Your guide to California’s Congressional District 41 race: Rep. Ken Calvert vs. Will Rollins for Congress
Congressman Ken Calvert has never backed down in his fight for the 11th District Congressional seat, and this time, it’s too close to call. Will Rollins has been polling well in the race, but has yet to make a strong bid for it. Can you spare a guess as to who’s the favorite, and who’s running in a very tight race?
This is California’s 11th Congressional District, which is currently represented by Congressman Matt Cartwright, who is stepping down after serving the district for the past 11 years. The seat that Cartwright holds is a safe one, but the district was rated as “likely Democratic” in 2012 by the Cook Political Report, and since Cartwright stepped down in 2014, the district has been rated “Tossup” by FiveThirtyEight’s nonpartisan electoral forecast model, meaning it is only a slight underdog to a Republican candidate, but there is still a small chance that it could swing to the Republicans in the future.
Congressman Calvert has been making noise about the district, but even more of a focus is the recent comments from California’s sole congressional representative in Congress, Michelle Lujan Grisham, about the possibility that the 11th District could become a redrawn district for Cartwright’s seat in her current term. Calvert went so far as to call on Lujan Grisham to resign her position as state controller to take over the office, or at the very least, run as an independent.
Despite the fact that this district has been a blue-leaning district for a long time, it voted for President Obama and Vice President Biden, as well as for Governor Brown over Republican candidate Meg Whitman. There have been calls by both candidates in the 11th District race to consider a change to the district, and a change seems like a very unlikely scenario to pull off.
Both parties would have to find a way to replace the seats that Cartwright and Calvert have held in the past for the district to become a “redrawn” district. Some have thought that the district could use a new name, but most agree that it is too close a race to change the district’s name.
When it comes
