Politics
GOP Rep. Mike Garcia, in tough reelection bid, says job is to keep U.S. from becoming California
There was a bogeyman at Republican Rep. Mike Garcia’s town hall in Santa Clarita this week: the state of California.
Onstage at the Performing Arts Center at College of the Canyons, Garcia spoke in front of a large screen projecting the red-lettered words: “My mission is to prevent the U.S. from adopting California’s extreme policies.”
Garcia blasted California’s gasoline prices, its homelessness crisis, housing costs that are about double the national average. And he blamed it all on the Democratic supermajority in Sacramento.
“I want to be very clear, because this has been misinterpreted in the past: I love California,” Garcia said. “It’s why I’m here. It’s where I’ve raised my family. It’s where I was raised. I have no intentions of leaving California, but, boy, does Sacramento make it hard to stay in California.”
Then, he added: “My job is to prevent the country from turning into what California has become.”
The packed auditorium burst into applause.
Decrying the cost of gas and housing in the Golden State is a potent message in Garcia’s sprawling district in northern Los Angeles County. Many residents here endure two-hour commutes to jobs in Los Angeles because they had to relocate to the high desert to find a home they could afford.
On Tuesday night, Garcia, a thrice-elected Republican running for reelection in one of the state’s most competitive congressional races, held court for more than three hours during his town hall. Because he was there in his official role as a congressman, Garcia did not speak directly about the election. His spokespeople have not responded to multiple requests from The Times to discuss the campaign.
In a lengthy question-and-answer session, constituents at the forum made their concerns clear: public safety, the cost of living, better health benefits for veterans, and the culture wars in California’s public schools, especially regarding gender identity issues.
Garcia, a former Navy pilot, is facing a tough reelection bid to represent the 27th Congressional District, where Democrats hold a significant advantage in voter registration.
The race between him and his Democratic opponent, George Whitesides, a former NASA chief of staff under President Obama, will be crucial in determining whether Republicans maintain their narrow majority in the U.S. House. The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election handicapper, calls this year’s race a toss-up.
“Some of you want me to be further right. Some of you want me to be further left. I am who I am, and I believe what I believe,” GOP Rep. Mike Garcia told a packed town hall in Santa Clarita.
(Hailey Branson-Potts / Los Angeles Times)
The once staunchly conservative district stretches from Santa Clarita to the Kern County line and includes Lancaster and Palmdale. With its proximity to Edwards Air Force Base, it has deep ties to the military and aerospace industry.
Just over 41% of registered voters are Democrats, and about 30% are Republicans. More than a fifth are independents
Garcia, 48, first won his seat during a 2020 special election to replace former Rep. Katie Hill, a young Democrat who resigned amid a sex scandal. It was the first time the GOP had flipped a California district from blue to red in more than 20 years.
Garcia retained the seat in two subsequent elections. And he won last spring’s three-way primary election with 55% of the vote, while Whitesides got 33%, setting the stage for the top two vote-getters to face off in the November runoff.
Whitesides, a former chief executive of Mojave-based Virgin Galactic, is a first-time candidate who has blasted Garcia’s vote against certifying the 2020 presidential election results after the Jan. 6 insurrection, and his 2021 co-sponsorship of the Life at Conception Act, which would have amounted to a nationwide abortion ban with no exceptions for rape, incest or threats to the mother’s health.
Onstage Tuesday, Garcia said, “In terms of party affiliation, I am in the minority — I understand that.
“Some of you want me to be further right. Some of you want me to be further left. I am who I am, and I believe what I believe,” he said.
Garcia is the son of a Mexican immigrant who moved to the U.S. in 1959. He said that his late father “came here legally” and “did it right” and that illegal immigration is one of the nation’s biggest threats. In Congress, he voted against creating a path to citizenship for so-called Dreamers who were brought to the U.S. as children.
Garcia called for higher pay and more leave time for members of the military — drawing cheers from a crowd filled with veterans.
“You’ve got to pay them better. You’ve got to lead them better, and you’ve got to invest in the military industrial complex that supports them and gives our war fighters the … advantage that they, frankly, deserve overseas and at home,” said Garcia, a former executive for defense contractor Raytheon.
“As people who have a heart for patriotism and a love of this country,” one woman asked Garcia, “what can we do to restore patriotism in our schools?”
