Senate Tracker: Democrat Kevin De Leon Challenges Sen. Dianne Feinstein To Bring New Voice To California



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This story is part of our Senate Tracker series, looking at Senate races across the country ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. Check out all of our election coverage.


California Sen. Dianne Feinstein is up for re-election in November, and her opponent is a fellow Democrat.

In 2016, the state changed its primary rules, allowing the two candidates to win the most votes, regardless of party.

Polls show state Sen. Kevin from León () Is a longshot to defeat Feinstein (), who has served in the Senate since 1992. In the California primary, he earned just 12 percent of the vote to Feinstein's 44 percent. So why is he running against her?

The goal was to make it to the top two in a crowded primary field, from Leon Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson, so he would have the chance to "juxtapose our accomplishments, our vision and our values ​​for California."

"The two latest independent polls now hold us at 11 points and eight points, respectively," he says. "So we have a shot at a new voice, a new exchange in California of today, not of the past."

Here & Now reached out to Sen. Feinstein for an interview, but she declined.

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Interview Highlights

President Trump, President of the United States

"It's a bit of an oddity, that's for sure." My mother had the courage to convince her to be a child. country to seek a better life, so the author of Sanctuary State for California, as the leader in negotiations for raising the minimum wage to the highest in the country – $ 15-an-hour – and also the author of 100 percent clean energy California, DC, and it's an interesting oddity, that's for sure.

"But I'm going to California, Southern California, Central Coast or Central Valley, whether you're voting for Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton Gold Trump Supports I Believe That All Californians Deserve a Real Voice That 's Going To Fight For Them It' s Issues That They Carefully Deemed About.

"I know that it was a very important thing to have a positive attitude to our economic prosperity, to our values ​​and to our people."

Kevin from Leon on President Trump

Trump if he is elected

"Well, I can tell you from this day, I've always taken a position that makes it easier for me. present jeff to our economic prosperity, to our values ​​and to our people, now that's dramatically different, Had Jeb Bush won the presidency or John Kasich or say even someone like Chris Christie or even Marco Rubio, I'm a Democrat, I'd be disappointed, but I'm getting over it in a couple of weeks and trying to figure out where we can find common ground in the spirit of normalcy, within the spirit of the American body politic. That I think that we are doing so in a way that makes it possible for us to reduce the size of our historic diversity, our scientific advancement, our economic output, and our sense of global responsibility. . "

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Speaks to the media on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC on Oct. 4, 2018. (Alex Brandon / AP)
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Speaks to the media on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC on Oct. 4, 2018. (Alex Brandon / AP)

On Sen. Feinstein's handling of the allegations against Justice Brett Kavanaugh

"I do not support the investigation of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, but I would have taken a different approach to Brett Kavanaugh on two separate counts. The farm team for the Supreme Court Sen. Feinstein volunteered to vote in this issue to allow this man to be a partisan political operative, to hit the Senate floor for confirmation. The Senate today, and I would not vote to confirm 60 percent of Trump's judicial nominees. This is something that I would have done dramatically different than the current senior senator from California."

Kavanaugh hearings

"Well, I can tell you this: I would never have said that they are suffering from harm." that this man is in the US Supreme Court, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Sen. Richard Blumenthal and the senator from Minnesota, be very assertive and actually make motions Apparently, a delay tactic, and I would have followed suit as a member of the Judiciary Committee, I would have had a program with my colleagues, and it would not have been very difficult. , and I think it is a lack of leadership on behalf of the senior senator from California. "

"I think that she is subscribing to country clubs in California that are more important to California and to the rest of the country."

Kevin from Leon on Sen. Dianne Feinstein

On what he thinks he can bring to the Senate that Feinstein can not

"I do not think it's about age or age." I think it's about the values ​​and having the right to represent the most diverse and largest economy in the United States of America. not on the sidelines, and I think what I'm talking about California wants to be a representative of the United States. that is before us – climate change – to fight for immigration and make sure that we stop betraying the American-born children and their parents to normalize their status. in Washington, DC, especially when you are the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee of the US Senate.

"So that you have not been working for California." I think that's what they want in today's day when we have a president who occupied White House. and more importantly to our people. "

On his view, Feinstein is not fighting for California

"I think that she is subscribing to a country in which I believe in the world and I am very proud of it. I think that the committee and this bipartisanship, which I'm fine with bipartisanship, I've A member of the California State Senate, a member of the California State Senate, is a member of the California State Senate. "I think it takes a different type of representation, and I think California wants a real fighter that will fight for their values ​​and who they are and what they represent today."

"This is unlike anything we've ever seen before and quite frankly, this president makes Richard Nixon look like a boy in comparison."

Kevin from León

Trump's criticism of California's sanctuary

"Well listen, California is a state of our diversity and our inclusivity and because we have members of the House of Representatives who have lacked the courage of their convictions to do the right thing and move forward. Alabama or Texas or Arizona, Alabama, Texas, Arizona, United States of America. because I am the youngest child of a single immigrant mother with a third grade education.I wanted to make sure that our local police officers, our sheriffs, were not a cog in the Trump deportation machine, separating innocent mothers from their children and children from their fathers.

"When the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, and the president announced their lawsuit against California because of my law," Bring it on. " And this was a measure that I wrote with the United States Holder Eric Holder We wrote this law.Jew Sessions said it was unconstitutional.I said, 'It is the law of the land of California, and a Republican judge The President George W. Bush said that my bill, the sanctuary state bill, is the law of the land of California, and it is constitutional.

"These are the values ​​that we are fighting for, which is very important, and that is why it is an overly partisan position that I've taken. Because I've worked with Republicans before, I've had a lot of fun, and I've had a lot of fun with Ted Cruz, won the presidency and occupied the White House today, I try to find common ground where we can move this nation together, but this chair makes Richard Nixon look like a choir boy in comparison. "

If they win the House Trump if they win the House

"Well, I've always said that I think it's enough evidence for an impeachment of the current president.I have not been dissuaded from the position I've taken. Do not think Democrats or Republicans should play with the idea of ​​partisanship for political purposes.It is based on legalities, and is the chief executive officer, the most powerful position in the world, For the members of the Congress of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America, it is clear that the Republicans do not have the courage to move forward and do the right thing, but the House is taken over by Democrats I believe strongly that they should move forward with impeachment. "

This segment aired on October 11, 2018.

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