SACRAMENTO — Fighting for reelection, Orange County Rep. Young Kim has removed several references to President Trump from her campaign website as she tries to broaden her appeal to voters in a race against fellow Republican Rep. Ken Calvert.
The two are locked in a brutal intra-party fight over one of the only safe districts left for Republicans in Southern California after voters approved a new congressional district boundaries last year.
Throughout the primary, both Republicans used campaign ads and mailers to play up their support for Trump and court GOP voters. But as the general election approaches, both candidates are diminishing the president’s presence in their messaging by varying degrees.
Until recently, a banner on the homepage of Kim’s website described her as a “Proven Fighter” who would “Stand with President Trump to deliver a bold America First Agenda,” according to archived versions of the site.
As of this week, the banner said the Congresswoman is “taking on Career Politicians to Restore the American Dream.” Previous references to Trump and “America First” have been removed from the website’s homepage and Kim’s biography. The changes were first reported by Politico.
An “Issues” page that highlighted her positions on red meat topics such as “Standing with President Trump to Save America,” “Protecting Election Integrity” and “Fixing Bidenflation” has been taken down.
Kim’s campaign pushed back on the notion that she is distancing herself from Trump, calling it “completely absurd.”
“Our campaign has consistently framed this race as a choice between an effective leader like Young Kim, who has delivered results in less than three terms in Congress, and Ken Calvert, whose career has been plagued by corruption controversies and FBI investigations,” said Kim campaign spokesman Chris Pack. “Calvert incessantly complains about Washington getting nothing done, seemingly oblivious to the fact that after nearly 40 years, he has become Washington.”
The new 40th congressional district, reconfigured under Proposition 50 approved by California voters in 2025, packs many of the region’s Republican voters into a district which includes inland Orange County and portions of San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
While 40% of the registered voters in the district are Republican, 31% are Democrats and 21% declared themselves to be “no party preference,” according to the Secretary of State’s latest report.
The new map carved the district held by Calvert, a Corona Republican and 33-year fixture in Congress, into three different pieces. Democrats redrew the map in an attempt to oust up to five Republicans and cancel out GOP-led gerrymandering in Texas. Kim, who is from Anaheim Hills, and Calvert advanced from the primary election over several Democrats and an independent candidate and will face off in the Nov. 3 general election.
Calvert continues to emphasize his close ties to Trump. His campaign homepage features a video with shots of him shaking Trump’s hand and interacting with him in the Oval Office.
Calvert’s campaign criticized Kim for scrubbing Trump from her website and at other times keeping the president at arm’s length.
“Young Kim can delete Trump from her website, but she’ll never be able to erase the fact that she is a complete and total fraud who will say anything if she thinks it will help her keep her job,” said Calvert campaign spokesman Calvin Moore.
“Young Kim has had every opinion on Trump imaginable from trying to censure him to claiming she’s 100% with him, to promising to kick his butt, then trying to lick his boots in the primary. It’s insulting to voters’ intelligence that she thinks voters won’t see right through it,” he said.
Calvert’s PAC, Americans 4 Security, has also changed messaging on its mailers. Before the primary, it sent over a dozen mailers attacking Kim for “blocking the Trump agenda” and “running from her anti-Trump record.”
Two recent mailers sent by the PAC contrast Calvert’s record with Kim’s and make no mention of Trump.
The post-primary messaging shifts weren’t a surprise to Matt Klink, a Republican political strategist.
“Through targeting, you look at Democrats and decline to state voters, and you soften your message to focus on things that they care about. That’s not changing their position, it’s just effective campaigning,” he said.
But personally, Calvert has continued to embrace the president. His campaign confirmed Calvert is attending an unconventional midterm Republican convention in Dallas, Texas. Trump is scheduled to give keynote speeches both nights.
Kim skipped the GOP convention in favor of meetings with constituents and a human trafficking task force, and to attend 9/11 events, according to her campaign.
“Calvert being with Trump, he’s helping to create that enthusiasm around his campaign,” Klink said. By skipping the convention, “Young Kim is signaling, ‘I may be a Republican, but I care about the district, too.’ It’s a good contrast.”
