Incumbent Rep. Salud Carbajal coasted to an easy victory Tuesday night in his bid for re-election to California’s 24th District seat in Congress.
“Semi-official” results show that Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, received 60.7% of the vote, compared to 39.3% for his opponent, Republican Brad Allen, although an unknown number of ballots remained to be counted.
Carbajal celebrated at the Timbers Roadhouse in Goleta where the Santa Barbara Democratic Party hosted its election night party.
The 24th Congressional District covers all of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties as well as part of Ventura county.
Carbajal said he would like to thank the Central Coast voters electing him to continue representing them in Washington. He also talked about issues he hopes to address on the Central Coast such as inflation, climate change, lowering the cost of prescription drugs, bipartisan infrastructure, and gun safety legislation.
“I feel that they are reaffirming the work that I’ve done, and they’re asking me to continue fighting for those issues for the Central Coast, and I’m looking forward to continuing to make sure that the investments we voted on, get implemented and that the quality of life and economic opportunities for the Central Coast continue to fly,” Carbajal said.
In an interview with Noozhawk, Carbajal said his first priority in Congress is lowering the cost of living in the Central Coast. He also supports student loan forgiveness and passing Proposition 1 on the ballot, which gives women the right to abortion. As an immigrant himself, Carbajal said he wants to continue work on immigration reform.
Other issues Carbajal has outlined on his website include agriculture, defense, environment and energy, preventing gun violence, transportation and infrastructure, preventing gun violence, protecting voting and civil rights and providing services for veterans and their families.
Carbajal was elected as representative for the 24th district in 2016. Prior to that, he served on the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors for District 1.
“All I can say is that there’s a lot of votes still out there,” Allen said on election night. “I wish the early vote had been different but only 28% of people have voted so far and I’m expecting there to be a bigger turnout. So we’ll see what the what the votes show over the next 12 hours.”
Allen said he is opposed to “anti-law” proposals and said he would give law enforcement a powerful voice in Washington, according to his campaign website. Additionally, Allen’s website said he hoped to reduce inflation by cutting “the regulatory licensing burden on individuals and businesses.”
Allen said he is also against prolonged lockdowns as a result of COVID-19, and believes parents should have more say in what is taught in their children’s education according to his website.
Homelessness is another issue that is important to Allen. Allen said he would like to provide incentives for homeless people such as providing better housing for obtaining a job or quitting addiction.
After polls closed at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, the County Elections Office released results for all the ballots that had already been received and counted. Additional updates were provided later Tuesday night, and later this week more ballots will be counted.
Results will be updated again on Nov. 15, which is the deadline for vote-by-mail ballots to be delivered to the County Elections Office as long as the ballots are postmarked on or before Election Day.
The Santa Barbara County Elections Office will certify the Nov. 8 election results by Dec. 8.
— Noozhawk staff writer Grace Kitayama can be reached at gkitayama@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.