{"id":448105,"date":"2026-08-30T14:44:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T14:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/448105\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T14:44:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T14:44:13","slug":"republican-on-republican-battle-for-californias-40th-congressional-district-may-hinge-on-message-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/448105\/","title":{"rendered":"Republican-on-Republican battle for California\u2019s 40th Congressional District may hinge on message \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the race for the realigned California\u2019s 40th Congressional District<\/a>, the messaging coming out of each campaign \u2014 and their supporters \u2014 may make all the difference come November.<\/p>\n

Voters will have their say between Rep. Ken Calvert<\/a>, a Corona Republican who has served in Congress since 1993, and Rep. Young Kim<\/a>, an Anaheim Hills Republican who defeated a sitting Democrat in 2020 to join the House.<\/p>\n

This is the kind of race any political party hates to see: Two well-respected Republican candidates pitted against each other for the single seat, said Dan Schnur, who teaches political messaging at USC and UC Berkeley.<\/p>\n

Calvert, 73, and Kim, 63, represent two different versions of the same party, Schnur said: Calvert reflects the traditional Republican base, while Kim exemplifies the GOP\u2019s gains in Orange County and elsewhere in California over recent years.<\/p>\n

Those differences came to a head in the primary election<\/a>. And experts say that divide \u2014 and how each camp and their supporters message those differences \u2014 will ultimately decide how the results shake out come November.<\/p>\n

Any candidate\u2019s campaign boils down to two main goals: motivating their own base of support while successfully reaching beyond just those voters.<\/p>\n

Goal one: Rally the base<\/p>\n

Going into the June 2 primary election, the two campaigns were trying to \u201cout-MAGA each other,\u201d said Jorge Flores, a Los Angeles-based public affairs consultant<\/a> and veteran campaign strategist. Flores is familiar with the ins and outs of the primary: During the race, he advised independent candidate Nina Linh<\/a>, who came in last place among the eight candidates and did not advance to the runoff.<\/p>\n

Calvert and Kim, through their respective campaigns and with outside groups and independent expenditures, aggressively hammered one another with personal ads. Both Calvert and Kim issued advertising and public statements to tell primary voters that they, not their opponent, were most loyal to President Donald Trump<\/a>. Both accused each other of being secretly liberal or not MAGA enough.<\/p>\n

Trump, who has praised both Calvert and Kim at times, has not yet endorsed in this race.<\/p>\n

So far, to no one\u2019s surprise<\/a>, the race has become incredibly expensive. As of Friday, Kim\u2019s campaign has spent more than $8.8 million for her bid<\/a>, while Calvert\u2019s has spent more than $4.9 million<\/a>, according to the Federal Election Commission.<\/p>\n

Goal two: Reach for votes beyond the base<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, supporters of Kim\u2019s campaign began trotting out a specific political message: that she\u2019s the candidate who will deliver \u201cbipartisan results for California families.\u201d The mailer by Golden State Rebellion, Inc., a political advocacy group with a goal<\/a> of defending \u201cCalifornia taxpayers from waste, fraud, and abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to filings with the Federal Election Commission<\/a>, the \u201cCFF\u201d super PAC in the month of May spent nearly $600,000 in advertising and text messages opposing Calvert. CFF, according to filings with the FEC, shares the same address listed on the mailer sent by Golden State Rebellion, Inc.<\/p>\n

\"AA mailer from Golden State Rebellion, Inc., in support of Rep. Young Kim, The outside group positions the Anaheim Hills Republican as the bipartisan candidate in the 40th Congressional District race against Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona. (Provided to SCNG)<\/p>\n

Although the tactic \u2014 an outside group presenting a political candidate as more middle-of-the-road post-primary \u2014 is not unique, it\u2019s a step that suggests Kim\u2019s supporters may see her as needing votes from outside the party to cross the finish line first, said Marcia Godwin, a politics and elections expert who teaches at the University of La Verne.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that (outside groups) are doing these mailers indicates there\u2019s at least, in the eyes of the funders, some probability that she could overtake Calvert in the general election, but it is pretty rare for a leading candidate in the primary to not carry that over to the general.\u201d<\/p>\n

