This Gay Former Federal Prosecutor Could Unseat a Decades-Long GOP Rep
Congressional Democrats hope to pick up what seems to be an increasingly attainable seat in California’s 41st district. The incumbent Republican has a remarkably anti-LGBTQ+ policy record, and a gay, out, and partnered Democrat is running against him.Applecart CEO Matt Kalmans said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe last week that Democrat Will Rollins has a realistic chance of defeating ultra-conservative Republican incumbent Rep.
Ken Calvert in California. Applecart is an analytics firm that measures the temperature of topics using social engagement. According to Kalmans, the Rollins race shows promise regarding Democratic pickups because it is an under-the-radar contest. “This is a seat that hasn’t been competitive in three decades,” he said. “You have an incumbent member of Congress, a Republican, who has some corruption issues, who has made a series of antigay statements that have gotten him into some hot water.”According to him, Trump would now only be ahead by one point in this district, where he led by seven percentage points in the 2020 election due to redistricting.After Palm Springs, a very popular LGBTQ+ area, was drawn into the district, the district became dramatically more Democratic, he says.“So now you have an openly gay, former federal prosecutor running as the Democratic candidate against this incumbent, and what we see in our polling is that this is a race where the Democrat is being out-funded two to one, but if properly funded, this is the sort of race that could swing to the Democrats.”Kalmans says the Democratic Party should focus more on races such as CA-41, which have the potential to succeed, rather than funding races like that of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s challenger.In an interview with The Advocate,.
