ICYMI: New York Times Features George Whitesides’ Candidacy at “Heart of Fight For [House] Control” in CA-27

AGUA DULCE, CA – Today, the New York Times highlighted George Whitesides’ campaign for Congress as the “heart of the fight for control of the House of Representatives as summer turns to fall.”

Whitesides is leading by 3 points in recent polling, as extreme GOP incumbent Rep. Mike Garcia campaigns on a national abortion ban, has voted against reducing healthcare and prescription drug costs, and was caught in a stock scandal profiting off potential insider trading.

Whitesides continues his campaign as a top congressional candidate fundraiser, having the largest cash-on-hand advantage over any incumbent challenger nationwide and doubling incumbent Rep. Mike Garcia’s 2024 fundraising haul.

Read excerpts below:

New York Times: Far From Presidential Battlegrounds, Blue States Could Decide Congress

Nicholas Fandos, Catie Edmunson | August 28, 2024

Democrats have a parallel fight on their hands in […] the Antelope Valley in California. There, the Democrat George Whitesides, a former NASA chief of staff and chief executive at Virgin Galactic, is laboring to unseat Representative Mike Garcia, a former military pilot from the northern suburbs of Los Angeles who has coasted to re-election since he first won in 2020.
New York and California, two coastal bastions far from the presidential battlegrounds, [are] the unlikely heart of the fight for control of the House of Representatives as summer turns to fall.
In California, Republicans are defending four incumbents in highly competitive seats that stretch from the Central Valley to Palm Springs, including three in districts where Democrats outnumber Republicans by wide margins. Democrats are protecting just one, an Orange County seat vacated by Representative Katie Porter.
Knocking on doors on a recent sweltering Saturday in the Antelope Valley, Mr. Whitesides, who is running against Mr. Garcia, introduced himself to voters as a “moderate Democrat” who “created about 700 jobs up in Mojave,” a nod to his work at Virgin Galactic.
Mr. Whitesides said in an interview that he had continued to hear from voters that their top issues were local jobs, affordable housing and safety, not only from “smash and grabs” but from wildfires.
“Voters kind of don’t differentiate between D.C. and Sacramento, and they just want to see action taken on these things,” he said. “We have to provide good answers for the challenges that people feel locally.”