After redistricting, California\u2019s 40th Congressional District is one of only a handful with a majority of registered Republican voters: 208,011 (39.93%) are registered Republicans, while another 162,312 (31.16%) are registered Democrats and nearly 122,381 (23.49%) are no party preference.<\/p>\n

Chris Pack, a spokesperson for Kim\u2019s campaign, said their message to voters will remain consistent despite what outside groups say \u2014 and it\u2019s one that suggests the general election will be just as personal and volatile as the primary contest was between these two<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pack said the campaign is focused on telling voters they have a choice between \u201can effective leader who has delivered results in under three terms in Congress versus someone working on his fourth decade in Congress with nothing to show for it except personal enrichment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThree-plus decades is more than enough time to do what you said you were going to do. That has been our message from the beginning, and it will remain our message through Election Day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Calvert has the advantage in the district with the most-loyal MAGA Republicans, though Kim is better positioned to reach out beyond that core, Schnur said.<\/p>\n

But reaching out to non-Republican voters carries a risk, he said: Kim can\u2019t afford to lose the Republican base she has, so the message from supporters has to appeal to voters outside the base without alienating those within it.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Outside groups) can raise far more money than most candidates are capable of doing, which gives them a much bigger megaphone to have their message heard,\u201d he said. \u201cThose messages can often overshadow what the candidates themselves are saying.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIronically, that can make it more difficult for the candidate to have their own messages heard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

And Calvert\u2019s campaign certainly is messaging any bipartisan bona fides as a negative. In a review of press releases by Calvert\u2019s campaign dating back to February, the campaign has made it clear that the Corona Republican\u2019s agenda is in stride with that of Trump\u2019s, while repeatedly lambasting Kim over her \u201cDangerous Anti-Trump Rhetoric\u201d<\/a>\u00a0while also questioning her credibility with voters<\/a>, because of \u201crepeated flip-flops, misleading attacks, and false claims about her own records.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calvin Moore, a spokesperson for the Calvert campaign, said in a statement that Kim\u2019s willingness to work with Democrats in the House is an example of her being a \u201cpolitical chameleon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing that\u2019s consistent with Young Kim is she\u2019s willing to say anything she thinks will help her get elected, which is why neither Republicans nor Democrats can trust anything she says,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But a key aspect in this race, and it\u2019s messaging, is a grim November forecast worrying Republicans, Flores said.<\/p>\n

With the possibility of losing a House majority, the focus of the race may become more about who can work best within a Democratic congressional majority to secure funding for the district and land key committee assignments, all while making strides to advance the Republican Party\u2019s platform as much as they can, said Flores.<\/p>\n

The strategy by Kim\u2019s supporters to present her as a bipartisan pick to Democrats or independent voters is a smart choice, Flores said, and one that he would suggest Kim\u2019s campaign pursue.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I were the Young Kim campaign, I would also lean into this dynamic,\u201d he said. \u201cShe has a brand of her own, but she needs to make the case that she has the ability to have dialogue across the aisle with the incoming leadership. \u2026 It isn\u2019t like she\u2019s unfamiliar with this dynamic.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Flores suggests Kim\u2019s campaign leans into goal two, Calvert\u2019s campaign has consistently focused on goal one, despite the risk of alienating non-Republican voters.<\/p>\n

Schnur agrees.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe clearly thinks it\u2019s sufficient. I think that\u2019s the important thing, because Calvert starts with an advantage with the MAGA base, and he may be less well-positioned to reach out to other voter groups. He and his team may be calculating that, in a low-turnout midterm election, motivating the base is enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt becomes a question of voter turnout. The lower the turnout, the more likely this strategy is successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calvert carried nearly 35% of the vote to win the eight-candidate primary election in June. Kim came in second, receiving 20.6% of votes cast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the race for the realigned California\u2019s 40th Congressional District, the messaging coming out of each campaign \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[135024,1400,7,9,8,1752,204,100,611,13,612,136],"class_list":["post-448105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-2026-california-congressional-elections","tag-2026-elections","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-congress","tag-election","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-politics","tag-riverside-county","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}