Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
- Voters in Kevin McCarthy's hometown have polarized opinions about their congressional representative.
- Some view the House Minority Leader's recent controversies as typical politics.
- Others consider his headline-making lies a danger to their community and the country.
Voters in Kevin McCarthy's hometown of Bakersfield, a Republican stronghold in the largely liberal state of California, have polarized opinions about their congressional representative.
The House Minority Leader is embroiled in controversy for leaked audio revealing he privately criticized former President Trump following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol while publicly supporting him, then lied about it.
While some residents of his home district view recent headlines as signs of his political prowess, others view him as a danger to their community and the country.
"My personal observation is that he does not cut corners or seek special consideration. His word can be believed, his performance can be relied on, and he treats other people with both friendship and respect," Dr. Mohsen Attaran, professor of management at California State University, Bakersfield, told Insider. "He's at the same time an ambitious and compassionate individual."
Attaran, who taught McCarthy in the late 1980s and early 1990s in undergraduate and graduate classes, said that McCarthy's public support of former President Trump appears to be a political decision meant to keep him in office so he can continue working toward the goals of the Republican party platform.
A platform, he said, that mirrors the community values of Bakersfield.
Underdog Challengers
Other residents of the region, including challenger Ben Dewell, see McCarthy's behavior as an existential threat to the community.
"I almost feel like if I didn't run now that I might participate in some kind of civil war to come," Dewell, a candidate running against McCarthy in the upcoming primary, told Insider: "Unfortunately, the rancor between people and their politics is so divisive right now."
Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert
Dewell, a meteorologist living on a fixed income, said he was inspired to run for Congress following McCarthy's behavior after Jan. 6.
"I thought about what McCarthy had done by turning around in his disgust for Trump. At the time, he was saying 'yeah, this has to stop.' We heard all that on January 6 and January 7," Dewell said. "But he went to Mar-a-Lago and that picture of him smiling with Trump, to me, is violating his oath of office. And I was just thinking 'I just can't let that pass.'"
Dewell acknowledged the challenges facing his candidacy running as a Democrat in the conservative region with limited name recognition and fundraising. So far, he has registered $101 in campaign donations with the Federal Election Commission, compared to McCarthy's $17,752,094.
Other candidates face similar odds against McCarthy, who is campaigning for his 9th term and is a likely candidate for Speaker of the House should Republicans win enough seats in the midterms. The primary Democratic challenger for the district, Marisa Wood, has raised just over $553,000 in campaign contributions.
Wood's office did not respond to Insider's request for comment for this story.
Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert
James "Deviant" Davis, a Republican challenger, has not raised any donations toward his run for Congress and, until recently, lived out of his vehicle after what he described as a campaign of persecution against him that originated with a former business associate. His platform includes resetting all currency standards, clearing all debt in a "debt jubilee," and shrinking the government.
Politics, he said, is all a scheme.
"It's a Ponzi scheme, you know, and the Ponzi scheme collapsed. And it collapsed twice now that I know of underneath Kevin McCarthy's watch," Davis told Insider.
Davis met with Insider outside Sequoia Sandwich Co. in downtown Bakersfield, sporting dark fingernail polish with green designs in binary code which read "1001011010," which he said translates to "666." During the hourlong interview, he spoke of being arrested multiple times for what he called baseless accusations, theorized that all civilians are subject to mind control by MK Ultra, and said Donald Trump might be part of a league of actors controlling the world.
McCarthy's congressional office did not return Insider's requests for an interview for this article.
Local Legacy?
Whether McCarthy is active in his Bakersfield community depends on who you ask.
Attaran, his former professor, told Insider he hosted the congressman in a guest lecture series several years ago and that his wife tells him she often sees McCarthy posting photos of himself at local events on Instagram.
The local firehouse prominently features a memorial to Rep. McCarthy's father, Owen McCarthy, who served as a firefighter and assistant fire chief for the community his whole career. But a spokesperson for the department said that in the 20 years he'd worked there, the only time the representative visited was during the dedication of the memorial in 2012.
Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert
Unknown Midterm Impact
McCarthy's popularity also appears to be waning with voters compared to his early terms. In his first election in 2006, McCarthy won with 71% of the vote. He ran uncontested in 2008 and 2010. Since then, the margin of his wins has slowly shrunken each election. McCarthy won 62% of the vote during the last voting cycle in 2020.
In April polling by Politico, McCarthy's overall approval rating was 22% nationwide. 40% of registered voters had an unfavorable opinion, while 38% said they either had no strong feelings or hadn't heard of the representative.
It's so far unclear what, if any, impact McCarthy's recorded comments about Donald Trump and Rep. Matt Gaetz will have on local voters. Trump has signaled he is "on very good terms" with McCarthy since finding out about the recorded call, alluding to McCarthy's strong public support in the days since.
For McCarthy's proponents, Trump's support indicates the congressman is in line with the party and likely to win the upcoming midterm election.
"I think Kevin, the main idea is, he supports the Republican party platform, and he is trying to help his community, his constituency, and I think he is doing an excellent job of both. Now whether he supports Trump or not, this is something that as a politician, you try to make a decision on how to win. You know, supporting your party platform, and I think he is doing an excellent job of that," Professor Attaran said of his former pupil.
"I have no doubt in my mind that he is going to be elected this time around because of his political roots," Attaran added. "His roots are very strong in the community, because of his demeanor, because of his help, because of his paying attention to details and supporting the community any which way but loose."
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