Republicans Ken Calvert and Young Kim square off in California's District 40 race
Republican Reps. Ken Calvert and Young Kim are battling to represent California's newly redrawn 40th Congressional District, which spans parts of Orange County and the Inland Empire, in the midterm elections.
Calvert and Kim currently represent the 41st and 40th congressional districts, respectively. The 40th Congressional District was redrawn under Proposition 50, the redistricting ballot measure approved by voters last year.
The new district combines parts of the former 40th and 41st congressional districts and will include the cities of Orange, Rancho Santa Margarita, Villa Park, Anaheim Hills and Mission Viejo in Orange County and Corona, Lake Elsinore, Canyon Lake, Wildomar, Menifee and Murrieta in Riverside County.
Heading into the election, both candidates represented a large portion of the new boundaries in their previous districts, though maps show that Calvert oversaw a larger area of the new District 40. In the primary election, Calvert received nearly 35% of the vote, while Kim received just under 21%.
One of the two Republicans will lose their seat in Congress in what has turned out to be a contentious race during which the two have traded jabs with one another. Kim recently demanded an apology from Calvert for an ad in which his campaign claims she was compromised by the Chinese Communist Party. Ahead of the primary election, Calvert called out Kim for being "two-faced" for her wavering support of President Trump.
Calvert and Kim both announced their plans to run for the new district shortly after California voters passed Proposition 50 and shifted five of the state's congressional districts to be more favorable to Democrats in the midterm elections.
Calvert is a Corona native who is currently the longest-serving Republican member of California's congressional delegation after his election in 1992. He has represented four different California districts during his time in office.
Kim, of Anaheim Hills, was elected to the 40th Congressional District in 2023 after she was first elected to Congress in the race to represent California's 39th Congressional District in 2020. Prior to her time in the House of Representatives, she served in the state Assembly from 2014 to 2016. She is one of the first Korean American women to serve in Congress.
Both of the candidates share similar views on some of the nation's most pressing issues, with each throwing their support behind President Trump, immigration reform and "One Big Beautiful Bill," which allocated nearly $50 million to build a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
Calvert serves as a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee as the Chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, as well as the Dean and Chairman of the California Republican House Delegation.
He has received endorsements from Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin, the California Republican Assembly and the California Congress of Republicans, according to his website.
Kim serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee as a Chairwoman on the East Asia and Pacific Subcommittee and the Subcommittee on Europe, as well as the House Financial Services Committee, where she serves on subcommittees for National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Finance Institutions and Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy.
She has received endorsements from retired Rep. Ed Royce, State Senators Brian Jones, Steven Choi, Shannon Grove and Suzette Valladares and the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs.
