DALLAS - California state legislator Kevin Kiley is hoping his endorsement from former President Trump will carry him from Sacramento to Washington D.C.
Speaking with Fox News Digital at CPAC Dallas last week, the 37-year-old Republican vows to "return to the policies that have worked" if elected in California's Third Congressional District.
"Before Joe Biden took office, we had a record economy, we had safer communities, we had a secure border. And when Joe Biden took office, it has just been a complete trainwreck," Kiley told Fox News Digital. "So from the beginning, my campaign has been about change. And I think that the policies that we saw that were working during the Trump administration are the policies we need to return to."
Kiley, who previously ran in the failed recall effort against Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, says his top three issues he'd prioritize in Congress are the economy, immigration and crime; the latter he put a lot of emphasis on.
He pointed to the successful recall effort in "the extremely liberal city" of San Francisco that led to the ousting of District Attorney Chesa Boudin and the warning Los Angeles law enforcement has made encouraging residents not to wear jewelry when they go out, suggesting a tide is turning in favor of Republicans.
Regarding the coverage of him by local media, Kiley took a swipe at the Sacramento Bee, whose editorial pages he accuses of making "no attempt at impartiality."
"They will even do these supposed ‘fact-checks’ where what you've said is completely true, there's no debate about it, and yet they somehow find a way to say that it's false," Kiley said. "They're there for the purpose of attacking me, promoting my Democratic opponent."
While he conceded that the local networks are "pretty fair" to him, Kiley lamented the lack of state-wide outlets that can scrutinize Democratic politicians like Newsom.
"People are dissatisfied in California, they have been for some time even before everything went off the rails with the Biden administration," Kiley said. "They are frustrated with the homelessness, they're frustrated with the perpetual problems that we have, with the catastrophic wildfires, with the cost of living, with crime – almost everything else."
He continued, "But there's been sort of a sense in which the dots are not always connected between the deterioration of our state and the terrible policies coming from our state capitol. So I do think that there is a need to have more focus on the part of the media connecting those dots for voters."
