WASHINGTON — Another contender to replace former Congressman Devin Nunes is opting for a longer term elsewhere.
But this time the contender, Republican Nathan Magsig, is choosing to run against an incumbent from his same party who has represented California in Congress for over a decade.
Magsig, a Fresno County supervisor, is running for the United States House of Representatives in California’s 5th Congressional District — where Rep. Tom McClintock, an Elk Grove Republican, has brought his election campaign.
The new 5th District formed through redistricting, the once-a-decade reformation of legislative boundaries, takes slices of Modesto and Fresno County along with the western Sierra Nevada. It captures pieces of districts held by McClintock and formerly held by Nunes in a staunchly Republican swath that major election-trackers predict will go to a GOP contender in the 2022 House elections.
“The seat, which covers much of California Gold Country and key portions of the San Joaquin Valley, draws into portions of my Fresno County Supervisorial district near to my heart,” Magsig said in his announcement Monday.
McClintock is seeking his eighth term in the House there. He won what was expected to be a close race in 2020 over entrepreneur Brynne Kennedy, a Democrat, by 11 points.
Many Republican hopefuls were waiting earlier this month for McClintock to announce where he would take his campaign — as he could have run in the neighboring 3rd District that captures more of the seat he currently represents — in order to avoid an in-party challenge.
Magsig, in an interview with The Fresno Bee about the special election for Nunes’ vacated seat earlier this month, indicated that he would want to seek a fuller term in Congress as well to work on prevention of and recovery from wildfires, which he witnessed devastate areas around his home county while serving on the Fresno County Board of Supervisors.
Magsig, who also is the former mayor of Clovis, is the second candidate to drop out of the special election. Nunes left Congress this month to lead former President Donald Trump’s social media venture.
The role to fill Nunes’ shoes in the current 22nd District would last about six months before the next congressional session starts.
“In the ensuing weeks, it has become clear that the pathway for an all-but-certain June special election for the old 22nd Congressional District means that the winner of the race will serve in Congress for no more than 40 working days,” Magsig said. “After prayerful reflection and consultation with my family and supporters, our region deserves longer term leadership in Congress. For that reason, I am foregoing the 22nd District Special Election.”
For similar reasons Democrat Phil Arballo, a small business owner who challenged Nunes in 2020, also abandoned the special election to focus on running to fill the new 13th Congressional District — a left-leaning stretch across Merced County that takes chunks of Modesto and Turlock down to the top of Fresno County. There is no incumbent running in that race, but Arballo faces Assemblyman Adam Gray, a Democrat who has collected dozens of federal, state and local lawmaker endorsements.
That leaves a handful of hopeful candidates aiming to replace Nunes in the short term: two Republicans and two Democrats. The Republicans are tech executive Elizabeth Heng and former California Assembly Minority Leader Connie Conway. Democrats are activist Lourin Hubbard and former Marine Eric Garcia.
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(McClatchy DC’s David Lightman contributed reporting.)
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