Garcia, a father of two, said politics needed to stay out of public schools and blasted a new state law that bans schools from enacting policies that require teachers to notify parents about changes to a student’s gender identity — for example, if they ask to be called by a different name or pronoun.
“For every bill like this one in Sacramento, there’s an ugly twin sister in Washington, D.C.,” he said. “And my job is to make sure that twin does not get allowed to be signed into law and that California doesn’t effectively become the norm throughout the entire country.”
The evening did include one tense exchange. Garcia had told the crowd that he co-sponsored a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, a landmark 1994 law providing aid for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.
“This is a big deal. Not very many Republicans are on this Violence Against Women Act, and I’m proud to be a co-sponsor,” Garcia said.
But in 2021, Garcia voted against another reauthorization measure, as conservatives protested provisions that expanded protections for LGBTQ+ people and tightened gun access for people convicted of abusing or stalking a dating partner.
Instead, Garcia co-sponsored a failed Republican-led alternative to renew the act for one year, minus the new provisions. He was not a co-sponsor of the compromise bill that passed the following year as part of a broader spending package.
Megan Johnson, an 18-year-old from Santa Clarita who will be voting for the first time this fall, called out the discrepancy.
“You voted against renewing the act. Is this the same act you talk about co-sponsoring in your slideshow?” she asked him.
Garcia said that he supported “a pure version” of the Violence Against Women Act, and that the version he voted against “ended up unintentionally depriving other people of their constitutional rights as a result of the protection of women who have been the victims of violence.”
Dan Gottlieb, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, described Garcia’s representation of his vote as “a new low.”
“The truth Mike Garcia apparently can’t bear to admit is that he voted to block the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act in 2021 — a move that risked gutting funding to improve criminal justice responses to sexual assault, domestic violence and stalking, and cutting the availability of services for victims and survivors across California,” Gottlieb said.
Outside the auditorium, Johnson, a registered Democrat, said that the congressman did not fully answer her question and that she would be voting for Whitesides.
In addition to women’s safety and reproductive rights, she said she cares most in this election about gun reform, an issue that hits close to home in Santa Clarita: In 2019, a student at Saugus High opened fire in a crowded quad, killing two classmates and injuring three others before killing himself.
“Growing up in the generation that had to do active training shootings … it’s caused, honestly, a lot of fear,” she said. “I have nightmares about mass shootings.”
As she left the auditorium, Trish Lester, a spokeswoman for the Santa Clarita Valley Republican Women, said she respected Garcia for explaining his vote to Johnson and liked everything he had to say.
Wearing a shirt that said, “My Governor is an Idiot,” Lester said she agreed with Garcia that California has become too extreme and too expensive.
Lester and her husband, an Army veteran, “supported his campaign from the very first day,” she added. “It was obvious that he was a class act, that this was a man who was a real patriot, with his military service and his business experience.
“I’m very pleased with Mike,” she said.
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Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner has emerged as one of the party’s fastest-rising political figures, drawing national attention for his populist message and outsider image.
But as his profile has grown, so has scrutiny of his past conduct, with controversies ranging from sexually explicit messages and offensive social media posts to a Nazi-linked tattoo and campaign staff upheaval.
PLATNER CONTROVERSIES FUEL SPECULATION ABOUT LITTLE-KNOWN MAINE BALLOT REPLACEMENT PROVISION
In continued clean-up of those scandals, Platner came to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday to huddle with party figures at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee headquarters just one week before his primary election.
The Marine veteran and oyster farmer has defended himself against the criticism and retained the support of prominent Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. Still, some have questioned whether the allegations could complicate Democrats’ efforts to unseat Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, in one of the nation’s most closely watched Senate races.
Here’s a look at the major controversies that have engulfed Platner’s campaign.
Explicit text messages and sexting allegations
Senate candidate Graham Platner is under fire, but it was his wife Amy Gertner coming out with a controversial five-minute social media post by the campaign to denounce the ‘attacks’ while she did not deny the allegations of infidelity in a new marriage. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
The most recent controversy surrounding Platner stems from reports that he exchanged sexually explicit messages with multiple women during his marriage, an issue that campaign aides were reportedly aware of as his Senate bid was taking shape.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Platner’s wife, Amy Gertner, informed a campaign aide about the text exchanges shortly after he launched his Senate bid as staffers were assessing potential political liabilities.
