Matthew Leslie

Shawn Nelson is one of three elected or formerly elected Republicans running to fill the 39th District U.S. Congressional Seat that will become competitive with the retirement of incumbent Ed Royce, Jr. In a recent email crowing about his endorsement by the California Republican Assembly, he reveals that he is running for Congress to, among other things, “protect you from the threat of illegal immigrants.” In a year when the biggest question Republican candidates face across the country is whether to run with or away from national disaster Donald Trump, Supervisor Nelson has wasted no time in giving us his answer.

Unregulated immigration is without doubt an issue that needs to be addressed, but in a systemic, humanitarian way that seeks to correct the underlying causes of the desperate poverty that drives the phenomenon. Beginning a list of three reasons for a congressional run with “illegal immigration,” and preceding the term with the word “threat” is an unveiled, direct appeal to a voter base that responded to similar language used by Donald Trump, who may have lost California in 2016, but had significant support in parts of the 39th Congressional District. In the race against undistinguished one term Assemblywoman and Royce protegé Young Kim and retired State Senator “Aloha” Bob Huff, the Nelson campaign has left little doubt about how it will position its candidate in the coming months.