When California voters approved new mid-decade congressional maps in November, it set the stage for a rare incumbent vs. incumbent face-off in the Golden State’s 40th district.
Three-term Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif., is now facing off against 33-year Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif. With Democratic voters packed into surrounding districts to make them more safely blue, it’s made the 40th the lone seat where either has a chance at winning.
Now the likelihood is that both Calvert and Kim will face each other in November’s general election.
“This is going to be a bloody primary fight, and I’m going to spend every single dollar that I have to make sure that my campaign is viable and wins in the primary,” said Kim in an interview with Spectrum News.
“It’s unfortunate,” admitted Calvert when asked if he agreed with Kim’s assessment that the two were locked in a ‘bloody primary fight.’ “It’s an unfortunate situation, and I intend to continue to represent my district.”
According to a California Republican Party analysis obtained by Spectrum News, the proposed 40th district under Prop 50 includes 51% of Calvert’s current constituents, 33% of Kim’s, and 15% of retiring Republican Rep. Darrell Issa’s.
Both Kim and Calvert have laid claim to the district as “theirs.”
“I was born there, raised there, lived there, played high school football there, opened businesses there. I’ve been there all my life, intend to be there all my life,” said Calvert.
“This is my district. I live there; I represent them. My family lives there,” explained Kim.
The race is getting nasty. Calvert’s camp has called Kim everything from a “Trump-hating politician” to suggesting she’s gaslighting voters.
Kim’s latest ad suggests Calvert “begged Trump like a dog” for an endorsement.
Kim also denied there was any effort to get her to drop out of the race following a viral clip first shared by Spectrum News in which Rep. Issa is overheard on a hot mic saying the administration would look favorably on her if she left the race, and potentially reward her with a post somewhere within the administration.
“That’s Darrell being Darrell. He’s entitled to his opinions,” she said. “He has not talked to me about it. The White House did not talk to me about it. No one is pressuring me to get out of this race. I’m not going to be bullied out of it.” She added that she and Calvert were never able to connect before they declared their intentions to run for the same seat.
Calvert, who has served in Congress since 1993, has risen through the ranks to earn a coveted position as a “cardinal” on the powerful House Appropriations Committee. He chairs the subcommittee that oversees defense spending. He lays claim to having secured a “historic pay raise” for service members and is working to “make sure that our military is well taken care of.”
It’s also given him the ear of fellow appropriators to help bring funds back to his district for infrastructure improvements and other projects.
“Nobody has brought more money back to Southern California or California than I have,” Calvert said. “I work hard to bring back hard-working taxpayers their money back to California, whether it’s in freeways, water projects — and that’s benefited every part of Riverside County and Orange County.”
Kim is trying to use that experience against Calvert.
“I think our constituents are looking for change. Our country is looking for change, which is why I’m supportive of any term limits. I’ve been very open to that idea, and I believe people are willing to work with someone who is just sun rising and has many, many years to go,” she said.
Kim was elected to Congress in 2020 and has been recognized by nonpartisan organizations such as the Center for Effective Lawmaking and the Lugar Center at Georgetown University as one of the most bipartisan and effective lawmakers in the House.
Last year she helped to win an increase in the federal deduction for state and local tax payments, a big issue in high-tax states like California.
“I’m not in it for the title. I’m in it to work on their behalf and to deliver what they asked me to do, and that is, be accessible, listen to them, and deliver through the policies that will make their lives a little bit easier, a little bit better,” she said.
President Donald Trump looms large in this race, despite not appearing on the ballot.
“CA-40 is very Republican and very pro-Trump. Calvert and Kim are both attacking each other as being anti-Trump because CA-40 is one of the few places in California where there is vast support for Trump,” explained Christian Grose, the director of the University of Southern California’s Democracy and Fair Elections Lab.
Although her bipartisan profile provided Kim political benefits when running in a swing district, Calvert is attempting to make it a liability for her in this more solidly red district. He told Spectrum News that he has been “a Trump conservative since the beginning,” but that “my opponent has changed radically.”
“She’s been running away from President Trump the entire time she’s been in Congress. She’s a more moderate to liberal member of Congress, has been proud to be that way, but has flipped the other direction in order to try to succeed in this election,” Calvert said.
A Spectrum News analysis found that Kim has consistently supported President Trump’s agenda, but she voted to certify Joe Biden’s election victory in the 2020 election while Calvert did not.
Like Calvert, in 2021 she voted against the impeachment of President Trump, but she also introduced a measure to “censure” him. She has called his sweeping pardons of Jan. 6 insurrectionists “overreach.” She also raised concerns about the tariffs being implemented by the president last year, calling for Congressional oversight of the executive branch’s tariff authority.
Kim has suggested those breaks with the president have not hurt her relationship with the White House, citing her work to help raise the federal tax deduction for state and local tax deductions within President Trump’s signature tax and spending law.
“I’ve been very focused on being an effective and efficient member of Congress delivering real, tangible results, which is especially now, as they are going to file their tax returns, they’re going to see the impacts of the One Big Beautiful bill and many different provisions they’re going to see as they file tax returns,” said Kim. “These are the things that I’ve been able to focus on delivering results for them, working closely with President Trump and the administration and the leadership.”
Trump has never endorsed Kim, but as a candidate in a swing district, she might have been hurt politically by such a show of support.
Calvert has been endorsed by the president twice, and his campaign released an ad last month that suggested Trump endorsed Calvert over Kim. The ad was later pulled, as first reported by Politico, and then broadcast again with the misleading line about Trump endorsing him edited out.
Kim’s camp seized on the reversal — putting out a new ad suggesting Calvert “begged” for the endorsement that he did not get.
“Either candidate would like a Trump endorsement, especially if both of these candidates advance to the general election in the top-two system,” said Grose. “The ads are appealing to Republican voters who like Trump in the district and are also winking and nodding at Trump himself in the hope he pays attention to this.”
Trump has not issued an endorsement yet, and it is not known if he will.
Given the district’s heavy concentration of Republican voters, Kim and Calvert could take the top two spots in the primary, which is open to candidates from both parties.
If so, they would likely face each other again in November.