In a battleground congressional district north of L.A., Trump verdict may be a wildcard in the November election

Rep. Mike Garcia speaks during a Memorial Day event in Newhall last weekend. In Santa Clarita, nestled in a hotly contested congressional district that is expected to help determine which party controls Congress next year, Trump’s guilty verdict did little to sway Brown or other hardcore Republicans. Garcia is hoping to fend off Democratic challenger George Whitesides in California’s closely divided 27th Congressional District, where voters have twice reelected their Republican congressman — despite a double-digit Democrat voter registration advantage. With “the right kind of exposure,” she posited, Garcia’s ties to Trump could impact how those independents vote in the November congressional race. As his group canvasses for Whitesides and other local Democratic candidates, Taban said he expected the verdict might come up in conversations with voters, particularly as he and other club members plan to underscore the fact that Garcia is “for sure a Trump loyalist.” But at the end of the day, congressional swing voters are going to be much more focused on economic issues such as gas and grocery prices, crime and the border, said Jon Fleischman, a Republican strategist and former state GOP executive director.