are democrats.
“We ate a little bit of crow first, because I’m here, I’m a big-time Democrat; [people think] All of a sudden, I changed,” said Gallegos, a former chair of the Imperial County Democratic Central Committee. “Well, we didn’t change. We just supported a better candidate.”
Mr. Gonzalez will win the race to represent California’s 36th Congressional District, which borders Mexico and includes large swaths of the Imperial and Coachella valleys, giving Democrats a nearly 14-point voter registration advantage among Latino voters. The election was reversed in a rural constituency where the majority of voters were residents.
Gonzalez declined to say who he voted for in the presidential election, but said he was successful because he worked hard to downplay partisan politics.
Although he campaigned with prominent local Democrats, including the former Calexico mayor who organized a 2019 protest against former President Trump’s border visit that included the infamous diaper-wearing “Trump Baby” balloon , but continued to appeal to the assembled MAGA Republicans. The former president’s October rally at Coachella.
Tony Gallegos and his fiancee Olga Moreno outside the Brawley American Citizens Club in Brawley, California. They are Democrats who supported Republican Rep. Jeff Gonzalez.
(Haley Branson Potts/Los Angeles Times)
“I didn’t come here as a Republican,” Gonzalez, of Indio, said in an interview at the Capitol. “Yes, it’s my party, but…I don’t have that title. I’m here as Jeff, as a community member looking for a way to work together across the aisle.”
Still, Mr. Gonzalez’s victory has excited California Republicans, and the liberal movement is gaining momentum, especially among voters of color, amid the country’s rightward shift that has returned President-elect Donald Trump to the White House. We hope to advance to state.
Gonzalez, who is of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent, is one of three Republicans (two Latinos and one Asian American) who are flipping Democratic-held state House seats in this election. It is.
He won the seat vacated by Rep. Eduardo Garcia, a Coachella Democrat who unsuccessfully lost 35% to 65% in the 2018 Blue Wave year.
This year, Gonzalez defeated Coachella Valley Unified School District Board Chairman Democrat Joey Acuña with 3.6% of the vote. Mr. Acuña declined the Times’ request for comment.
Although Democrats still have a strong majority in Congress, James Gallagher, Yuba City’s Assembly Republican leader, is excited about the increase in Latino Republicans.
“I think this is a huge deal,” Gallagher said. “It represents a realignment. More and more Latino voters are starting to break away from being staunch Democrats.”
Leticia Castillo, a Mexican-American Republican who flipped Democratic districts in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, said her focus on “bringing back” schools and the economy resonated with voters. said.
“We found that a lot of people talked about things that Democrats were trying to impose on them, things that they should be concerned about,” Castillo said, pointing out that schools are changing policies like abortion and requiring teacher notification. He mentioned topics such as a new state law that prohibits enacting. Inform parents about your student’s gender identity changes, such as asking to be called by a different name or pronouns.
Voters, she said, made it clear there were “other, more important issues at play.”
Gonzalez focused his campaign on the California Democratic Party’s Achilles heel: the state’s high cost of living.
In an Instagram video posted in October, Gonzalez stands outside a gas station in the small desert town of Needles, where a gallon of regular gas costs $5.89. A few miles east across the Arizona border, a gallon was $2.95.
“There’s no reason Californians should have to cross state lines to live more affordably,” he says. “Change is needed in Sacramento.”
Congressman Jeff Gonzalez attended the Dec. 2 meeting in Sacramento.
(Ricci Pedroncelli/Associated Press)
For Gonzalez, a 50-year-old Marine veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, the cost of living issue is personal.
The freshman congressman and his wife, Christine, have four adult children, one of whom has cerebral palsy with spastic quadriplegia, or epilepsy, and is unable to use his legs or hands or eat without assistance. This includes my 32-year-old son, RJ, who cannot. And it’s non-verbal.
“When I married my wife, she had three kids, so I became what I call an ‘Instapop,'” Gonzalez said, adding that he calls all of his children his own. He said he did not use the term “stepchild” because he raised the child himself.
Gonzalez said he and his wife have been fighting to get RJ the services he needs.
“Caring for someone with severe special needs is expensive,” Gonzalez says. “Yes, there are services out there, but they don’t necessarily cover everything.”
Last year we needed a new shower chair for RJ because his old one had outgrown it. Gonzalez said Medical determined the chair, which costs more than $1,000, was an unnecessary “luxury item” but did qualify as a commode.
“My wife said, ‘A toilet? Have you ever taken a bath or shower in a toilet? So why would you ask my son to do the same?'” Gonzalez said. About 10 months later, the bath chair was approved, he said.
He said he was inspired to run after seeing his wife pick up their 150-pound son to go to the bathroom.
