The Republican Party could be in danger of losing one of its two Asian American House members due to redistricting in California that shifted two Republicans into a rare incumbent vs incumbent primary.
The primary could threaten the GOP’s chances of maintaining its inroads with Asian American voters and testing the weight of a potential endorsement from President Donald Trump as Rep. Young Kim (R-CA) and Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) both run in California’s redrawn 40th District.
The passage of California’s Proposition 50 pushed Calvert into Kim’s district, meaning the two will have to battle for the GOP nomination. Kim has been in office since 2021, and serves on the House Financial Services Committee and as the chair of the Subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific in the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
But Calvert won’t be an easy challenger, as he has been in Congress since 1993 and serves as the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee’s defense subcommittee.
The 40th District is one of several pivotal matchups across both parties involving two incumbents, a result of the redistricting war that engulfed Texas and California and is being explored in a handful of other states.
But the district, currently represented by Kim, is more GOP-leaning than it was prior to redistricting, and just over 50% of the district encompasses Calvert’s old district, giving the elder Republican an edge.
Kim, however, is a strong force within the Republican Party. One of a handful of female Republicans in the party, and one of two Asian American GOP lawmakers in the House, she will not be easily deposed.
Both Calvert and Kim have experience with competitive races in the past. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rated Calvert’s district as a “toss-up” in 2024. Kim’s district was rated as “likely Republican” that same year. California operates under a jungle primary system, meaning Calvert and Kim could both advance to the general election, which could put the House Republican campaign arm in a bind.
The National Republican Congressional Committee typically stays out of primaries, but a decision to stay out of a member-versus-member general contest would leave the candidates to rely solely on their own fundraising abilities. Kim, whom Republican operatives have noted is a fundraising powerhouse, has spent $3.75 million on media ad buys and holds a $2 million cash-on-hand advantage over Calvert.
“Money doesn’t equal votes,” Calvert said when asked about Kim’s cash advantage. “I was outspent in my last campaign by a candidate Democrats said was their best in the country. She’s going to need every penny of that money to explain why she’s spent 10 years running away from Trump and voting with Democrats against our conservative agenda.”
Representation in the Republican Party is also at stake in this incumbent primary. Republicans achieved a significant victory in 2024 when several historically blue voting blocs trended toward Trump.
Asian voters, who have been slightly moving toward the GOP since 2020, favored former Vice President Kamala Harris over Trump in 2024, 57% to 40%, according to the Pew Research Center. The 17-point margin, however, was significantly narrower than the 70% to 30% margin former President Joe Biden beat Trump by in 2020.
Kim said in an interview with the Washington Examiner that representation matters and there are “not enough of us” in the Republican Party.
“I am it. Other than my colleague, [Rep.] Vince Fong from the Bakersfield area, we are the only two Asian American Republicans serving our entire Asian American community in this entire state of California,” Kim said. “I feel the weight on my shoulder to work as hard as I can to represent not just the Asian American voters, but the entire community.”
Calvert pushed back against concern over potentially knocking out Kim as one of two Asian Americans in the conference, saying, “I don’t worry about identity politics. I think voters in Riverside and Orange Counties want a proven, consistent, and effective conservative representing them regardless of race or gender.”
The matchup between the two incumbent Republicans highlights a greater struggle of generational change that both parties are facing. Though similar in age, Calvert, 73, has been in Congress for nearly two decades longer than Kim, 62. Elder lawmakers in both parties have faced calls from younger members, either in service or age, to step aside and let fresh talent continue their work on Capitol Hill.
Kim said she thought Calvert would retire when Proposition 50 passed. She pointed to former Rep. Ed Royce, who entered Congress when Calvert did and retired in 2018.
“[He] was a good leader, knew when to step down and leave the next generation’s leadership to come in and continue the legacy of representing the district with some new blood, new ideas, new stamina,” Kim said.
She noted that she and Calvert missed each other’s calls and “didn’t have much conversation” about facing each other in a primary.
“I honestly thought this might be a good time for him to honorably retire,” the congresswoman said.
In response to Kim’s comments, Calvert told the Washington Examiner in a statement, “The only people I listen to for advice are the constituents I represent. Nearly 70% of the 40th is in Riverside County, which I have had the honor of representing in Congress for years. I am running because I’m the best candidate to deliver results for our region.”
The 2026 midterm elections will offer a glimpse into how effective a Trump endorsement can be in carrying a candidate over the finish line. He’s endorsed the GOP challenger to Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), who is notoriously a thorn in the side of Republicans. But he’s largely steered clear of endorsing in competitive GOP primaries, most recently in a contentious runoff taking place in Texas between incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Attorney General Ken Paxton.
When it comes to incumbents, both Trump and House Republican leadership largely avoid throwing direct support behind one over the other. In 2022, Trump, who was out of office, endorsed then-Rep. Alex Mooney over then-Rep. David McKinley. It did not come as a surprise, given that McKinley defied the president in a few key votes, including the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
But both Kim and Calvert are looking to present themselves as strong supporters of the president as they head into a competitive primary where more Republican voters will be heading to the polls. Neither have voted against contentious bills or held up votes on the floor.
Calvert said that he’s running for the new 40th District because the constituents deserve someone who is a “proven conservative who has shown they will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with President Trump through thick and thin, not someone who’s going to cut and run with the going gets tough.”
“I am the only candidate [in] this race who’s ever earned President Trump’s endorsement because I’ve been in the trenches fighting for the America First agenda from Day One,” Calvert said.
Trump has not endorsed Kim since she won in 2020. Republican operatives have pointed to Kim’s lukewarm support of the president in previous years. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times in 2018 as a candidate, Kim said her party has not been “captured” by one man, claiming there “is no party of Trump.”
In 2021, she supported a censure against Trump in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, riots in the U.S. Capitol. But the congresswoman voted against impeachment.
Since then, Kim has stayed a staunch supporter of the president’s agenda, only deviating from leadership when it came to her duties as co-chair of the SALT Caucus during the One Beautiful Bill Act discussions. During those conversations, she had told the Washington Examiner she expressed concern to GOP leadership that the Republican conference would repeat mistakes made in 2017, when Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act with a low SALT cap.
“We lost a few of our Republican colleagues, especially where I am in Orange County, because we didn’t do this right,” Kim said last year. “We reminded the speaker and the leadership that that is the fate that we may be committing if the SALT Caucus does not get a win on this one and we do not get this right.”
Looking back on those conversations now, Kim said she sat down with Trump in Mar-a-Lago and urged him to fix SALT, noting the president has “shown he’s willing to take on tough fights and deliver real results for the American people.
“I’m ready to continue to work with him, as I’ve done through the 2025 reconciliation process,” Kim said.
Kim said she’s been in constant contact with both the White House and House Republican leadership about her primary and her district. Kim said she made the case that, while both she and Calvert are important to the party, she serves on committees critical to the 40th District and represents constituencies that are incredibly important to the GOP.
“I understand they’re going to try to, you know, like try to weaken my record and all that stuff. But you know what? I’m not going to be deterred by it,” Kim said. “I’m not going to be pushed over by it. I’m not threatened by any outside pressure if there is, because I know myself. I can continue to do the work I can and represent this district’s constituents in the state of California, and eventually, the work that I do in Washington is affecting all Americans, so I look forward to continuing to work.”