RIVERSIDE — It would not have been an easy reelection bid in any case for freshman Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Riverside), who barely made it to Congress two years ago.
But now Calvert’s biggest reelection hurdle may be his own indiscretions, which also could pose a problem in surviving even his own party’s June primary.
The reason: After months of denying it, Calvert, 40, has admitted having sex in his car one night last November with a woman who police say is a known prostitute.
Initially, Calvert–a member of a prominent Riverside County family–said he was doing nothing wrong with the woman when police saw them together on a Corona street.
Corona police said simply that the congressman was spotted sitting in his car with a female, that there was no criminal activity and that after a few words the congressman drove off.
But the Riverside Press-Enterprise newspaper went to court to press Corona for release of confidential police reports that had been prepared by officers who were sensitive to the fact that they had a street-level encounter with their local congressman.
The city was ordered to release the report, which indicated that there had been evidence of a sex act under way, and an embarrassed Calvert responded with a prepared statement.
“My conduct that evening was inappropriate,” he said–not because it was illegal, but because “it violated the values of the person I strive to be.” He admitted that he was caught in “an extremely embarrassing situation.”
He said he did not pay for the sex. He said he “panicked and tried to drive away” when the officers confronted him, but “came to my senses” and cooperated with them.
Corona Police Capt. John Dalzell said Calvert was not detained or arrested because “while the officer saw certain things, he didn’t see everything necessary to support a finding that a crime was committed.” Dalzell said there was no witness to an exchange of money for services, and neither party claimed to be a victim.
Dalzell said Calvert did not try to exert influence to avoid arrest. He said the officer’s decision not to pursue the matter “wasn’t a close call. He didn’t even call for a supervisor.”
In his explanation for his conduct that night, Calvert said he had come back from a rough week in Washington and was reeling from his father’s suicide a year earlier, as well as his wife’s request for a divorce, which had been granted just a few weeks before.
“I was feeling intensely lonely,” he said. “I realize now that this, or a similar incident, was probably inevitable.”
Calvert, who worked in commercial real estate before his election to Congress in 1992, was expected to coast to his party’s nomination this year to represent western Riverside County in Washington. His opponent in the primary, conservative Joe Khoury, 47, a professor of finance at UC Riverside, ran second behind Calvert in the primary two years ago but thinks he can prevail this time.
“I thought he was vulnerable, even before this incident,” Khoury said. “Riverside is conservative, and voters’ reaction to this is not pleasant. It plays differently here than it would in, say, Los Angeles.”
Calvert’s campaign manager, Ed Slevin, agreed that Calvert will have his hands full winning the primary because of the Corona incident. “I assume he’s more vulnerable in June among conservative Republicans than he’ll be in November,” he said. “I think that, by then, it’ll be considered old news.”
If Calvert wins the primary, his Democratic challenger is expected to be Mark Takano, a high school history and English teacher and trustee of the Riverside Community College District. Takano lost to Calvert by a little more than 500 votes in 1992, and is expected to handily win his party’s nomination in June against a single challenger.
Takano scolded Calvert for not coming clean earlier about the Corona incident. “Mr. Calvert has only himself to blame for his becoming a bigger issue than putting people back to work, fighting crime and improving our schools,” Takano said.
Democratic Party strategists said that, even before Calvert’s encounter with the woman in Corona, the 43rd Congressional District seat had been targeted for turnover because of what they characterized as Calvert’s lackluster performance in Washington during his first stint there and his vulnerability back home.
AFTER the whirlwind success of No1 hit Stick Season, Noah Kahan didn’t rush back into the studio.
In fact, he stopped completely. Facing writer’s block and still processing everything that had happened, he stepped away for six months, forced to rethink not just the music, but what success meant.
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Noah Kahan is back with a new album, The Great DivideCredit: Patrick McCormackNoah’s 2022 album Stick Season sold over four million copies and had billions of global streamsCredit: Stephen Keable
His 2022 album Stick Season — rooted in Vermont and exploring mental health, identity and small-town life — transformed the singer from a cult folk artist into a global name.
Topping the charts in the UK, the record was also certified multi-platinum in the US, where it sold over four million copies and had billions of global streams.
