WARNING SIGNS: Vulnerable California Reps. Young Kim, Michelle Steel Read Writing on the Wall After Recall Rout

Orange County Republicans put on notice after Democrats flip the bellwether county and voters reject pandemic-prolonging GOP extremists

Summer may be over, but vulnerable California Republicans Young Kim and Michelle Steel are feeling the heat.

Kim and Steel aren’t just sweating that their standard bearer in the failed Republican recall — anti-vax, anti-immigrant, and anti-woman extremist Larry Elder — suffered a humiliating defeat. They have now been put on notice after current results showed that Orange County AAPI voters rejected the radical Republican agenda and Democrats swung back the county.

The New York Times reported this weekend that 52% of Orange County voters sided with Gov. Newsom in the failed recall effort — an even greater percentage than Newsom won in OC back in 2018, when Democrats flipped the entire county for the first time in the modern era. The most recent flip included major swings in Orange County’s AAPI communities, setting off alarm bells for Kim and Steel’s flailing re-election prospects and confirming reports that the GOP has been “losing ground” among critical AAPI voters.

Kim and Steel, who cozied up with Losing Larry Elder, ought to be particularly worried after voters issued an undeniable rebuke of Republicans’ dangerous anti-vaccine, anti-mask rhetoric that has prolonged the pandemic and sought to undermine our economic recovery. A brand new Fox News poll from this weekend confirmed that the majority of voters favor mask and vaccine mandates, once again showing that Kim and Steel are on the wrong side of a deadly pandemic.

DCCC Chairman Sean Patrick Maloney said it best this past week: Rep. Kim and Rep. Steel’s dangerous anti-mask, anti-vax record puts them on “the ass end of a very powerful issue.”

DCCC Spokesperson Adrian Eng-Gastellum

“Birds of a feather flock together, and Young Kim and Michelle Steel were not shy about flying alongside extremist loser Larry Elder. Orange County voters sent a clear message: if Republicans like Kim and Steel continue to stand in the way of California and our nation’s recovery, they will send them packing at the ballot box.”

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