“My son doesn’t have a voice, but I have a voice, and I’m going to use it because I’m his father,” Gonzalez said. “I thought it was just us. [with these problems]But during my campaign, I was struck by how underserved these communities are. ”
Joy Miedecke, president of the East Valley Republican Women Patriots Group in the Coachella Valley, said Gonzalez’s personal story of caring for her disabled son resonated with voters on both sides of the aisle.
“If you think about it, Democrats are probably more likely to support the government’s plan to get people together in their homes,” Miedecke said. “Jeff recognizes that, and he recognizes that conservatives don’t want to give up everything. But he also recognizes that there are people who are in trouble.”
Mr. Miedecke, 80, said Mr. Gonzalez was wise to spend so much time campaigning for the support of Imperial County Democrats.
“When Jeff won, we celebrated together,” she said. “They were very welcome at our headquarters. Democrats were ready to do something different, so they worked their hearts out for Jeff.”
Gonzalez’s district includes Republican-leaning areas in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, including French Valley, Desert Palms and Needles.
It includes all of Imperial County, a longtime Democratic stronghold in the southeastern corner of the state, which relies heavily on agriculture and whose workforce could be decimated by Trump’s deportation plan. , who have suffered from poverty and unemployment for many years.
Imperial County’s unemployment rate was 19.6% in October, the highest in the state and more than three times the state average, according to the Employment Development Department.
That’s why Gonzalez’s focus on California’s high prices was effective, he and his supporters say.
“These are working-class people who came here from other counties and states for whatever reason, and they just want to live the California dream,” Gonzalez said. “They see this going away and they want someone to stand up for them.”
People cross the street near the U.S.-Mexico border fence in Calexico, California, in March.
(Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)
Imperial County was one of nine California counties to flip from blue to red in this year’s presidential election. Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris by 463 votes, becoming the first Republican presidential candidate to win the county since 1988, when voters chose George H.W. Bush.
That’s a dramatic change. In 2020, Imperial County favored Biden with 24.4% of the vote, but this year voters chose Trump by 0.8%, a difference of about 25 points.
Earlier this year, moderate Democrats in Calexico, a mostly Latino border city in the county, led a recall effort against two young progressive council members, including Raul Ureña, the city’s first transgender council member, and accused opponents of transphobia. was prosecuted and was successful. .
Recall leaders, who were prominent supporters of Gonzalez’s campaign, said the recall was not about gender, but rather that the two ousted senators disagreed and were too far left. said. They say city council members dismissed downtown merchants’ concerns about rampant crime, public drug use and homeless encampments, and instead replaced them with charging stations for electric vehicles that most people in town can’t afford. The company reportedly focused on projects such as the installation of
Kay Pricola, 77, a Republican from Brawley who supported Gonzalez’s campaign, said the county’s shift to the right comes as people are fed up with state Democrats not doing enough to cut costs. He said he was not surprised.
“Democrats have no financial constraints,” Pricola said. “Taxes, taxes, taxes. Everything is for everyone, and you don’t have to work for it. … We’re forcing economically responsible people out of California. They’re tied to the land and leaving Those who cannot will carry greater burdens until they break, and their children will leave.”
Still, given the district’s Democratic leanings, she urged Gonzalez to focus on local issues, saying, “If you think they’re Trumpers, you’re going to ignore them.”
Gallegos, 79, said California Democrats have grown arrogant by not paying enough attention to the struggling Imperial Valley because they have always voted blue.
“What they want is taxes, taxes, taxes, taxes, taxes, and I’m a Democrat,” he said. “And they always ask for money for that too. That’s fine. But what do we get out of it? We don’t see it. Look at all the money that’s been put into it, and people are still on the streets.”
Mr. Gallegos, who is Mexican-American, runs the Brawley American Citizens Club. The club was founded by his father in the 1940s for Latino veterans who served in World War II but were not allowed to join their local American Veterans Association. .
March 25th at a homeless camp in Calexico.
(Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)
Inside the club, there is a framed letter of appreciation from former Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown thanking Mr. Gallegos for his volunteer work on his campaign, an invitation to Mr. Brown’s 2011 inauguration, and a photo of the two together. There is a glass display case containing black and white photographs. 1978.
Nationally, the Democratic Party seems to take Latino voters for granted, thinking, “Just because they’re Democrats, let’s vote for them and let them do what they want,” but “because of the situation.” is changing and the younger generation is not thinking about it,” he said. Just like that. ”
He runs a bar at his club and often hears young people drinking, talking politics, and complaining about how much tax money the state of California takes out of their paychecks. do.
He and Moreno said some local Democrats were furious about supporting Gonzalez, arguing that as a greatly outnumbered Republican, he has little power in Sacramento. But the way they see it, Democrats have long had a chance. This year, it’s time to try someone new.
Sosa reported from Sacramento and Branson Potts from Brawley, California.
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