By Katelyn Nguyen and Tyler Sonderholzer
Although presidential races get all of the attention, local elections are the ones that affect people’s lives.
This year, Donald Trump and Joe Biden aren’t the only ones on the ballot for voters in California’s 48th congressional district (CA-48, which includes Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley, Costa Mesa, Santa Ana, Westminster, Midway City, parts of Garden Grove, and several other cities in Orange County). Those voters will also have the chance to choose between incumbent Harley Rouda (D) and challenger Michelle Steel (R) to speak for them in the House of Representatives. Here is what you need to know about these candidates.
Experience
Incumbent Harley Rouda is relatively new to the world of politics. He was first elected to the House of Representatives for California’s 48th district in 2018, staging a widely covered upset against long-term Republican incumbent Dana Rohrabacher. Prior to his election, he worked as a lawyer.
Challenger Michelle Steel has held several public offices. She served as a member of the California Board of Equalization, a state agency that handles taxes and fee collections, from 2006 to 2014. She is currently the chairwoman of the OC Board of Supervisors, the governing body of Orange County, an office she was elected to in 2015.
Policy
Rouda’s campaign centers around being a man of the people and not a career politician. He has promised to not take any money from corporate political action committees (PAC), which are organizations that fund politicians’ campaigns and push certain ballot initiatives. On his campaign website and ads, he makes it a point that he is attempting to rid Washington D.C. of corruption. Rouda claims to have investigated the Trump administration’s officials and company executives. When it comes to healthcare, Rouda wants to ensure that every American is covered by providing affordable health insurance and lowering prescription prices. Criticizing the Trump administration for repealing environmental protection legislation, Rouda says he advocates for solutions that not only keep our beaches clean but also help stimulate economic growth.
Steel’s main policy involves lowering Orange County taxes. Steel also opposes single-payer healthcare and instead supports “a market-based system” for providing Americans with affordable healthcare. Like her vision of a healthcare system, Steel advocates for a free market and economy that allows businesses to grow in hopes of providing higher wages for the average worker. Steel wants to work towards clean beaches and bay with methods backed by science. In terms of immigration, she is in favor of getting rid of sanctuary cities and implementing a physical barrier along the border.
Both Rouda and Steel have said that they will work to lower Orange County residents’ taxes by pushing for mortgage interest and local and state taxes to be deductible from federal taxes.
Record
During his short time in politics, Rouda has voted on a variety of legislation in the House of Representatives, from environmental conservation to affordable healthcare. Some of the bills that he has supported are the College Affordability Act, which would revise many aspects of student loans and loan forgiveness, and the Medical Debt Relief Act of 2020, which gives a consumer one year before their debt is on their credit. Rouda has cosponsored countless other bills. Rouda was also one of the many Democrats that voted for impeachment for President Trump.
Before landing a seat in the House of Representatives, Rouda was a Republican until 1997 and switched over to being an Independent. He became a part of the Democratic Party as of 2017. Due to the changes in political parties, some of Rouda’s opponents during his 2018 Congressional race painted him as an opportunist whose loyalty was unreliable.
With a long history in politics, Michelle Steel has done a lot. She was a part of former President George W. Bush’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. During her time at the OC Board of Equalization, Steel fought to bring back 400 million dollars to California’s taxpayers.
Later on in her career, Steel was elected into the OC Board of Supervisors. As a Supervisor, Steel has introduced an amendment to the County Charter making it more difficult for the county to raise taxes on residents, helped allow rideshare services like Uber and Lyft to operate at John Wayne Airport, and supported the widening of the I-405 freeway.
Steel has received some criticism during her time on the board, including accusations by her colleagues of using hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayers’ money to benefit District Attorney Tony Rackauckas’ and her own reelection campaigns.
Steel has also been criticized for her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. In late April, Steel voted against a decision by the OC Board of Supervisors to enact a face mask mandate for certain retail employees. In June, Steel wrote an article for the Daily Pilot and stated that the county was prepared for reopening businesses due to the number of cases going down.
Forecasts
While Orange County has long been a Republican stronghold, and a win for Steel would reclaim one of the Republican party’s few seats in blue California; the county has been shifting to the left in recent years, as Rouda’s 2018 win in CA-48 demonstrated. While the Cook Political Report’s Partisan Voting Index rates the district R+4, meaning it leaned 4 points more Republican in the last two presidential elections than the national average, both the Cook Political Report and RealClearPolitics indicate that the district “leans Dem.” There have been no recent polls in the district for this election.
How to vote in November
People will be casting their votes on Nov. 3. The first step is to register to vote. You need to be registered by Oct. 19 to be able to participate in both the Presidential and Congressional elections. Be sure to check that you have the proper forms of identification otherwise your ballot will not be opened and counted. After 48 hours, you will be a registered voter.
Voting in person is not the only option in this election cycle. You can choose to either vote by mail or vote in person. Due to California’s Executive Order N-64-20, registered voters will be given mail-in ballots without any requests. If you do choose to vote by mail and have finished casting your vote, you can drop off your ballot at your local officials’ offices or the closest ballot box near you. You will have to turn in your ballot before 8:00 pm.
