With an eye toward the 2026 election, congressional candidate Bob Smith and other Republican leaders spoke Monday during a Santa Barbara County GOP Labor Day barbecue at Tucker’s Grove Park in Santa Barbara, urging stronger turnout and calling for changes in federal and state leadership.

Smith, a retired U.S. Navy commander, announced his campaign to challenge Rep. Salud Carbajal in California’s 24th Congressional District, which spans Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

Smith described himself as a newcomer to politics but experienced in federal government operations, having managed multibillion-dollar defense programs during his 27 years of active duty.

He also called out Carbajal.

“He is the most invisible congressman that has ever existed in the history of Congress,” Smith said. “That’s the reality.”

Smith said voters are fed up with the lack of action from elected officials.

“There are people in the center right now who are really getting annoyed with the fact that their elected officials are not doing anything,” he said. “Listen to them. They go to city council meetings and they say, ‘What are you doing for me?’ They go to the county Board of Supervisors and they say, ‘What are you doing for me?'”

About 150 Republicans attended Monday’s event. They dined on tri-tip, chicken and cake. To begin the event, they recited the Pledge of Allegiance and held an invocation.

Bobbi McGinnis, chair of the Santa Barbara County Republican Party, organized and led the event.

“The Republican Party is alive and well in California,” McGinnis said. “We have a growing population of Republicans. In the last six months, we’ve had another 3,500 people become Republicans, so we’re now up to almost 63,000. We have a ways to go to catch up with the Democrats, but it’s moving in the right direction.”

McGinnis also addressed the recent immigration raids at Glass House Farms in Carpinteria.

“It was not a raid; it was a rescue mission,” McGinnis said, speaking about the detainment of more than 300 people at Glass House Farms on July 10. “That was a long, well-orchestrated homeland security process to get [to] children that were working illegally in that place, [who] were being trafficked.”

Most of the energy of Monday’s event, however, centered on Smith and his effort to unseat Carbajal.

Smith outlined three core responsibilities for members of Congress.

“The first one is to represent everybody in your district,” Smith said, adding that he is “not worried about talking to Democrats” and pointing to his own marriage as an example of working across political lines. He said at the event that he is married to a Democrat.

The second responsibility, he said, is passing a responsible budget on time. Smith said Congress had failed to meet its Oct. 1 deadline since 1997, which he argued led to inefficiencies, contract delays and staffing issues on federal projects.

The third, he said, is securing federal funding and legislation that benefit the district. 

“If you subtract Vandenberg out of the 24th District, we are in the bottom 10% of federal funding in our congressional district,” Smith said.

He criticized Carbajal for what he described as limited legislative output and sentiment that he said runs bipartisan.

Dave Brown, mayor of Solvang, also spoke at the event. Brown was elected mayor in November 2024. His platform includes balancing tourism interests with resident needs, supporting local businesses, addressing housing issues and preserving Solvang’s identity.

The topic of Santa Barbara’s Regional Housing Needs Assessment came up multiple times. 

“The state has mandated certain things in our city, specifically new housing … that’s caused a lot of heartache,” Brown said. “My biggest fear for Solvang is if we don’t have the room, it’s going to be mandated upon us that we’re going to have to build housing and it’s going to have to go vertical.”

Ed Fuller, a board member for the Goleta Sanitary District, echoed that concern.

“The people of Goleta do not want the state forcing them to zone for more housing,” Fuller said. “They like their community the size that it is, and they should be the ones who determine their community.”

Smith also voiced concern about economic pressures facing local residents, particularly the middle class. 

“The middle class is evaporating before our eyes,” he said, pointing to poverty rates, homelessness, high housing costs, limited job opportunities and the departure of major employers as factors making it harder for young people and families to remain in the area.

He warned that the region’s economic challenges were part of a broader trend and said state policies were contributing to the problem.

“All of Silicon Valley is going to move their stuff out of the state of California if we don’t turn around the broken energy policies here and the energy costs,” Smith said, “and then there’s going to be less jobs.”

On immigration, Smith advocated for what he called “common sense reform” and said it was wrong to penalize individuals brought to the country as children who have grown up in the United States.

“I can’t hold what some person’s parents have done against them,” Smith said.

Sari Domingues, a Republican candidate for Assembly District 37, challenging Assemblyman Gregg Hart, D-Santa Barbara, addressed the attendees. She described herself as a conservative, “America First” Republican. 

“We need a leader, and I’m a leader,” Domingues said.

Her platform includes supporting families, advocating for education reform with a focus on parental rights and age-appropriate learning materials, enforcing stronger laws and promoting fiscal responsibility.