By Jesus Garcia
06 May 2024, 15:51 PM EDT
Former NASA chief of staff and aerospace entrepreneur George Whitesides leads Republican Congressman Mike García in California’s 27th District, on the way to the federal Congress election.
This is an advantage of three percentage points, according to a survey conducted by Impact Research between April 12 and 18 with 650 respondents, including a sample of 100 Latino voters.
The report was published by the conservative media Washington Examinerwhich indicates that Whitesides receives 47% of voter support against 44% for García.
The report also indicates that García is unpopular among his representativeswhere he has 40% approval.
Whitesides is endorsed by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (California); the ‘whip’ of the Democrats in the House, Katherine Clark (Connecticut); the president of the Democratic Caucus in the House, Pete Aguilar (California).
In addition to senators Alex Padilla (California) and Mark Kelly (Arizona).
Support also includes DCCC’s Red to Blue campaign and several civil, labor and reproductive rights organizations, such as Planned Parenthood Action Fund 2024, the California Federation of Labor, the National Union of Health Care Workers (NUHW), the American Association for Justice, among others.
The Whitesides campaign recognizes that the challenge to Republican García makes this race one of the “most hotly contested in the country,” since it will also help determine who controls the House of Representatives.
“Whitesides ended March with a $1.3 million cash lead over Rep. Mike Garcia,” it was reported.
Whitesides has more than $3 million available, while García has $1.7 million.
“[Es] the largest cash advantage of any candidate challenging an incumbent in the entire country,” it states.
From Red to Blue
The DCCC has a campaign called Red to Blue, focused on highly competitive districts where Democrats could win over Republicans, such as District 27, where 40 percent of voters are Latino.
Representative Suzan DelBene, president of the DCCC, has indicated that García is a “far-right” Republican.
“Mike García is a far-right extremist who has established a shameful record in Congress, including a lack of transparency that has seriously undermined the trust of his constituents,” he said when launching the electoral strategy last March. “The working families of this district deserve better than Garcia’s record of self-serving and extremism, and fortunately they have a better option this year in George Whitesides.”
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