Like the proverbial dog who has finally caught the car, County Supervisor Salud Carbajal has to be asking himself, “Now what?”
Carbajal, a moderate Democrat, beat out Republican rival Justin Fareed to represent Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties in Congress by about 20,000 votes. Last Wednesday, Fareed conceded defeat, beseeching God — via Twitter — to guide Carbajal so that he may “serve us well.”
For Carbajal, victory isn’t exactly how he imagined it. He fully expected Hillary Clinton would win and that Democrats would take control of the Senate. Neither happened, and Carbajal — like the rest of the nation — is still pondering the historic moment and what went wrong. After being sworn in January 2, Carbajal will find himself not just a rookie member of Congress but a member of the minority party when Republicans control both houses of Congress and Donald Trump rules the roost at the White House.