LOS ANGELES (AP) — Within the battle for the U.S. Home, Democrats are hoping pop rock star energy will assist oust a long-serving Republican east of Los Angeles because the occasion seems to be to regain management of the chamber and gradual President Donald Trump’s agenda.
Tim Myers, a Grammy-nominated former bassist for worldwide hitmakers OneRepublic, introduced Thursday he’ll problem Rep. Ken Calvert within the battleground forty first District in Riverside County that stretches from the L.A. suburbs to the resort haven of Palm Springs.
“Ken Calvert has been in Washington for 30 years,” Myers says in a video saying his marketing campaign. The “status quo isn’t working.”
Christian Martinez, a spokesperson for the marketing campaign arm of Home Republicans, stated in an announcement that “Democrat Tim Myers is all the things improper with right this moment’s radical left: a Hollywood liberal making an attempt to faux his means into Riverside County.”
Myers grew up in Corona, most of which is within the district, however now lives in neighboring Los Angeles County.
At a time when aggressive Home contests have gotten scarcer nationwide, Democrats think about Calvert’s intently divided California district one of many occasion’s greatest alternatives to realize floor within the chamber, the place Republicans maintain a fragile 220-213 majority.
With Congress and the White Home below Republican management — and Democrats dealing with an uphill battle to take the Senate in 2026 — the California contest will carry added significance as Democrats maneuver to retake the Home to supply a counterweight to the Trump administration on points from immigration to the atmosphere.
Myers, a prolific producer, songwriter and solo artist, is positioning himself as a change agent in a race towards one of the vital senior members of the Home. The 40-year-old Myers stated he was in second grade when Calvert, the longest-serving Republican within the state’s congressional delegation, was first elected in 1992.
Within the video that seems to have been filmed in a recording studio, Myers recollects rising up a pastor’s son in Corona, on the western fringe of the Southern California district. He recounts the ups-and-downs of the notoriously cutthroat music enterprise that ultimately led him to discovered his personal file label. He now lives within the tony enclave of Hidden Hills in neighboring Los Angeles County, a well-liked redoubt for musicians and actors.
Myers berates Trump insurance policies that he says will harm veterans and drive up shopper costs.
“Our community is being priced out of homeownership, groceries are more expensive every week and we’re constantly under threat from wildfires and rising crime,” Myers stated in an announcement. “It’s time for a change.”
Republicans maintain a slim registration benefit within the district — lower than 2 factors over Democrats — and Calvert has beat again powerful challenges within the final two elections. Calvert prevailed by a few 3-point edge in 2024, the identical yr Trump carried the district by 6 factors over Democrat Kamala Harris, the previous California U.S. senator and lawyer normal.
The marketing campaign arm of Home Democrats has named Calvert a prime goal for 2026, as he was in 2024. Calvert’s marketing campaign raised over $1.3 million the primary quarter of 2025.
California is called a liberal protectorate. Democrats maintain each statewide workplace, dominate the Legislature and congressional delegation and outnumber registered Republicans by a staggering 2-1 ratio. Nonetheless, Republicans retain pockets of political clout within the Southern California suburbs and huge rural stretches, together with the Central Valley farm belt.
In 2024, a troublesome yr for Democrats nationally, the occasion picked up three GOP-held Home seats in California.
