3 candidates, including Rep. Josh Harder, vie for Calif. congressional district seat – KCRA Sacramento

The race for California’s 9th Congressional District is heating up.Democratic Rep. Josh Harder announced Tuesday morning that he will run for the seat. Harder currently represents California’s 10th Congressional District. But due to redistricting, district 10 now encompasses part of Contra Costa County, including the cities of Walnut Creek and Clayton.District 9’s seat is currently held by Democratic Rep. Jerry McNerney. But just hours before Rep. Harder made his bid public, McNerney said he was retiring and thus would not seek reelection for the newly created district.The primary election is on June 7, 2022.KCRA 3’s Orko Manna spoke to Rep. Harder about his decision to run for California’s 9th congressional district and his thoughts about redistricting. He also spoke with Democrat Harpreet Chima, currently a clinical lab researcher at UC Davis and Republican Tom Patti, who is on the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors, serving District 3.Josh HarderQ: Why are you running for California’s 9th Congressional District?Harder: This is my home. My great-great-grandfather started a peach farm in Manteca in 1850, 170 years ago. I’ve had the privilege of representing south San Joaquin County for the last few years, and a lot of the issues are still consistent in the north valley as well, Stockton and Lodi, it’s so important to make sure that we’re bringing more jobs to the area, that we’re lowering the cost of living, especially the cost of housing which has grown so expensive, so I think this is the best continuation of the work we’re doing, and I’m so excited to work for the future.Q: What are your thoughts on the recent redistricting and how it’s impacting the upcoming election?Harder: To look at the map and sort of see our community split into a couple different ways is a little bit frustrating. I think it’s not exactly the lines that I would have drawn or a lot of folks in our community would have. That said, I think the 9th Congressional District makes a lot of sense, it’s essentially San Joaquin County, and I think if you look across Lodi, Stockton, Manteca, Tracy, there’s very common issues. There’s common issues about economic development and bringing jobs, about the cost of living and everything else, and so I think it’s so important to make sure that internal consistency exists, and so this district can have the best representative as possible.Q: Do you think you can properly represent the people who live in the new 9th Congressional District?Harder: I’ve been really proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish in just our first couple years in office, representing the south San Joaquin portion, we’ve made sure that we’re fighting for more transportation support. We can make that Altamont commute much easier for a lot of folks, try to fix some of the roads and bridges across our area. We’ve done a lot of work to lower the cost of health care and try to bring more doctors to the Central Valley, especially given the pandemic that we’ve seen over the last year, and then it’s so important to make sure that we’re investing in education and I’ve got a number of bills to make sure we’re bringing more career education to our high schools, and trying to make sure that we’re preparing everybody to succeed and that’s incredibly important because it’s how we’re going to be able to bring those jobs to the valley, to make sure that every person across our community can thrive. And I think that’s the consistent thread that really has tied together a lot of our work over the last few years.Q: Did Rep. Jerry McNerney’s retirement announcement make it clear to you that District 9 is where you were going to run?Harder: It did. District 9 is I think a combination of the community that I’ve represented in south San Joaquin and then the communities that he’s represented in Stockton and Lodi and he’s been a great friend and a great colleague, and we’re certainly going to miss his representation in Congress. We’ve had a chance to work together on a number of really important pieces of legislation for our community. Probably most significant and most tangible of which is the new veterans hospital in French Camp, which is going to be incredibly important for our veterans community to make sure that we don’t have to have folks driving 4 or 5 hours for basic health care concerns, and so he’s done a tremendous job and it’ll be sad to see him go, but I wanted to make sure that we were doing everything we can to pick up the baton and still continue to work on all the same issues that I know he’s prioritized as well as what our office has done.Q: Some other candidates are in the race for District 9 as well. What do you think your chances are of winning?Harder: I think we have strong chances. We’re not going to take anything for granted. I think what the Central Valley really needs is someone who is independent, who doesn’t look at just what the Republican message is or the Democratic message but tries to focus on the needs of our community first and foremost, someone who focuses on those local concerns and doesn’t get caught up in the cable news cycle and people screaming at each other on TV and somebody who actually gets things done. Frankly, a lot of folks in our community are cynical and apathetic about politics and we need to do everything we can to make sure that they understand what’s at stake, that we have to make sure that we’re fighting for better health care, lower cost of living and more jobs in the area, and that’s exactly what we’ve done and I think if we’re able to get that message across, we’ll be in good shape.Harpreet Chima Q: Why are you running for California’s 9th Congressional District?Chima: What I keep seeing is a growing disconnect between what the concerns of the average working American is and what the politicians in D.C. either talk about or what their priorities are and the kind of legislation they pass. The average person is concerned with, am I going to be making enough money to keep a roof over my family’s head or to retire with some sort of security? Am I going to be able to afford my kid’s college education? Am I going to be able to afford my health care costs? And they feel like what happens in D.C. isn’t really addressing that. And so they really feel disconnected from what happens in D.C. They feel like it either doesn’t affect them or doesn’t concern them. Or if it does affect them, it affects them in a negative way. I feel like someone had to step up and run and try to fight on behalf of just the average American worker, regardless of which party they’re in, regardless of who they’re supporting. You need someone in Congress who is willing to take on some of the major corporations and the wealthy donors and fight on behalf of American workers.Q: Rep. Josh Harder just announced that he is entering the race. What do you think your chances are with him now in the mix?Chima: I still love our odds. I want to welcome Josh Harder to Stockton and Lodi, Tracy and Manteca were already in his district before, but I think people underestimate just how progressive Stockton, Lodi and pockets of Tracy and Manteca can be. And the platform we have I feel like is much more aligned with the voters and the basic Democrats in Stockton, Lodi and the places in Tracy and Manteca, than the platform that Josh Harder has had over the past three years in Congress.Tom PattiQ: Why are you running for California’s 9th Congressional District?Patti: I feel as though I’m going to be able to serve my community in the next level of capacity. I grew up here. This is where I went to grade school from my early childhood through high school. This is where I went to Delta College. I owned and operated my business here for the last 20 years. I’ve built relationships across a full spectrum of this community and this entire county. I’ve got great working relationships in government, in the services I currently engage in, established a record of getting things done, very energetic and very passionate about making changes. Status quo is not OK for me. We need to constantly engage, challenge and push for better results.Q: Rep. Josh Harder just announced that he is entering the race. What are your thoughts on him entering the race?Patti: I believe I better represent the people of this community more so than anybody from the outside. The most important element is understanding the simple wants, needs, the relationships throughout the community. I’ve got deeply engrained roots throughout this community, having served on the building exchange board for almost 10 years, having served with multiple nonprofit organizations, I’ve got institutional knowledge of this county and this region and as a county supervisor, I’ve been highly engaged on solutions.Q: How will your prior experience in public office help you if you were to be elected?Patti: My experience serving as a county supervisor, I believe has given me a great advantage and a front-row seat to the needs of our community. I’m looking forward to being their voice in Washington, and representing, locally, the best interests for this region.