Issa to run in California rather than move to Texas

Republican Rep. Darrell Issa announced Thursday that he will run for re-election next year in his San Diego district instead of moving to Texas to run in GOP-friendly territory.

The announcement follows speculation that Issa was considering a move to the red state because of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s successful campaign to redraw California’s congressional districts in favor of Democratic candidates.

“I believe that the people of San Diego County, who have elected me so many times, will in fact vote for me, regardless of their registration,” Issa told the Fox affiliate in San Diego on Thursday. “I think I can hold this seat despite the governor’s gerrymandering and you know, my intention is to stay where I am.”

Issa acknowledged that Texans pushed him to run for a seat there, but that California is his home, where he raised his family and where his mother and three granddaughters live.

“This is my house and I’m going to fight for it,” he said.

Issa, 72, is among the richest members of Congress. The Army veteran, a high school dropout, made his fortune buying a struggling electronics company in 1980 and turning it into the Viper car alarm system, with Issa’s voice warning would-be thieves to “stand back.”

The Bonsall resident served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 22 years, representing various districts in the San Diego area. He led the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee through high-profile investigations into the Obama administration.

But Issa’s district, once solidly Republican, has become more moderate in recent years. And the new congressional boundaries that California voters approved by passing Proposition 50 in November — a response by state Democrats to counter President Trump’s efforts to increase the Republican Party’s seats in Congress — have had a huge impact on Issa’s electorate.

His congressional district had a 12-point Republican advantage in voter registration this year, but Democrats now have a lead of more than four points in the new map, according to the nonpartisan California Target Book. Several Democrats have already announced their intention to challenge Issa.

The redrawing of congressional districts traditionally occurs once every ten years – after the census – to account for population movements across the country. But after President Trump urged leaders of Republican-led states earlier this year to change congressional boundaries to boost Republican efforts to keep control of Congress in next year’s midterm elections, Democratic leaders in states across the country spoke out, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Since 2011, California’s congressional districts have been drawn by an independent commission created by voters to end gerrymandering and protection of incumbents. But Newsom and other prominent California Democrats have pushed to create new districts that could increase the number of Democrats in the state’s 52-member delegation, the largest in the nation.

California voters approved the move in November, although the new districts are being challenged in court, as are new congressional boundaries drawn by Texas lawmakers, as well as a challenge to a significant piece of the federal Voting Rights Act.

The Supreme Court is expected to rule on Texas’ new congressional lines soon, as the state’s candidate filing deadline is Monday. And that’s what fueled speculation about Issa running for a Dallas-area congressional seat, first reported by Punch Bowl News.

On Tuesday, Issa rushed up the stairs of the U.S. Capitol when CNN’s chief congressional correspondent, Manu Raju, asked him about it.

Multiple GOP insiders confirmed that Issa has weighed his options. If he had decided to run for the Dallas-area seat, he would have had to resign from Congress, uproot his family and move to Texas. But they said Issa was also aware of the challenge of winning re-election in his new constituency.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) and leaders of the National Republican Congressional Committee made it clear to Issa that they would not invest significant money in his campaign if he sought re-election in California, according to a former California GOP fundraiser who requested anonymity to speak candidly.

“They said we have so many goals and you have the option to raise money for yourself or self-fund — so you’re not a top priority,” the person said.