California Republican Incumbents Turn on Each Other as Redistricting Forces Primary Fight

Two Republican members of Congress from Southern California are waging an intraparty war for the same seat after Democratic-led redistricting merged their constituencies, forcing Representatives Ken Calvert and Young Kim into a June primary that has turned deeply personal and carries implications for the party’s 218-214 House majority.

Proposition 50, the ballot measure California Democrats championed as a counter to Republican-led redistricting in Texas, dismantled Calvert’s Riverside County district and funneled conservative neighborhoods into the 40th District held by Kim. The measure turned a former battleground into a solidly Republican seat. With both incumbents laying claim to the new turf and a June 2 primary weeks away, the contest has become a race to prove MAGA fealty.

“This race is going to get very ugly, very quickly,” said Jon Fleischman, a veteran Republican strategist in Orange County who has not taken a side.

Calvert, 72, a 33-year House veteran who chairs the defence appropriations subcommittee, has attacked Kim, 63, as a Republican In Name Only. A super PAC aligned with him has spent roughly $2.2 million on television, radio and mail advertisements this spring portraying the third-term congresswoman as insufficiently conservative.

His campaign has seized on Kim’s 2021 vote to censure Donald Trump for his role in the January 6 Capitol riot, her 2022 remark that she had “never met” the president, and a 2020 video in which she said she would not let any of her three daughters “date or marry somebody like Donald Trump.”

“We need a conservative who’s been with President Trump through thick and thin, not just when it’s politically expedient,” Calvert said. “She’s part of the more moderate group in the House, and she has separated herself from President Trump on numerous occasions.”

Kim, a prolific fundraiser who announced a $3.7 million advertising push last month, has repositioned herself as a Trump loyalist. Her campaign is now running ads declaring, “Young Kim backs President Trump 100%,” and she has cast Calvert’s three-decade tenure as the liability.

“After 30-plus years in Washington, are things actually better?” Kim said. “What good is seniority if it hasn’t delivered results and accountability?”

She added: “Being in office for this period of time is actually going against the MAGA movement. Time’s up!”

The assassination-attempt exchange

The rhetoric escalated last week when Calvert’s campaign issued a statement linking Kim’s past criticism of Trump to “the heated environment and violence we’ve seen” after an assassination attempt on the president at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.

“Trump-hating politicians like Young Kim think their inflammatory language doesn’t matter but it’s led to the heated environment and violence we’ve seen,” Calvert said in the statement.

Kim, who had not seen the release before NBC News read it to her, called the accusation “dangerously desperate” and “absurd,” noting that she has introduced a resolution condemning the attack and political violence broadly. “Many of the people serving in his current administration have also disagreed with the president’s rhetoric,” she said. “That’s not a secret here.”

A Democratic variable

California’s nonpartisan primary system, in which the top two finishers advance to the November ballot regardless of party, adds a complication. A Democratic candidate could claim one of the two spots if the Republican incumbents split the conservative vote.

Esther Kim Varet, a wealthy art dealer who has out-raised other Democrats in the field, said the Republican infighting creates an opening. “We have an opportunity to eliminate two congresspeople in a very, very thin-margined Congress,” she said. “Right now, they’re having to out-MAGA each other.”

With a handful of Democrats running, strategists said the vote is unlikely to split evenly enough to lock a Republican out. Dave Gilliard, a longtime California Republican strategist not working in the race, said Calvert’s clearest path is to draw a Democrat as his runoff opponent. “Calvert’s best play is to get into a runoff with a Democrat, and then this race is over on June 2,” he said.

The intraparty fight has divided local Republicans. Will O’Neill, chairman of the Republican Party of Orange County, said the county party has not endorsed either candidate. “It’s very awkward. It’s awkward for donors, it’s awkward for electeds,” he said. “Because our county party hasn’t endorsed between two good Republicans, my job is to make sure the conflict doesn’t cause down-ballot problems.”

A national redistricting war

The California contest is part of a national redistricting fight that has intensified since the Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais last month, which cleared the way for Republican-led states to redraw maps. Virginia’s Supreme Court struck down a Democratic-backed House map on May 8, and Republican lawmakers in other southern states are pressing ahead with their own efforts.

Proposition 50, approved by California voters in November 2025, imperiled five Republican-held districts and could help Democrats narrow the GOP’s three-seat edge in the lower chamber. The measure carved up Calvert’s old district and packed conservative precincts into Kim’s seat, creating a district where Republicans who want to stay in Congress have no choice but to fight each other.

A narrow majority of residents in the new 40th District come from Calvert’s current constituency, according to data compiled by The Downballot, while roughly one-third hail from Kim’s. The district stretches southeast of Los Angeles through Orange County suburbs, Riverside County communities, and a swath of the Santa Ana Mountains.

Before redistricting turned them into rivals, Calvert donated $10,000 to Kim’s campaign. “I maxed out to her election,” he said. “I asked for the money back, but she wouldn’t give it to me.”