According to the report, Gertner discovered the messages months after the couple married in 2024 and disclosed their existence before her husband held a campaign rally alongside progressive Sen. Sanders. The campaign told Politico that the aide viewed the matter as a private issue between the couple and did not raise concerns about it publicly.
SENATE CANDIDATE GRAHAM PLATNER SENT EXPLICIT TEXTS TO MULTIPLE WOMEN WHILE MARRIED, WIFE SAYS: REPORT
Platner’s campaign later confirmed the existence of the text exchanges to Politico.
He also told Fox News Digital in a statement: “Amy and I went through something hard — because of me. We did the work, and I’m grateful for her every hour of every day.”
“I’ve learned throughout this campaign is that people don’t care about gossip or headlines, they care that you’re fighting for their hospitals, their paycheck, their kids… Our opponents want politics to be empty of content and empty of actual change — and beating that is exactly what our movement is about,” he added.
In a statement to the Journal, Gertner criticized the disclosure of the information, saying she had shared “deeply personal details” about her marriage with someone she considered a friend, only to see those details become public.
She revealed that the two attended couple’s counseling, worked through the issues in their marriage and have since emerged as a stronger couple.
“I know who Graham is. I know the man I married and the husband he has been to me on the best and the worst days of my life,” Gertner said. “That hasn’t changed, and it won’t.”
Nazi-linked tattoo
Graham Platner, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Maine, points to a covered tattoo that was previously recognized as a Nazi symbol during an interview in Portland, Maine, on Oct. 22, 2025. (WGME via AP)
Platner’s campaign also faced intense scrutiny after it was revealed he once had a skull-and-crossbones tattoo on his chest closely resembling the “Totenkopf” symbol used by Hitler’s SS paramilitary forces.
The Maine Democrat said he got the tattoo during a “night of drinking” while on leave in Croatia in 2007 as a Marine and claimed he was entirely unaware of its meaning at the time.
In an Instagram video posted in May, Platner elaborated on the tattoo’s origins. He explained that he merely selected the design from a flash tattoo wall while “carousing” with fellow Marines in Split, Croatia.
“We thought it looked cool,” he downplayed.
Platner said he was later “appalled” to learn the image resembled a Nazi symbol, arguing that his life and career have been defined by opposition to fascism, racism and Nazism. He also noted that he was never questioned about the tattoo during his military service.
MAINE DEM SENATE HOPEFUL BACKED BY BERNIE SANDERS APOLOGIZES FOR NAZI-STYLE TATTOO, VOWS TO STAY IN RACE
Rather than undergo removal, Platner said he chose to cover the tattoo because tattoo removal services were not readily available near his rural Maine home.
“Going to a tattoo removal place is going to take a while,” he told The Associated Press. “I wanted this thing off my body.”
The symbol was ultimately covered with a tattoo featuring a Celtic knot and images of dogs, which Platner said were meant to honor his family pets.
Deleted Reddit posts reveal offensive comments
U.S. Senate candidate from Maine Graham Platner speaks during a campaign event on May 17, 2026, in Portland, Maine. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
The keystone scrutiny Platner has faced during his bid stemmed from thousands of now-deleted Reddit posts that resurfaced after he launched his Senate campaign.
In posts first reported by CNN and Politico, Platner referred to himself as a “communist” and “socialist” and endorsed the slogan “all cops are b—–ds.”
In other posts, he argued that those who “expect to fight fascism without a good semi-automatic rifle, they ought to do some reading of history” and said that “an armed working class is a requirement for economic justice.”
DELETED POSTS URGING VIOLENCE HAUNT DEMOCRATIC SENATE HOPEFUL IN MAINE RACE
The posts under his since-retired username “P-hustle” were deleted before Platner announced his Democratic Senate bid in August.
The candidate has since addressed the posts multiple times, telling CNN and Politico that he was “f—ing around on the internet” during a period when he felt “lost and very disillusioned with our government who sent me overseas to watch my friends die.”
“I made dumb jokes and picked fights,” Platner said. “But of course I’m not a socialist. I’m a small business owner, a Marine Corps veteran, and a retired s—poster.”
In the posts Platner made crude comments about masturbating in port-a-potties and claimed a U.S. service member who took enemy fire in Afghanistan “didn’t deserve to live.”
