Democratic candidate for the State Assembly Christy Smith at the Democratic Party San Fernando Valley headquarters. Photo / Natalie Akoorie
Democratic candidate for the State Assembly Christy Smith at the Democratic Party San Fernando Valley headquarters. Photo / Natalie Akoorie
It may be one of the most important votes Americans take in their lifetime when they go to the polls these mid-term elections, Democrat candidates say.
The Democratic Party is vying for power in the House of Representatives, where 435 seats are up for re-election on November 6.
Incumbent DemocratSenator in California Kevin de Leon said the United States had lost its moral compass under President Donald Trump's leadership and referred to the political narrative in the country as "dangerous times".
But a Republican Party stalwart has hit back saying the Democrats led Americans on a fiscally doomed path in the eight years prior under former President Barack Obama, and only through Trump's blue-collar battle for the working class has the economy begun to gain momentum again.
Speaking at the Democratic Party San Fernando Valley headquarters, de Leon said usually presidential elections had the largest voter turnout and that was evident and crucial in 2008 when Obama swept to victory.
"We've never seen anything like this before, in our political history - that's why we think it's historic."
Senator Kevin de Leon and candidate Christy Smith talk about issues at stake for the Democratic Party in the upcoming midterm elections. Photo / Natalie Akoorie
He referred to a slew of at times horrifying conduct the country has witnessed under the Trump administration including the zero-tolerance policy that led to more than 2000 children being separated from their families.
"We never thought we'd see babies and young children caged on our US border, sanctioned by Federal Government.
"These are things we used to read about in our history books. Never thought we would actually live it in real time."
Democrat Christy Smith, running for the State Assembly in the Antelope Valley against Republican incumbent Dante Acosta, said immigration was fundamentally a humanitarian issue.
"We need to re-establish that as Americans here, that we value our immigrant communities and our immigrant populations and the contribution they make to our very diverse nation and that's something voters are saying loud and clear when I speak to them."
She said the mid-terms was the first opportunity for voters to offer their opinion again on the results of the 2016 presidential election.
"What I've heard from a number of voters across this country is that these are going to be times where people are voting their values and in California that means standing with and for our immigrant communities, standing with and for women and women's rights, with and for our environment and taking this country forward in a direction we thought we were going when President Obama left office."
But Republican National Committeeman for California, Shawn Steel, said Democratic policies had pushed big business and the middle-class out of California in search of cheaper taxes and affordable housing.
Republican National Committeeman for California Shawn Steel said the middle-class had left California in search of a better life. Photo / Natalie Akoorie
And he blamed the Republican Party's demise in California on that shift.
"There's a purge of the middle-class in California. When you take away the middle-class my party disappears."
He said Democratic policies ensuring environmentally-sustainable housing added $US150,000 to the cost of building a two-bedroom home, pushing average house prices in Los Angeles up to $1 million.
"What's happened is we've got an acute house shortage. Most [young Americans] will not be able to afford the house they were raised in. This is an American tragedy. It's never happened."
California, once a magnate for Americans with one of the highest populations and notably one of the richest places on Earth, Steel said, had dramatically changed in two decades.
"We are now an out-migration state. Americans are doing what they always did. They're marching with their feet."
Not only were young families leaving for states such as Texas where housing was more affordable, jobs were plentiful and crime was lower, but corporations were also departing and taking thousands of jobs with them, Steel said.
It was turning California into a state with the highest percentage of poor people, and billionaires, a disparity that was creating a "Third World" state.
Steel, a lawyer who admitted he didn't initially support Trump for President and even wrote an article against him, said he now "loves" his party leader because he had introduced the middle-class to the working-class and in turn had "changed American politics".
Of the four Republican incumbents in Orange County, three were women including Young Kim in the 39th District, a Korean-American.
Steel pointed out that despite the Democratic line of supporting immigrants and women, its three challengers to those seats were "a bunch of white guys".
He said historically every new president lost power after his first two years at the helm, and believed Republicans would still win the Senate.
Natalie Akoorie is covering the United States' midterm elections courtesy of the US State Department.
