U.S. Rep. Mike Garcia (R) and Christy Smith (D) are running in the general election for California’s 27th Congressional District on November 8, 2022. Incumbent Judy Chu (D) is running for re-election in California’s 28th Congressional District because of redistricting.
In 2020, Garcia defeated Smith in the 25th District by 333 votes, making it the third-closest U.S. House race that year. Brianna Lee of LAist said the 2022 race would likely be more competitive because redistricting “jettisoned the district’s most conservative outpost in Simi Valley, giving Democratic voters even more of an edge.” In the June 7 top-two primary, Garcia received 49.6% of the vote and Smith received 35.4%. Republican votes for all candidates in the primary combined for 53.4% of the vote, while Democratic votes combined for 46.6%.
Garcia was first elected to represent California’s 25th Congressional District in May 2020, when he won a special election to succeed Rep. Katie Hill (D). Garcia served in the U.S. Navy as a pilot for 20 years and worked for Raytheon after his retirement. Garcia’s website lists the economy, jobs, taxes, and inflation as his key campaign issues.
Smith served in the California State Assembly from 2018 to 2020. She worked as an analyst at the U.S. Department of Education and founded the Valencia Valley Technological Education Foundation. Smith’s campaign website highlights expanding access to healthcare, improving the quality of public education, and codifying Roe v. Wade as key campaign issues.
The district’s representation shifted party hands multiple times in the past decade, from Stephen Knight (R) to Hill (D) to Garcia (R). Joe Biden (D) won the district by 10.1% in the 2020 presidential election.
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