GRAHAM PLATNER VOWS TO ‘COME AFTER’ BEZOS AS SENATE HOPEFUL ESCALATES BILLIONAIRE TAX FIGHT
The controversies have done little to erode Platner’s standing within the Democratic Party as he has continued to attract national attention and grassroots support in the Democratic primary bid to challenge Sen. Collins for her seat.
Since former Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills halted her campaign in April, much of the party establishment has consolidated behind Platner, and national Democrats have continued to support his candidacy despite the flurry of scandals.
The steady stream of allegations and past controversies has also drawn attention to a little-known provision in Maine election law that allows political parties to replace a nominee under certain circumstances after a primary election.
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Under state law, a candidate who wins a primary and subsequently withdraws by 5 p.m. on July 13 can be replaced by a nominee selected by party officials. Any replacement candidate must then be chosen by 5 p.m. on July 27.
There is currently no indication that Platner plans to withdraw from the race, and the Democratic hopeful has repeatedly vowed to continue his campaign. Still, the provision has drawn renewed interest as questions persist about whether additional revelations could complicate his candidacy.
Platner’s campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Politics
Commentary: Bass clears first hurdle, but if Pratt holds off Raman, the mayoral race could be a holy war
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass made what sounded like a victory speech Tuesday night.
Councilmember Nithya Raman made what sounded almost like a concession speech.
And former reality TV star Spencer Pratt relayed a message from the heavens.
“Well, obviously God wanted five more months of me exposing all the failures of our mayor, so it’s gonna be a fun ride,” Pratt said. “I hope she’s ready.”
Assuming Pratt holds on to one of the two spots in the Nov. 3 general election as the final votes are tallied in the next few days, the smart money will be on Bass, for reasons I’ll get into in a moment.
But the supreme being and patron of all pontiffs has to be considered a wild card. This is the first time, to my knowledge, that an incumbent mayor in the City of Angels would be running against a challenger whose campaign manager is God Almighty.
So here we go. We could be in for one of the more remarkable electoral adventures in city history, with a complete novice and MAGA conservative going up against a liberal career politician in a deep-blue city and state full of people who are tired of hearing excuses from Democrats. (If Raman ends up ousting Pratt, my apologies for jumping to conclusions. But it’s not my fault. The devil made me do it.)
If you intend to follow closely, as of course you should, maybe you can help me count the number of times Pratt plays the faith card. I went to St. Peter Martyr School and attended the church by the same name, and I don’t recall ever hearing a nun or a priest drop God’s name as often as Pratt does.
In fact, I just watched a clip of Pratt talking to Fox News TV host and Donald Trump disciple Kayleigh McEnany, and over the course of 1 minute and 52 seconds, he mentioned God or Jesus 10 times.
“Thankfully, I married an angel who was very connected with Jesus and has brought me to the light,” Pratt said of his wife and former reality TV co-star Heidi Montag. “It’s been very empowering to just pray and just be on his path and just say, ‘God, if you want me to save these animals, save these humans and protect my city, just keep putting me in the place where I can do that.’”
Is he running for mayor or cardinal?
Look, I totally respect your average true believer. But I’m not entirely comfortable with a mayor who might be sitting around City Hall waiting for signs and smoke signals rather than knowing what to do on his own.
God has a lot on his plate. He might be busy multiplying fishes and loaves so people don’t go hungry thanks to the president’s tariffs and warmongering. Is he going to rush to answer a prayer for guidance about underfunded parks or broken sidewalks in Los Angeles?
How did we get here, you ask?
Well, Pratt is an AI creation, in a way. A composite of sorts. You combine the forces of social media, political rebellion, second-rate celebrity obsession and the Peter Principle, and here’s a little Trump puppet walking around L.A. like he’s the chosen one.
Add to that the very real essence of his appeal to some voters:
Los Angeles has problems. Big problems that don’t get fixed quickly enough or at all, and Pratt represents the angry voter who wants to know why City Hall can’t do better and where all the money went. He’s absolutely right when he says we shouldn’t have people living on the streets, using drugs on the streets and dying on the streets.
But if Pratt is in the general election rather than Raman, we’re in for a national media circus rather than a summit on solutions. Raman is well-versed on matters of relevance and could have pushed back against Bass in substantive, detailed ways. On the other hand, as Pratt has fairly argued, Raman headed City Council’s homelessness committee, so isn’t she partly to blame for the failures she tried to pin on Bass?