Kahan was nominated for a Grammy for Best New Artist and the emotionally raw, nostalgic and deeply personal record was widely seen as one of the defining albums of the decade.
“I just couldn’t write for a while,” he confesses. “When I first got off the road, I didn’t make any music in a long time.
“I spent months not doing anything and it was painful because I like to be busy.
“It took so much strength for me to push that feeling away.
“I’m aware of how rare the moment was, how big the moment was and how lucky and fortunate I was, but my whole life I was trying to prove to people that I had a place here. So when the huge moment was happening, instead of being like, ‘Yeah, I made it’, I was like, ‘Oh my god, how am I going to stay here?’.”
That pressure quickly took its toll. Kahan said: “Writer’s block is such a lonely feeling — it makes you feel like your value’s been taken away. I felt completely unable to open up about it, but I ended up reaching out to friends.
“Marcus Mumford really helped. He understood what it’s like to be under a lot of pressure and afraid of failing and gave me great advice.”
Kahan also had to redefine success. It was not chasing numbers — just being able to make music was enough.
He says: “I learned the hard way about burnout. Success is a double-edged sword. I’ve always said if I had any, or if my tour sells out, I’d be happy. But the second it sells out, you’re looking at the next thing to achieve.
“Starting off this new album was really scary. I had to realise I didn’t need to be the biggest artist in the world or where Stick Season took me. I didn’t need to be successful to be loved.”
Kahan is in London for a few days to promote The Great Divide, his fourth studio album, which is out next Friday.
Taking time off to reset both mentally and emotionally was essential to writing again.
“I’ve struggled with my mental health,” he says candidly.
“But I was struggling more than anybody knew. I’ve struggled with anxiety, depression and body dysmorphia, but it was the OCD that I hadn’t figured out.
“I was diagnosed with OCD last year. It’s not about washing my hands a thousand times — it’s obsessive thinking. I was struggling with a lot of self-esteem and confidence issues, but I’d never dealt with anything so acutely like OCD. I’m supposed to be the singer who’s open about his mental health, but I felt so much shame.
“I needed medical intervention and therapy, and I didn’t want to be open about that because I was afraid. It was frightening as I’d been stripped of
this thing I loved.
“I couldn’t express myself through music any more, and so I didn’t tell anybody and it came to a breaking point.” Through help and time, Kahan started to recognise his disorder in ways he hadn’t before.
“Now I wake up knowing my day is not going to be decided by what I see on my phone,” he says when discussing how therapy has helped him.
“Before, I’d have 700 brilliant words of praise, but it would be the one negative word that would shatter me. For a long time, I thought I was crazy.”
Kahan is focused on bringing his album to the stageCredit: Patrick McCormack
In August 2025, Kahan married his longtime partner Brenna Nolan, bringing a new sense of stability to his life.
The singer has also made a Netflix documentary — Noah Kahan: Out Of Body. It captures this difficult period, which he sees as part of his healing.
He says: “Making the film was a strange but amazing process. Having people follow you around took time to get used to, but they captured a really honest moment for me. Watching it back with my family was emotional. It showed how we really are.
“It was hard seeing how unhappy I was then, but in the end, it told a beautiful story.”
He adds: “My family are on the new record. I love the song American Cars. It’s about my sister.
“Whenever things were tough at home, she’d drive up from New York in a rental car, sunglasses on, just a total badass.
“She’s a surgeon, she just gets things done. She’d come back and help us through it, and the song came from that. Like, you need to come home and help fix this.”
The Great Divide is an album about friendship, miscommunication, regret and personal growth, and the title track became the guiding, emotional “north star” of the record.
He says: “Yeah, The Great Divide is really about a friendship that didn’t work out — one where I wasn’t able to express myself.
“And then there’s a song, Dan, which is about the opposite — being open, telling each other how much you care, facing hard truths. It ends in a way that really encapsulates the whole record. It’s probably my favourite song we made.
“There are a lot of stories,” he adds.
“It’s very emblematic of my childhood and a lot of people’s, young men in particular. Talking about feelings or asking difficult questions can feel like more discomfort than it’s worth, but the consequence is you don’t really know someone as well as you think you do.”
