WASHINGTON — Republican Kevin Kiley, a conservative firebrand supported by former President Donald Trump, topped Democrat Kermit Jones to win the new 3rd Congressional District seat, according to an Associated Press projection..
With 84% of the vote counted as of Tuesday afternoon, Kiley had about 53% to Jones’ 47%.
Kiley will represent the newly drawn 3rd District, which stretches 450 miles from Plumas County, through the Sacramento suburbs and parts of El Dorado County, and south to Inyo County.
While independent analysts had seen the race as a likely Republican win, the Kiley-Jones clash became a classic Republican vs. Democratic battle.
Kiley, an Assemblyman from Rocklin, argued that California was a mess, plagued by rising crime, runaway inflation and excessive government spending. He was critical of the election counting system, a slow count that made his race one of the last to be decided in California.
Kiley got a boost this spring when Trump announced his support, a backing Trump reiterated earlier this month when he said Kiley had provided the victory that gave Republicans the House majority. Trump was wrong; Kiley had not yet been declared the winner at the time. Kiley himself said last week he won the race.
Jones, a Navy veteran and physician, vowed to improve access to health care, make higher education more affordable and provide more help for small businesses.
They fought over abortion rights. Kiley opposes abortion, but does does support a woman’s right to abortion in cases involving instances of rape and incest and when the life of the mother is at risk.
Jones backs a law providing a right to abortion that “entrusts a physician to provide the necessary medical care to save lives,” Jones told The Bee.
“The idea that a politician knows what is better for my patients than I do is absurd,” he said.
During the campaign, Jones was often reluctant to talk about the Democratic Party. Kiley tried in his ads and social media to portray Jones as a close ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is leaving that post when the new Congress convenes in January. Jones would not commit to supporting Pelosi for another term as Democratic leader.
Kiley, an assemblyman since 2016, drew statewide notice last year when he helped lead the fight to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom. The effort was rejected overwhelmingly; among those who wanted Newsom replaced, Kiley got 3.5% of the vote.
But he gained a strong following among conservatives and quickly pivoted to a House race in the newly drawn district that seemed to tilt Republican. The governor remained his favorite target.
“We have a governor, Gavin Newsom, who says repeatedly that California is a model for the nation. So everything that’s motivating this to be a change election across the country in immigration, in terms of crime, in terms of the economy — all of those things apply here in California to an even greater degree,” Kiley told Newsmax’s “National Report earlier this month.
He got a big boost in May during the primary campaign. Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones challenged him for the GOP nomination, but Kiley won the Trump endorsement. That mattered in a district where Trump got about half the 2020 vote.
“No one has fought Gavin Newsom harder than Kevin. He doesn’t wait for the fight, like the do-nothing RINOs who have watched California get absolutely destroyed by the radical maniacs in Sacramento,” Trump said at the time. A RINO is a Republican in name only, a favorite conservative jab at more centrist Republicans.
Trump embraced Kiley again Nov. 15 when the former president announced his 2024 candidacy and called Kiley “fantastic.”
Kiley has a bachelor’s degree from Harvard, a law degree from Yale and a master’s degree in secondary education from Loyola Marymount University. He’s worked as a prosecutor and a teacher.
Jones had never run for political office. He became a favorite of the national Democratic Party, and was roughly even in fundraising with Kiley for much of the campaign.
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