LOS ANGELES (AP) — Within the combat for the U.S. Home, Democrats are hoping pop rock star energy will assist oust a long-serving Republican east of Los Angeles because the celebration appears to be like to regain management of the chamber and sluggish President Donald Trump’s agenda.
Tim Myers, a Grammy-nominated former bassist for worldwide hitmakers OneRepublic, introduced Thursday he’ll problem Rep. Ken Calvert within the battleground forty first District in Riverside County that stretches from the L.A. suburbs to the resort haven of Palm Springs.
“Ken Calvert has been in Washington for 30 years,” Myers says in a video saying his marketing campaign. The “status quo isn’t working.”
Christian Martinez, a spokesperson for the marketing campaign arm of Home Republicans, mentioned in an announcement that “Democrat Tim Myers is the whole lot mistaken with at present’s radical left: a Hollywood liberal attempting to pretend his method into Riverside County.”
Myers grew up in Corona, most of which is within the district, however now lives in neighboring Los Angeles County.
At a time when aggressive Home contests have gotten scarcer nationwide, Democrats take into account Calvert’s carefully divided California district one of many celebration’s greatest alternatives to achieve floor within the chamber, the place Republicans maintain a fragile 220-213 majority.
With Congress and the White Home beneath Republican management — and Democrats going through an uphill combat to take the Senate in 2026 — the California contest will carry added significance as Democrats maneuver to retake the Home to offer a counterweight to the Trump administration on points from immigration to the surroundings.
Myers, a prolific producer, songwriter and solo artist, is positioning himself as a change agent in a race towards one of the crucial senior members of the Home. The 40-year-old Myers mentioned he was in second grade when Calvert, the longest-serving Republican within the state’s congressional delegation, was first elected in 1992.
Within the video that seems to have been filmed in a recording studio, Myers remembers rising up a pastor’s son in Corona, on the western fringe of the Southern California district. He recounts the ups-and-downs of the notoriously cutthroat music enterprise that finally led him to discovered his personal document label. He now lives within the tony enclave of Hidden Hills in neighboring Los Angeles County, a preferred redoubt for musicians and actors.
Myers berates Trump insurance policies that he says will harm veterans and drive up shopper costs.
“Our community is being priced out of homeownership, groceries are more expensive every week and we’re constantly under threat from wildfires and rising crime,” Myers mentioned in an announcement. “It’s time for a change.”
Republicans maintain a slim registration benefit within the district — lower than 2 factors over Democrats — and Calvert has beat again robust challenges within the final two elections. Calvert prevailed by a few 3-point edge in 2024, the identical 12 months Trump carried the district by 6 factors over Democrat Kamala Harris, the previous California U.S. senator and lawyer common.
The marketing campaign arm of Home Democrats has named Calvert a prime goal for 2026, as he was in 2024. Calvert’s marketing campaign raised over $1.3 million the primary quarter of 2025.
California is called a liberal protectorate. Democrats maintain each statewide workplace, dominate the Legislature and congressional delegation and outnumber registered Republicans by a staggering 2-1 ratio. Nonetheless, Republicans retain pockets of political clout within the Southern California suburbs and huge rural stretches, together with the Central Valley farm belt.
In 2024, a tricky 12 months for Democrats nationally, the celebration picked up three GOP-held Home seats in California.
