The most dangerous political figure in California may not be who you think.
That title has been claimed by the Rev. Brian Hawkins, a Republican running for Congress in southern California and promising to unify the nation.
Mr. Hawkins, 43, is a pastor and San Jacinto City Council member. He’s a Black man and an ex-con. He’s also a conservative.
And he says he is the ideal messenger to reach voters in California’s changing political climate.
“I’m what Obama should’ve been in 2008,” Mr. Hawkins told The Washington Times. “He could’ve spoken a message of healing and unity. But, he used some of that same rhetoric that pushed everybody back.”
He’s running in a longtime Democratic district.
Despite the long odds of a Republican flipping the seat, Mr. Hawkins said he can bust apart the messaging the Democratic Party has used to make California a stronghold for the party.
“I think California is a purple state,” Mr. Hawkins said. “I think that just over the years, the Democratic Party has done a really good job of characterizing the Republican Party as White supremacist and racist.”
He said he has already weathered vicious attacks for being a Black conservative.
“I get called a coon, Uncle Tom, I get all that,” he said.
Mr. Hawkins said he knows how to overcome rough treatment. He came up the hard way.
He grew up in a poor family that survived on government assistance. He spent a total of 10 years in prison for crimes when he was younger, including charges involving illegal gun possession and wrecking and then failing to return a rental car.
Being a Black man, Mr. Hawkins said it would have been easy to blame racism for his run-ins with the law, but he wants to dismantle that kind of thinking.
He said that using racism as an excuse ends up victimizes Black communities.
“There are people who will walk around with hate in their heart,” Mr. Hawkins said. “You can’t change what some people or even what groups have in their heart, but when you overwhelmingly think the country is racist, or that racism is still a major part, I would challenge that.”
Mr. Hawkins is running in California’s 36th District, which includes Riverside County in the Coachella Valley east of Los Angeles.
He is so far the only candidate to announce his intention to run.
The district is currently represented by Democratic Rep. Raul Ruiz, who has served the area since 2013. Mr. Ruiz won reelection in 2020 by a roughly 20-point margin.
Making the case that he’s the man to put the district back in the Republican column for the first time since 2000, Mr. Hawkins has his sights set on primary June 7, 2022.
The district, which includes Palm Springs, was a GOP-stronghold 20 years ago but is now reliably Democratic. The Cook Political Report currently ranks it D+2.
The political winds, however, are blowing again in California, said Larry Gerston, a political science professor at San Jose State University.
Mr. Ruiz has “cruised” in his past reelection bids, but the rise of unsatisfied Californians and a looming recall against Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom may shake things up, Mr. Gerston said.
“It’s a very volatile time in California,” he said. “There’s a lot of unhappiness around here, and you never know how it’s going to go.”
Mr. Hawkins said he has a wide array of political influences ranging from George Washington to Democrat Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress who later ran a bid for president in 1972.
The Republican also gave credit to Mr. Obama in the way he used grassroots campaigning to his advantage, though Mr. Hawkins said the former president shouldn’t have used race as a wedge issue.
Crystal Ruiz, who serves on the San Jacinto City Council with Mr. Hawkins, said she thinks running for higher office would be a good experience for her colleague, who has served since November.
“Hawkins would be a fresh perspective. I think that he’s got as good a chance as anybody to win. I think that Raul should not underestimate him,” she said.
Mrs. Ruiz, who has no relation to Mr. Ruiz, also said the congressman doesn’t visit his district often, which may give Mr. Hawkins an advantage.
“He only comes in during election time. He takes photos and then he’s gone,” Mrs. Ruiz said.
The Ruiz campaign disputed that.
“Dr. Ruiz is deeply connected to his district and has spent over 220 days there since 2020,” campaign spokesman Roy Behr said in a statement.
Mr. Ruiz has long benefited politically from his Hispanic heritage, which helps connect him with the district’s large Hispanic population.
However, Mr. Gerston said the Hispanic population has shifted in recent years to favor Republicans more at the polls, as evidenced in the 2020 presidential election.
“It’s the Latino vote that shows signs of becoming a bit more Republican and a bit more conservative,” Mr. Gerston said. “We saw that in the vote for president last time around. Of course, Trump didn’t get a majority, but he pulled, I think, around 30% of the Latino vote, which is greater than what we’ve seen in the last few years.”
If elected, Mr. Hawkins wants to enhance public safety by investing in law enforcement, as well as cracking down on the rise of homelessness, which has greatly plagued his home state.
He promises to better education and enhance border security. He also backs voter ID laws, but unlike other GOP candidates across the country, he isn’t making election integrity the main component of his campaign.
The pastor doesn’t hesitate to acknowledge that President Biden was duly elected in 2020, though there’s little he agrees with about what the administration is doing.
“It’s not worth my time to go into the past,” Mr. Hawkins said about former President Donald Trump’s stolen-election claims. “We have an election coming up in 2022.”
• Mica Soellner can be reached at msoellner@washingtontimes.com.
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