As Election Day approaches, the California Democratic Party hopes to get a boost in the tightly contested 49th Congressional District from President Joe Biden's visit to San Diego to campaign for incumbent Rep. Mike Levin on Thursday.
Decision 2022
President Biden's plane landed as the sun set at MCAS Miramar. He deplaned, spent a moment chatting on the tarmac with California Governor Gavin Newsom and Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA 52) then headed off to a campaign event with Rep. Levin at MiraCosta College in Oceanside.
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Levin has represented the district straddling northern San Diego and southern Orange counties since 2018. The president will also speak at an unspecified event on Friday.
The Biden Administration will hope to turn the tide in an election which, months ago, seemed to lean toward the incumbent but was recently deemed by Politico a toss-up between Levin and his opponent, Republican and former San Juan Capistrano Mayor Brian Maryott.
The two candidates have faced off before. In 2020 Levin, won the district by about 6%. Maryott and the GOP are hoping for a mid-term turn of the tide, tying Levin to Biden and policies they say are unpopular.
"Republicans gladly welcome Joe Biden to San Diego for his campaign stop with Mike Levin, which will be a boon for the GOP and remind voters to choose Brian Maryott on Nov. 8," GOP spokeswoman Hallie Balch said in a statement. "The Biden-Levin agenda has been a complete failure for California families, and Biden's visit with Levin keeps the record of failure fresh in Californians' minds."
Levin has attacked Maryott as a MAGA Republican with reactionary views on abortion. Maryott has said Levin and his party continue to spend taxpayer money without thinking of the fiscal consequences.
The race will be one of several California toss-ups in the national spotlight as Republicans seek to wrest control of the House from Democrats, including one directly north: California's 45th Congressional District, represented by Katie Porter, D-Irvine. Just last month, Biden visited Irvine Valley College in neighboring Orange County on behalf of Rep. Porter.
Democrats are being forced to play defense, even in a famously liberal state that then-President Donald Trump lost by over 5 million votes in 2020. Biden’s sagging approval rating is creating a drag on Democratic candidates generally, although voter surveys indicate he's stronger in California than the nation as a whole.
In an interview, Levin said that the outcome in his race would rest on turnout and that his campaign was redoubling its efforts to contact voters, including with texts, phone calls and door-knocks at their homes.
In a tight race, “the president’s visit is going to be critical to ensuring we get as many voters as possible to submit their ballots,” he said.
While his district remained mostly unchanged in reapportionment, he said one of the challenges is that areas favorable to Democrats were removed in San Diego County, while new voters were added in a largely conservative stretch of Orange County, making the district more competitive.
His message: Democrats are working to lower gas and prescription drug prices while Republicans offer one solution, cutting taxes for the rich.
“Whether the economy is good or bad, whether inflation is high or low, they want tax cuts for their wealthy donors and wealthy friends. That’s their plan for just about everything,” Levin said.
Levin’s Republican opponent, businessman Brian Maryott, said Biden’s visit amounted to “a failed president coming to our district to stand alongside a failed congressman.”
“Voters won’t forget $7 gas prices, the explosion in crime, inflation hitting 40-year highs, the crisis at our border,” Maryott said in a statement.
