California Congressional District 40 election: Kerr vs. Kim voter guide

Republican Rep. Young Kim is up against Democratic challenger Joe Kerr, a retired fire captain, in the battle to represent California’s 40th Congressional District.

Though President Biden won in the inland suburban district by a narrow margin, Republicans maintain a voter registration advantage of 3.7 percentage points.

Who are the candidates?

Born in South Korea, Kim, 61, was one of three Korean American women who were the first to be elected to Congress in 2020. She previously served in the state Assembly for two years and unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2018.

The Republican also worked for more than two decades for Orange County’s Rep. Ed Royce during his long stint as a U.S. House member.

Kim’s legislative priorities include combating inflation, lowering taxes and boosting security at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Kerr, 64, spent 34 years as a fire captain with the Orange County Fire Authority and served 17 years as president of the Orange County Professional Firefighters Assn., a labor union that represents 800 firefighters. He ran unsuccessfully for the state Senate in 2022 and for the Orange County Board of Supervisors in 2018.

The Democrat’s legislative priorities include restoring nationwide abortion rights, fighting climate change by funding artificial intelligence technology to identify early-stage wildfires, making housing and healthcare more affordable, and combating gun violence.

Where is the district?

The district is largely based in Orange County, including Aliso Viejo, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita, Tustin and Villa Park. It also includes Corona in Riverside County and Chino Hills in San Bernardino County.

State propositions

The Times asked Kim and Kerr about some of the most telling statewide propositions: Proposition 3, to affirm gay marriage; Proposition 32, to establish an $18 minimum hourly wage; and Proposition 33, to allow communities to expand rent control.

Kerr said he would vote in favor of all three propositions.

“When I was a young man, I earned $4 an hour as a firefighter working 72-hour work weeks,” he said. “I dedicated my life to advancing hours, wages, and conditions of employment. I will of course vote in support of Proposition 32 and continue my legacy of advancing worker rights all across the country.”

Kim did not respond to The Times’ requests for comment on this story. But she voted against the 2022 Respect for Marriage Act, which protects same-sex and interracial marriages.

In a 2021 Real Clear Politics editorial, Kim critiqued Democrats’ attempts to pass a $15 minimum wage, which she said “would crush some neighborhood small businesses and make it more difficult for others to hire.”

“In California, we’ve seen the consequences of a $15 minimum wage to low-margin businesses like restaurants, day-care centers, and dry cleaners firsthand,” she wrote. “Tragically, such mandates disproportionately impact minority-owned small businesses, which generally operate on lower margins and whose customers tend to be more price-sensitive.”

Affordable housing is not listed among Kim’s priority issues on her website, and she is generally in favor of lowering regulations and taxes.

In an attempt to keep rents around the country from soaring, the Biden administration proposed in July that corporate landlords limit annual rent increases to no more than 5% in order to maintain a major tax break. But the proposal is unlikely to gain traction in Congress, particularly in the Republican-controlled House.

Healthcare

Kerr said that protecting women’s reproductive freedom, access to in vitro fertilization and Medicare, and lowering the cost of prescriptions drugs are among his top healthcare-related priorities, according to his website.

Asked what related legislation he would pursue if elected, he said he would work to enshrine women’s reproductive rights into federal law; support Planned Parenthood’s efforts to expand birth control, sex education and healthcare; and work to lower prescription drug prices.

As co-chair of the House Maternity Care Caucus, Kim has advocated for greater awareness of postpartum depression and has introduced legislation to reduce stillbirths and improve medical interpretation services.

According to her website, Kim believes in patient choice and eliminating or reforming inefficient programs to bring down the cost of prescription drugs and medical treatment. She said that an open market drives down costs and that individual states should be allowed to enact healthcare policies that best suit their residents.

“States must be given additional leverage to implement Medicaid programs to best fit their circumstances while being held to a higher standard to ensure that their people can efficiently access quality medical care,” Kim’s website states. “At the same time, our federal government should work to ensure consumers have greater control of their healthcare and those with pre-existing conditions cannot be denied coverage.”