“They took away Poway and they took away East County. They took away some of my rodeos and some of my Native American tribes. But they didn’t take away the heart of this District,” said Rep. Issa.
When California Democrats rolled out Proposition 50, their expressed aim was to redraw congressional districts to flip reliably Republican seats blue. One of the districts in their crosshairs was the 48th Congressional District—a swath of eastern San Diego County and parts of Riverside, including Temecula, Murrieta, Escondido, and stretches of desert and mountain towns.
The Congressman currently holding that seat, Rep. Darrell Issa (R), is a seasoned lawmaker, Army veteran, and former business-executive-turned-Congressman first elected in 2001. He is the seniormost member of San Diego’s Congressional Delegation and has represented various versions of California districts across his more than two decades of service. He has served on various Committees including: Judiciary, Foreign Affairs, Science, Space and Technology, Intelligence, Energy and Commerce, Oversight and Government Reform (which he once chaired), and Small Business.
Rep. Issa has long been a thorn in Democrats’ sides, going all the way back to his role in blowing the whistle on Operation Fast and Furious—the botched Obama era ATF gun-walking program that allowed firearms to cross into Mexico in an effort to track cartel networks—back in 2009. As chair of the House Oversight Committee, he led the inquiry that uncovered widespread mismanagement and forced public disclosure of Justice Department communications which ultimately resulted in the House voting to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for failing to turn over subpoenaed documents.
Given Issa’s long tenure and high profile in Congress, it’s no surprise that Democrats placed a proverbial target on his back when the Golden State’s legislative supermajority saw their opportunity to gerrymander his district and effectively shove him out of office.
Of course, Prop 50 passed, and the 48th went from being a constituency that elected President Donald Trump by 15 percentage points to one that would have gone for Kamala Harris by three. That’s a dramatic 18-point swing. So thrilled were Democrats—practically salivating at the mere prospect of taking the 48th—that there are now eleven Democrat candidates in line for the seat.
The vast majority of them, for the record, do not appear to even live in the District.
But Rep. Issa remains undeterred. Recently, he announced he would—depsite the abundant challenges—run for re-election to California’s 48th Congressional District.
“I can hold this seat. I’m not quitting on California and neither should anyone else,” said Rep. Issa.
Most of the coverage of this story from left-leaning publications like the Los Angeles Times has seemingly been written with a tinge of bitterness, focusing more on the notion that Issa is not, in fact, moving to Texas to run for Congress in the Lone Star State. If one were to read these articles’ headlines, one would get the sense that Issa was so distraught and dejected after the passage of Prop 50 that he was seriously considering leaving California to protect his political career.
That’s not an entirely honest account of what happened.
Issa was indeed approached by a delegation of Texas House members and residents who asked him to consider running for their 32nd Congressional District. It is presumed that among them was Richard Hudson, Chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
“Out of respect, you don’t just blow off your colleagues. You say, ‘Okay, I’ll, you know, I’ll give it due consideration,’” Issa remarked.
One can never be sure how long or how seriously he considered the offer, but that did not stop news outlets from jumping the gun to allege that Issa already had one foot out the door towards greener pastures. Even conservative Fox News previously ran headlines alleging that Issa was “[weighing] bolting California for [a] Texas seat” while openly acknowledging that their source for the story explicitly stated that “Issa did not ‘go looking’ for the opportunity, but that friends in Texas encouraged him to run.”
Perhaps the worst offender was an op-ed in The News & Observer last week which stated: “Republican U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, will reportedly announce Wednesday that he’s leaving his longtime San Diego-area home to seek election in Texas’ redrawn 32nd District.”
This could not have backfired more dramatically. Before Wednesday came, Rep. Issa made it clear he wasn’t going anywhere.
“I’m not giving up on California, and hopefully none of my colleagues that have been drawn into tough districts are going to give up. I’m hoping they all run and preferably not against each other,” Issa told the AP by phone.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Issa said: “I appreciate the [Texas] opportunity, but California is my home. I told them I’m going to stay in Congress, and I don’t need to go to Texas for that,” Issa said.
Nevertheless, the narrative across national news is that Issa did a “Texas two-step.” Statements such as these—beyond being wildly unfair to the Congressman—read far more like a refusal by publications to acknowledge that their sources were wrong.
In short, Politico, Fox, and others were told Issa was leaving. He wasn’t. They ran with the story anyways. And rather than walking it back, they’re saying it’s Issa who flip-flopped.
That is simply not the case.
And so, despite the partisan reshuffling, and despite the false narrative about his departure, Issa is standing firm and refusing to back down. He told AP that he trusts the voters he represents in San Diego and Riverside counties to consider his record and believes that he will find support on both sides of the aisle.
“They took away Poway and they took away East County. They took away some of my rodeos and some of my Native American tribes. But they didn’t take away the heart of this District,” Issa told KUSI. “I believe that the people of San Diego County who have elected me so many times will, in fact—regardless of registration—vote for me… My intention is to stay right where I am.”
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