Progressive challengers in LA County vie for fresher, more diverse representation in Congress

On any given Sunday, Maebe A. Girl is getting ready to host and perform at a boozy drag brunch at Stache in West Hollywood. This time in mid-April, she’s rocking a short blonde bob, black platform pumps and a bright green crop top in honor of the 4/20 themed event.

She takes her hosting duties seriously — urging the dozens of guests to throw their dollars at the queens as they perform. “No coins though!” she clarifies.

Right before stepping on the stage, she has the unique opportunity to introduce herself. And not just as the next performer. “I’m gonna be the first drag queen ever elected to public office in the United States of America,” Girl tells the crowd before breaking into a performance of “She’s So High” by Tal Bachman.

She’s a progressive running to represent California’s 30th Congressional District, which includes West Hollywood, Burbank, Glendale and her own neighborhood of Silver Lake. It’s Girl’s second bid for Congress, and her second time challenging Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff who has been the local congressman since 2001.

Defeating a sitting member of Congress is no easy feat. They have advantages such as name recognition, political party infrastructure support, and stronger financial backing. According to OpenSecrets, House incumbents raised more than six times as much as their challengers during the 2020 election cycle.

But the uphill battle is one progressives have increasingly become more willing to climb since 2018 — when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Ayanna Pressley ousted long-time representatives in New York and Massachusetts. Since these wins, David Hopkins — a political science professor at Boston College — said he’s seen more cases of prominent challengers to incumbent House Democrats from the ideological left.

“On the Democratic side, there’s often an ideological case that the incumbent is not progressive enough,” Hopkins said. “There’s also often an identity element to it — where the challenger has a different social group identity than the incumbent and is making the case for representation of a different social group.”

Hopkins added that when Pressley defeated former Rep. Michael Capuano in Massachusetts’ 7th Congressional District, that identity factor was multifaceted. “It was a generational divide, a racial divide and a gender divide all in one challenge,” Hopkins said.

Girl is among the challengers who were inspired by Ocasio-Cortez’s 2018 win. She says she’s seen people’s idea of what a politician looks like straying away from the “wealthy, older, cis-hetero white man in a suit,” since then.

“That’s not reflective of America, it’s not reflective of my state, it’s not reflective of my community,” Girl said in an interview via Zoom. “We need more diversity in politics across the board from local to federal.”

Girl is just one of several progressive candidates in Los Angeles County hoping to replace Democrats already in Congress.

David Kim is challenging fellow Democrat Rep. Jimmy Gomez in a district that stretches from the Wilshire area in central LA to Eagle Rock. Kim, 38, first challenged Gomez in 2020. He said he was inspired to run after watching Kenneth Mejia, a 31-year-old progressive now running for Los Angeles city controller, garner nearly 30% of the vote against Gomez in 2018.

“The concept of somebody in their 20s and 30s, being able to run for office was something foreign to me,” Kim, who is a second-generation Korean American, said in an interview. “I only imagined 60-year-old white men running for office.”

As a first time candidate in 2020, Kim lost the general election to Gomez by 12,238 votes — only 6% of the vote. According to OpenSecrets, the incumbent outraised him by over $1 million — a challenge Kim says he’s set on overcoming this time for his constituents.

“Times are tough, people are suffering, and the suffering is just accumulating every year,” Kim said. “I’m not sure how much longer we can continue reelecting the same people who have been in the same positions.”

In California, Democratic challengers like Kim and Girl have a better shot at unseating an incumbent than they would in the majority of the country. The Golden State has a top-two primary system that allows for the top-two vote getters — regardless of party — to advance to the general election.

Kim is expected to advance to the general election. Besides Gomez, the only other candidate in the primary is a Republican running in a solidly Democratic district. Gomez could face another strong challenge from Kim this November, although The Cook Political Report reports the incumbent faces “no or minimal risk” of losing his seat.

As for Girl, she is determined to make it through the primary election and face-off against Schiff in November. In the 2020 primary, Republican Eric Early got 23,243 votes — Girl was only 14 votes shy of being the top-two finisher. Early is now running for California attorney general, and Schiff — who has served 11 terms and remains popular — has won all of his races by double digits.

