In a key swing district, Katie Porter clashes with GOP opponent over inflation and 'Orange County values'
In a rough year for Democrats, Republican Scott Baugh is trying to bring this Orange County swing district back to its GOP roots after it abandoned his
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — In a rough year for Democrats, Republican Scott Baugh is trying to bring this Orange County swing district back to its GOP roots after it abandoned his party.
But he’s navigating a culturally changing region, now wary of a Republican Party transformed by Donald Trump, and a rising Democratic star in two-term Rep. Katie Porter, who, as one Republican operative lamented, “has more money than God.”
“I wouldn’t be running if I didn’t think it was winnable,” Baugh said in an interview at his campaign office in Newport Beach. “Yeah, we can return it.”
Baugh, a former OC GOP chair and state assemblyman, conceded that his fundraising deficit to Porter is “pretty daunting.” He told volunteers that it’s “going to be a low-turnout election and one of the challenges is: How do we get our voters out to the polls?”
California’s new 47th district sits at the nexus of cross-currents shaping the 2022 election. While economic pain and President Joe Biden's unpopularity threatens Democrats' hold on power, cultural issues like abortion, as well as Trump's enduring grip on the party, could put a ceiling on GOP prospects in the suburbs.
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