After voters backed a redraw of California’s congressional maps, Republican U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa faces what could be the most competitive race in his more than two decades in Congress — if he stays in San Diego County.
With a real challenge from Democrats on his hands, Issa has considered leaving to run for a congressional seat in Texas, where Republican redistricting has created newly competitive seats ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
“I have to go where I can be of the most use,” he told a Dallas-area radio show on Wednesday. He added that he was meeting with President Donald Trump later in the day.
“The decision to come to Texas is going to be a combination of the president’s leadership and a willingness to take two chances,” he said. “Right now we are a united party under a great president, and we’re going to do everything we can to keep it that way after the midterms.”
It wasn’t immediately clear Wednesday night what came of that meeting. Neither Issa nor his staff responded to requests for comment.
But the leader of the Republican party’s congressional campaign arm expressed skepticism about such a possible move.
“I’ve encouraged Darrell to run in his current district,” Rep. Richard Hudson, the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told The Associated Press.
The congressman’s consideration of a Texas run was first reported by Punchbowl News.
Monday is Texas’ deadline for candidates to file to run.
Meanwhile, Texas’ redraw of its congressional maps — the first in an ongoing gerrymandering arms race around the country — is under review by the U.S. Supreme Court. The court is expected to rule on Texas’ new maps soon.
Since he was first elected to Congress in 2000, Issa has represented San Diego County’s more conservative bastions, interrupted by a two-year period after he opted not to run for re-election in 2018’s “blue wave.”
Last month, California voters overwhelmingly voted to enact Proposition 50, Democrats’ redistricting effort to flip up to five congressional seats in their favor. The 48th Congressional District was one of their chief targets.
Issa’s current district spans most of East San Diego County. The redrawn seat will lose many rural areas and pick up less conservative areas including San Marcos, Vista and the Democratic stronghold of Palm Springs in Riverside County — changes that give Democrats a 4-point registration advantage.
On election night, Issa made a defiant statement where he vowed he was “not quitting on California.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” he said.
But he introduced himself to voters nearly 1,400 miles away on Wednesday, telling north Texas radio listeners that he considers his current district the “east Texas of California,” noting its many rodeos and conservative culture.
He said a Republican colleague had urged him to consider running in Texas’ 32nd Congressional District, which now covers the northeastern Dallas suburbs and is represented by Julie Johnson, a Democrat.
Under Texas’ new map, however, the district picks up a long finger of more rural northeast Texas, shifting from a 22-point Democratic registration advantage to a 17-point GOP advantage.
“One of my colleagues from Texas called me and told me, ‘We don’t have a good candidate. I understand your district has been made pretty close to impossible. But we’ve got TX-32 — would you look at it?’” he told radio host Mark Davis on Wednesday. “I have looked at it. It does represent the values and the voting that I’m used to.”
Anna Elsasser, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, called his consideration of such a jump “cowardice at its finest” and proof that “he only wants to stay in power to enrich himself.”
Stiffer competition has prompted Issa to step away from a congressional race before.
In 2018, he did not seek re-election ahead of expectations that Democrats could flip what was then the 49th Congressional District. Democrat Mike Levin later won that race with 56% of the vote, and Issa returned to Congress after winning the neighboring 48th two years later.
This year, even before Proposition 50 passed, the prospect of a more competitive race in the 48th prompted a crowded field of Democrats to seek to unseat Issa.
Current candidates include San Diego City Councilmember Marni von Wilpert, Vista City Councilmember Corinna Contreras, Riverside County businessman Brandon Riker and former congressional candidate Ammar Campa-Najjar, who lost to Issa in 2020.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.