Hopkins said even if these types of challenges don’t succeed, they can cause a change in dynamic within the Democratic Party in Congress.

“Everybody sits up and takes notice when any of these primary upsets happen,” Hopkins said. “If [incumbents] believe down the road there may be a credible threat on their left side, that may affect — not necessarily how they vote — but how they present themselves and how much time they spend back in their districts.”

The offices for Schiff and Gomez did not respond to requests for comment on the upcoming election and their challengers.

Girl launched her campaign early this time around — 16 months before the primary election — and said she had knocked on over 15,000 doors in her district by mid-April.

At 35, Girl has already made history. In 2019, she became the first drag queen elected to public office in the Silverlake Neighborhood Council. In her two years with the council, Girl has served as co-chair of the budget and finance committee, co-chair of the housing and homelessness committee, and created the LGBTQ+ committee.

Outside of politics, Girl is a restaurant worker and drag performer. She relies on her income from those jobs to make ends meet since her position on the Neighborhood Council is volunteer-based.

Girl said her reasons for running go beyond wanting to see fresh representation in her district — many of them lining up with the typical progressive agenda. On her website and in campaign messaging, Girl emphasizes universal health care, housing and education for all, environmental justice, and protecting both LGBTQ +and reproductive rights.

Angelica Dueñas, another progressive challenger in a different LA County congressional race, has a similar platform. She said she thinks the homeless crisis in Los Angeles is an issue that needs to be addressed at the federal level as so many of those living in California’s streets are not even from the state.

“They’re economic refugees from across the country,” Dueñas, 38, said in an interview. “People come out because they’re just seeking to survive and it’s a terrible issue that’s federal.”

It’s her second time running in California’s 29th District and challenging Rep. Tony Cárdenas, a 5-term incumbent who defended his seat against Dueñas in 2020 by 13% of the vote.

Dueñas is the only Democrat besides Cárdenas running to represent the 29th District, which like the majority of LA County, is heavily Democratic. Cárdenas is considered safe by The Cook Political Report.

“He’s been in politics for over 25 years and I don’t feel like there’s any way to make him any better,” Dueñas said of the incumbent, who is also a LA native of Latino descent. “Just because you’re blue and just because you’re brown, it doesn’t mean you’re down.”

Cárdenas’ office did not respond to requests for comment.

Like Girl, Dueñas’ sights are set on the June 7 primary for now. She’s been focused on the areas that were newly added to the 29th after redistricting — the once-a-decade process of redrawing the lines of congressional districts. They include Toluca Lake, Toluca Woods and the Valley Village area above Studio City which are all majority white and English speaking — a demographic Dueñas believes is key to getting through the primary.

The real challenge — should she make the top two and advance to the general — she says, begins after June, when she’ll need a strong base of bilingual volunteers to engage voters from the heavily Latino and Spanish-speaking areas of the 29th.

Back at the boozy drag brunch, the crowd of over 50 people makes it clear they approve of Girl’s message — cheering louder as she shares what she hopes to tackle in Congress, including providing trans representation and defending LGBTQ rights.

This messaging especially resonates in West Hollywood, where more than 40% of the city’s residents identify as LGBTQ. A resident from the city, which was redistricted into the area Girl is running to represent, said he’s been yearning for more LGBTQ representation at the federal level.

“It’s a change that we need to make a difference,” says Jim Hall while chomping on Stache’s signature chicken and waffles. “If you want somebody who has a voice for this community — for everybody — she’s the perfect candidate.”

In the speech announcing her intent to represent the district this gay bar falls into, Girl tells the cheering fans about her commitment to a host of the progressive issues she’s championing in addition to providing representation for LGBTQ individuals.

Girl said she feels now is the right time for someone like her to hold federal office, given recent anti-trans and anti-queer legislation being introduced across the country.

“I think it’s really essential that we actually have trans people be a part of these conversations on a federal level,” Girl said in the interview. “If you’re not at the table, then you’re on the menu.”