California’s 24th Congressional District has four candidates facing off in the June 7 primary, with three challengers on the ballot attempting to unseat incumbent Democrat Salud Carbajal, who first won the position in 2016 and was reelected every two years since.
In 2020, Carbajal won the three-candidate primary with 57.8 percent of the overall vote, defeating Republican Andy Caldwell with 38.2 percent and Independent Kenneth Young with 4 percent. When Carbajal was first elected to Congress in 2016, a crowded nine-candidate primary field included former Santa Barbara mayor Helene Schneider and Republican Justin Fareed — whom Carbajal defeated in the general election in 2016 and 2018.
As a state representative, Carbajal has advocated for environmental legislation like the California Clean Coastal Act, which bans future offshore oil and gas drilling along the coast, as well as sitting on a number of state committees on agriculture, armed services, transportation, and infrastructure.