As for Pratt’s policy chops, he has not responded to my offers of a get-together. Absent that, and given his careful avoidance of local reporters who know their stuff, I read his platform on his campaign website and I can tell you that while he touches on many of the right issues — public safety, fiscal integrity, homelessness — attention to detail and depth of knowledge are not God-given strengths.
Maybe Pratt can actually deliver on his promise of a “treatment-led recovery model that addresses mental illness and addiction as the primary drivers of chronic homelessness.” But that would require an act of God (which I suppose is possible given their relationship), because those matters are primarily under the direction of the county, not the city.
This is the main problem here. Bass was beatable, and could have been pushed by a serious challenger to do better.
In the last election, Rick Caruso gave her a scare. That was partly because he had some depth on the issues, he was a successful businessman and philanthropist, he had served on the police commission and the water and power board, he had built relationships across the city and, along with his family, he had poured time and millions of dollars into underserved communities.
In this election, it looks as though Bass could get lucky and face off against a guy who lost his house in the Palisades fire, saw a few homeless encampments through his car window, and decided he wanted to be mayor. Some might have questioned his hubris, but only before learning that he was on a mission from God.
If you’re keeping count, that’s nine mentions of God so far in this column.
One more for the tie, with an eye toward five more months of campaign fodder.
Thank you, God.
steve.lopez@latimes.com
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Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., suddenly found himself on the defensive at a budget hearing on Wednesday when, amid levying accusations of the Trump administration’s “corrupt” dealings, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent fired back by bringing Wyden’s son’s investments into the exchange.
“We would like to hear what Adam Wyden and Jeffrey Epstein talked about,” Bessent said, referring to unearthed emails drawing a connection between the senator’s son and the disgraced financier.
“Did your son and Jeffrey Epstein talk about pole dancing as he begged him for money?”
The moment continues the political fallout for the many names associated with Epstein that — despite not amounting to proof of wrongdoing — continue to prompt embarrassment and scandal at even the smallest mention.
TOP FIERY MOMENTS AS DEMOCRATS CLASH WITH TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT IN CHAOTIC HILL HEARINGS
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, left, pictured along Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore, right. (Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Epstein, a former financier, died while in prison on charges of sex trafficking minors in 2019, leaving behind questions of whether he facilitated illegal sexual encounters for his vast network of rich and powerful figures.
Amid public demands for transparency on the matter, the Department of Justice released troves of documents on Epstein late last year, unveiling a slew of new names with all manner of ties to the infamous figure ranging from purely innocuous to alarming.
Among them, emails surfaced indicating that Adam Wyden, Ron Wyden’s son, went to Epstein, hoping to gain his support for a business venture.
UNEARTHED EMAILS REVEAL DEM SENATOR’S SON WANTED EPSTEIN TO JOIN HIS FUND: ‘ENJOYED OUR CONVERSATION’
Sen. Ron Wyden leaves a Senate Democratic meeting at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 3, 2025, as the federal government shuts down after Congress and the White House failed to reach a funding deal. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
“Jeffrey, I wanted to thank you for taking the time to meet with me. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and hope my passion and dedication for my business came through in the meeting. I live and breathe this business and take my returns, integrity and reputation quite seriously,” the younger Wyden said in an email in April 2016.
“I intensely appreciate like-minded individuals and would very much look forward to having you join us at the fund.”
The emails came after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution in Florida in 2008.
It’s unclear what the business venture discussed by Adam Wyden and Epstein may have been or what, specifically, had been discussed in their conversations.
Even so, Bessent reminded viewers that the younger Wyden had a history of investing in off-color markets at Wednesday’s hearing.
DEMOCRATS ARE HAMMERING REPUBLICANS ON EPSTEIN, BUT ONE SENATOR BRUSHED OFF THE ISSUE YEARS AGO
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent addresses a press conference in Rosenbad after trade talks between the U.S. and China concluded in Stockholm, Sweden, on July 29, 2025. (Magnus Lejhall/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images)
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“Your son’s largest investment position was Rick’s Cabaret,” Bessent said, referring to a series of strip clubs.
Wyden, who has widely panned the Trump administration and its many officials for their own connections to Epstein, didn’t respond to Bessent’s jabs.
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