Voters in Lancaster, Palmdale and Santa Clarita are living in one of California’s congressional battleground districts. Incumbent Congressman and former U.S. Navy pilot Mike Garcia, a Republican, is running for re-election against Democrat George Whitesides, a former chief of staff at NASA during the Obama administration and the former CEO of Virgin Galactic.
Garcia, who was born in Granada Hills and grew up in Saugus, was an executive with Raytheon for eleven years, first elected to Congress in a special election in May 2020 after Democrat Katie Hill resigned. He won and held the seat by narrowly defeating Democrat Christy Smith three times: once in the special election, again in the race for the full term a few months later, and a third time in 2022 by a larger margin, 53.2% to 46.8%, following redistricting.
This year, Garcia finished first in the March 5 primary with 54.9% of the vote to 32.8% for George Whitesides and 12.2% for Democrat Steve Hill.
Even though the 27th District voted 54% to 43.9% for President Joe Biden in 2020, it’s clear that for a growing number of voters, Garcia has transcended purely partisan politics. And we can see why.
Garcia is a thoughtful and well-informed advocate for U.S. national security against the challenges and threats presented by adversaries, particularly China. He advocated for a middle path of U.S. support for Ukraine, neither a cut-off of aid nor a blank check. While he backed the U.S. intelligence community’s support for renewing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, allowing warrantless searches of a database of communications swept up in foreign surveillance that includes the communications of Americans, he insisted on reforms including criminal penalties for misuse of the search authority.
Garcia told our editorial board he knows that in a closely divided district, his votes will not make everybody happy. But he also said his office has helped over 4,000 constituents resolve problems with various federal agencies such as the Social Security Administration. Garcia’s knowledge and attention to detail is impressive on matters ranging from how to halt China’s theft of U.S. intellectual property to his introduction of H.R. 9308, a bill that aims to cut wasteful funding for the boondoggle California High Speed Rail project.
Garcia also rightly recognizes the link between the spending sprees of the federal government and the crushing challenge of inflation of the past few years. Garcia favors cutting back on and resisting reckless federal spending as both a means of putting out the fire of inflation and also trying to do something about our soaring national debt.
His challenger, Whitesides, certainly has his merits as well. He recognizes the potential for nuclear power to help provide clean, reliable energy to the nation. He recognizes the need for a compromise between the two parties on immigration and border security. And he favors tax cuts for lower-income and middle-income Americans.
However, we did find Whitesides evasive at times during our interview with him, including when he was asked to give his thoughts about Vice President Kamala Harris’ call for cracking down on “price gouging” at grocery stores. He’s unfortunately also repeated misleading talking points suggesting Garcia supports a national abortion ban (he doesn’t, saying he supports leaving the matter to the states). And he left us unpersuaded that he’d be a check on profligate federal spending.
Congressman Mike Garcia is doing good work for the nation and for his district. He has our endorsement for re-election.
Originally Published: September 13, 2024 at 7:00 a.m.
Original Article HERE.
