How the Republican candidate who supports abortion and has strong views on the border is within 2% of his Democratic rival in deep blue California
An old businessman from sunny southern California is running for Congress as a Republican with a rare duality of views: keep abortion legal and keep illegal immigrants out. His message seems to be working.
Gunderson said he got involved in the race because the California he came to 25 years ago is not the California he knows today.
“I just can’t sit on the sidelines any longer,” he told DailyMail.com.
He was reminded of a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Your purpose in life is not to be happy, but to be useful.”
Matt Gunderson is currently neck-and-neck with incumbent Democrat Mike Levin in the race for California’s 49th District, according to polls obtained by DailyMail.com
Democrat Levin came to power in 2019
Migrants enter the country by speedboat on the Southern California beach in Carlsbad, California in April 2024
Last weekend we saw dozens of migrants jumping out of a speedboat in Carlsbad — the lush beach town that has become a hotbed for vacation rentals and expensive real estate
“I can’t wrap my head around what’s happening right now at the intersection of inflation, excessive spending and public safety.”
The firm’s 1892 polls show Gunderson with 42 percent of support for Levin’s 44. Fourteen percent of voters remain undecided, with a margin of error of 4.8 percent.
He said his opponent Levin, a lawyer by profession who has been in office since 2019, “has been on the wrong side of every border security issue.”
“Two or three years ago it might have been a problem that only affected the Texas or Arizona border, but the attack on the southern border in California has just gone completely out of control.”
Last weekend we saw dozens of migrants jumping out of a speedboat in Carlsbad — the lush beach town that has become a hotbed for vacation rentals and expensive real estate.
The incident prompted the local mayors of Carlsbad, Vista and Oceanside to hold a joint news conference to demand the federal government do more to secure the border.
Migrants walk along a dirt road after crossing the nearby border with Mexico, near the Jacumba Hot Springs in San Diego, California
“It’s a security issue, it’s a public health issue, it’s a public economic crisis, especially the numbers of migrants crossing the border in California are going to overwhelm our medical facilities, overwhelm our educational facilities, and they’re certainly using resources that should be . I used to take care of the Americans first.’
While Gunderson’s views on the border place him squarely on the right side of the spectrum, his views on abortion — a Democratic hotbed for another election cycle — are further to the left.
“I am a pro-choice Republican,” he declared. ‘I believe abortion should be safe, legal and rare.’
The Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade and the abortion restrictions that followed in states across the country provided plenty of campaign fodder for Democrats this past election cycle.
This time, some Republicans are speaking out against the restrictions that are mobilizing voters against them.
“Republicans just need to be candid and talk about where the real extreme position is here,” Gunderson said, referring to his own opponent.
“People should ask Mike Levin: What are your limits? I mean, he’s a Democrat who is pro-abortion and pro-abortion on demand, and that’s an extreme position that the general population can’t accept.”
While Joe Biden won California’s 49th District by 11 points in the previous election, his popularity in the area has since fallen. Gunderson hopes to capitalize.
About 69 percent of respondents in the district said America has “gone quite seriously down the wrong path,” compared to 23 percent who said it is on the right track. Fifty-six percent had an unfavorable view of Biden, while 39 percent were favorable.
But having Donald Trump at the top probably won’t help in a wealthy, left-wing district either. Gunderson is trying to run a campaign without thinking about the former president, whose policies he says largely “made America more prosperous.”
‘I’m running for Congress. I’m not running for president. So there are some issues that Trump is going to have to answer that I don’t have to answer, and we’re different people.”
But he adds, “I’ve been a Republican all my life and I’m going to vote for the Republican candidate for president.”
‘You should ask people: four years ago we were better off, or are you now? And I think the answer is a resounding no.”