Jimmy Gomez Wins The California Democratic Party Endorsement-- With 97% Of The Votes

Sunday the California Democratic Party Endorsement Caucus met in El Sereno to determine whether or not to endorse one of the dozen or so candidates running to replace Xavier Becerra in the Los Angeles district that includes Highland Park, Eagle Rock, Mount Washington, City Terrace, Boyle Heights, Glassell Park, Downtown L.A. (including the Arts District), Chinatown, Koreatown, Little Tokyo, Little Bangladesh, Westlake, etc. Becerra was appointed Attorney General to replace newly-elected Senator Kamala Harris. CA-34 is a deep blue district with a PVI of D+30. In 2012, Romney only got 14.1% of the votes. This year Trump did even worse: 10.7%, one of his worst performances anywhere in America.

Becerra usually won his congressional reelections with around 75% of the votes. The endorsement process drew about a dozen candidates although few who have shown any ability to organize and campaign and run a race, let alone be an effective member of Congress. Ironically, the most progressive candidate, Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez, is also the one with all the backing, something that is rarely the case in Democratic Party politics. The other candidates running include a couple of charter school shills-- Yolie Flores and Sara Hernandez-- plus a bunch of veterans of the Bernie Sanders campaign-- Arturo Carmona, Kenneth Mejia (as a Green), Wendy Carrillo-- and a collection of fairly random people: Sandra Mendoza, Raymond Meza, Alex Poulton, Tenaya Wallace, Maria Cabildo, Alejandra Campoverdi, , Ricardo De La Fuente, Vanessa Aramayo, Michelle Williams, Robert Ahn, Steven Mac... There are also a couple of Republicans-- Karl Siganporia and Bill Morrison-- and a Libertarian, Angela McArdle.

Yesterday there were 58 delegate votes in all. One was cast for "no endorsement," one was cast for Robert Ahn and 56 were cast for Jimmy Gomez. I asked one of the delegates why it was so lopsided. "What have any of these people done for anyone? They are nice and they mean well but Jimmy is our Assemblyman and he's been up in Sacramento doing things for regular people... He made the California family leave program work for real people in this district. Before it was just something that sounded good on paper but only worked for people making 6 figures. Now it works for the whole spectrum of working women, including people who need it most on minimum wage... We know what we're getting with Jimmy and we like that."

This afternoon, just as CA-34's most recent congressman, Xavier Becerra, now California Attorney General, was explaining in Fresno how he would fight to protect Californians' legitimate interests when they are threatened by the Trump Regime, we asked Jimmy his own attitude towards Trump and how things have been unfolding so far. He told us that Trump "is is a once in a lifetime threat to our community, and I will fight him relentlessly to make sure he doesn't harm our freedoms and values. We cannot sit back and wait for Donald Trump to change. He showed his true colors during his campaign, and to think he would be any different was wishful thinking. The fight is real, and the fight is now. Look at the members of Congress who are standing up to Trump-- Ted Lieu in CA-33, Senator Kamala Harris, Ro Khanna up in Silicon Valley, Ruben Gallego in Arizona, Grace Napolitano here in CA-32... these men and women have all endorsed our campaign and they know I'm going to stand with them resisting any hostility from any direction towards our people. Our community is the future of America and we're not going to let Donald Trump do anything to change that or slow that down."

The primary is coming up on April 4th and then the runoff is set for June 6. Jimmy is still the only candidate in the race with an actual record of delivering on issues important to people who live in the 34th congressional district-- from his nationally recognized (and imitated) work for expansion of paid family leave, his work to reduce community college tuition, his work to increase funding for local schools, and his legislation fighting domestic violence and expanding protections on women’s healthcare. All these, and his work on making Climate Change legislation work for working class families, led to Blue America endorsing him long before anyone imagined the Democratic Party would do so in a 97% vote! Please consider contributing to his campaign by tapping on the thermometer below:

UPDATE: Unite Here Endorses Gomez

Another major labor union, Unite Here just endorsed Jimmy Gomez, joining the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the United Nurses Associations of California, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). Thomas Walsh, President of Unite Here Local 11: "There is no one better suited to protect our jobs, benefits and dignity in Washington D.C. than Jimmy Gomez. During his time in the labor movement and most recently as a member of the State Assembly, Jimmy has shown that he truly understands our struggles. He understands that we wake up every day with the threat of workforce violations and cuts to our benefits. We are confident that Jimmy will take this same understanding to Washington D.C. and continue to be a champion for our dignity." The union represents 270,000 employees and will be especially important with Gomez's get out the vote effort April 4.