Noah says of his new album: ‘The Great Divide is really about a friendship that didn’t work out — one where I wasn’t able to express myself’Credit: Patrick McCormack
It’s an expansive album with 17 tracks, including the gorgeous We Go Way Back, Willing And Able, Haircut and Porch Light.
He adds: “I can’t wait to see crowds singing back Willing And Able, and Haircut started from that idea of someone coming back to town changed — like they’ve outgrown it. I felt like I’d become that person, only going home for inspiration instead of really being there.
“The song is almost someone singing to me, saying, I’m glad you’ve figured things out, but at least I’m still here and still real. You’ll leave again, and we’ll still be here. That’s what it’s about.
“Then, Porch Light is really about my biggest fear — how I’ve changed.
“I worry about going home and feeling like people see me differently, like I’ve become this ‘Hollywood’ version of myself, too big for where I’m from. That my relationship with Vermont has been changed by success and leaving Vermont for Nashville.
“But my family has always kept me grounded. They’re so happy for me. I wanted to write about that fear you have in your head before you even pick up the phone.
“You’re always anticipating what people might think. But there’s a silver lining in Porch Light. It’s about people saying, ‘We still care about you, we’ll still be here — but you need to figure things out first’.”
And that sense of place runs throughout the album.
“Yeah, the first and last songs really frame the album — I wanted them to feel like an intro and an outro,” Kahan says.
“The first track, End Of August, is this big, building track about that time of year in Vermont . . . It’s that moment when the tourists leave and the people who live there can finally come out of hibernation — like, ‘They’re gone’.”
He’s been working with Stick Season collaborator Gabe Simon, The National’s Aaron Dessner — best known for his work with Taylor Swift, Bon Iver and, more recently, Gracie Abrams — plus Ed Sheeran and Mumford & Sons.
Kahan says: “Gabe and I are really close — we went through a lot making Stick Season, so on this album we leaned on each other. He’s like a brother and the perfect person to go through this with.”
Noah will be in the UK, including three nights at London’s O2 in NovemberCredit: Patrick McCormack
Aaron Dessner brought calm, structure and creative balance to the process.
“Aaron came in early on, but I was intimidated at first,” admits Kahan. “I looked him up on Wikipedia and was terrified of his success. This guy’s a legend.
“This was where Taylor Swift writes and Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), who works with Aaron, is my hero. Aaron has a magic to his music — a real understanding of what an artist is trying to say. But he’s a sweet, calm man who lives a very humble life in upstate New York on a farm.
“I needed him to stabilise me creatively. He is regimented in how he makes music and I need a routine. He is an amazing producer and this album sounds so f*****g cool because of what Aaron did.”
The sound on the new album is more expansive than Kahan’s earlier music and includes horns, guitar and richer production.
He says: “Honing on a sound and a theme started the process. Aaron’s place had dirt bikes, fishing rods and skeet shooting — all the things that I grew up doing.
“We couldn’t make the music in Vermont this time and the setting was really important, feeling connected to nature and beauty.
“It’s hard for me to make music in a city. Whenever I’m in a city, all I write is, ‘Get me out of the city’ songs.”
He adds: “We were also still in the middle of touring and I was over the Stick Season songs.
“There’s a lot of electric guitar on the new record, and bouzouki and mandocello, instruments we haven’t really used before. It’s a new confidence, but having spent three years on the road, I just want to make music that’s exciting to play live.”
It’s the connection with his audience that remains key.
He says: “I love it when I see fans singing back my songs as it means they’re feeling it.
“I’m always honoured when someone says my music has helped them to reach out for help. Though it can be overwhelming when people tell me they’re struggling with difficult thoughts.
“I don’t always feel equipped to handle that and I worry I’m not helping in the way they need. It’s hard when you feel you’re letting someone down.”
Now, his attention is focused on bringing the album to the stage.
He says: “I’m looking forward to playing these new songs. This record tells a story, so we’re working on the stage design, setlist and lighting to tell that story. We’re playing stadiums now, but I want fans to still have an intimate experience.”
