Top Candidates to Replace McCarthy’s Abandoned Seat

Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) stunned the GOP (not me because I actually called it only a day before) with his resignation effective the end of the year.

With McCarthy vacating his seat, there will now be a special election to fill the seat.

Gavin Newsom has 14 days to supply the date, but we wanted to take a look at some projected favorites to take his spot.

The Candidates Are…

Republicans only hold 12 of the 52 seats allocated to California, but McCarthy was in a GOP stronghold.

Having said that, anytime you remove a longtime incumbent from the picture, the opposing party will pounce to try to flip the seat.

So, we want to start looking at the possible candidates in the race.

David Giglio, an “America First” and MAGA Republican, has already announced that he is going after this seat.

Giglio has already lost one run at Congress, defeated in the race for the D-13 seat.

On this race, he stated, “I understand that the 20th District is MAGA country, and I plan to fight alongside a newly reelected President Donald Trump to drain the Washington swamp, crush the uniparty, and ensure the House implements every single item of his Agenda 47.”

Matthew Piatt, a political blogger out of Oregon, is also going to run for the seat, and yes, he can run as long as he moves to the district before being sworn in.

I don’t support carpetbaggers, but you can learn more about him on his website.

We may just see a return of Devin Nunes to Congress with this opening, and I think he would be an easy winner, but he would have to leave Trump’s Truth Social company to do this, so that is all conjecture at this point.

Some other names that have been mentioned are Shannon Grove, who represents the 12th State Senatorial District, and Fresno Assemblyman Jim Patterson.

Patterson, however, took his name out of the hat earlier this week, stating, “It’s time for me to come home. I’ve had 20 years in public life, eight years as mayor, and 12 years in the California legislature. I’ve missed a lot of family time, with my kids and grandkids.”

On the other side of the aisle, expect Democrat Marisa Wood to mount a challenge, even though McCarthy crushed her in the last election, 67.2-32.8.

Nothing is automatic, but the GOP should be able to take this seat with a comfortable margin.