California’s Third District Congressional race unpredictable
Kevin Kiley (left), Kermit Jones (middle) and Scott Jones (right) are running for California’s 3rd Congressional District seat.
WASHINGTON
Democrat Kermit Jones and Republican Kevin Kiley took the early lead in Tuesday’s primary for the new Third District congressional seat, a race that will test the strength of former President Donald Trump’s continued appeal to California Republicans.
Jones, a physician and Navy veteran, had 43% of the vote with 65% of precincts reporting. Kiley, an assemblyman from Rocklin, was second with 33%. Trailing was Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones with 16.5%.
The top two vote-getters, regardless of party, advance to the November general election.
The district, newly drawn based on 2020 census data, is being closely watched in a year when Republicans need a net gain of five seats to win control of the House. It stretches from Plumas County in the northeast corner of the state, through Sacramento’s suburbs and south to Inyo County, between the Sierra Nevada mountains and the Nevada border. The district is rated by independent analysts as a likely Republican win in November.
The contest pitted Kiley, who last month won Trump’s endorsement, against tough-on-crime Scott Jones, the Sacramento County sheriff for the last 12 years. They faced Kermit Jones, regarded as an up-and-coming Democratic star, who stressed the need for a more efficient health care system and kept his distance from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Kevin Kiley
Kiley had the support of both Trump, who has endorsed dozens of candidates around the country and five other Republicans in California as he tries to flex his political muscle, and much of the state’s Republican establishment. In his corner was the state Republican Party, five county GOPs and former Gov. Pete Wilson.
His campaign was in many ways a continuation of the effort he waged last year to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Though that bid failed by a huge margin — Kiley finished a distant sixth among those seeking to replace the governor — it drew the attention of Trump, who narrowly won the district in 2020.
“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 in his May 14 endorsement. RINOs are Republicans in name only.
Kiley has continued to rail against what he sees as an unresponsive, inefficient state government under Democratic control.
As he pushed the legislature to suspend the state’s gasoline tax, Kiley warned more financial pain is coming.
“At the current pace we’ll have $10/gallon gas and a $1 million…
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