Rep. Kevin McCarthy is getting a primary challenger who pledges to defeat the former House speaker as an “America First Republican.”
David Giglio, a business owner who lost in the primary for California’s 13th Congressional District in 2022, announced that he will seek to replace Mr. McCarthy in the state’s 20th District.
“After years of being sold out to special interests, the people of the Central Valley deserve an America First Republican fighting for them in Washington and working alongside President Donald Trump to WAGE WAR against the corrupt uniparty!” he said on his website.
Mr. Giglio paid special attention to Mr. McCarthy and said that he “failed the American people.” He praised as “courageous” the eight House Republicans who joined all the chamber’s Democrats to remove Mr. McCarthy from the speakership.
“Kevin McCarthy was removed as Speaker by eight courageous members of his party for failing to keep to his promises and capitulating to Joe Biden and the radical Democrats,” he said. “Kevin McCarthy must be defeated.”
According to his website, Mr. Giglio will not “kowtow to party leaders, special interests, or corporate elites,” but instead will work with Mr. Trump as he “wages war against the uniparty, dismantles the Deep State, and Makes America Great Again.”
Mr. Giglio filed the paperwork to run on Sunday.
“Americans are fed up with the status quo and hungry for change. I intend to do whatever it takes to fight, win, and deliver it for them!” he said on the campaign website’s donation page. “Help me DEFEAT the Swamp by making a generous donation below together we will send an America First Fighter to Washington.”
Mr. McCarthy was first elected to Congress in 2006 and has won every election since then.
The 20th District is rated as R+16 by the Cook Partisan Voting Index, the highest pro-Republican rating of any congressional district in California.
The Washington Times has reached out to Mr. McCarthy’s reelection campaign for comment.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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