Salud Carbajal, Jimmy Panetta dominate races to represent SLO County in Congress
Two incumbent members of Congress advanced in their primary races to represent San Luis Obispo County in Washington, D.C., according to results from the Secretary of State’s Office.
In District 24, as of 1 a.m. with 100% of precincts partially reporting, Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, led with 62.7% of the vote.
He will face Republican Brad Allen, who had 29.2%.
Michele R. Weslander Quaid, who formerly worked for the U.S. Department of Defense and Intelligence Community and Google and now is an entrepreneur, educator and certified professional coach, was at 6.6%, and U.S. Marine Corps veteran and businessmen Jeff Frankenfield was at 1.4%.
The district, which used to represent all of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and parts of Ventura County, shifted south under redistricting and now runs from Cayucos to Ventura, giving parts of northern SLO County to the new District 19.
“To those who supported me in today’s election, I’m grateful for your vote as I continue fighting for our Central Coast in Washington,” Carbajal said in a news release.
“To those who didn’t, I hope to earn your vote this fall; because I see the challenges that all our families and mine are facing — from rising costs of living and ongoing supply chain disruptions to ever-present threats like climate change and gun crime — and am committed to tackling and delivering solutions for those issues and more in Congress.”
In District 19, as of 1 a.m. with all precincts partially reporting, Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Carmel Valley, was also comfortably ahead, with 68.5% of the vote.
He will face Republican Jeff Gorman, a small-business owner and conservative talk show host, who had 22.7%.
Gorman was trailed by Republican Dalila Epperson, a community organizer, with 5.8%, and Democrat Douglas Deitch, the founder and CEO of the Monterey Bay Conservancy, with 3%.
“We’re really proud of the results that have come in so far,” Panetta said in a call from Washington, D.C., early in the vote counting.
He said he feels the early results were “indicative of the work I’ve done in the current District 20, but also of the outreach I’ve conducted in the past six months in the new District 19,” which runs from Atascadero in a ribbon up the coast to Santa Cruz and the edge of Silicon Valley.
Panetta acknowledged, however that it still was going to be a long night of waiting, especially after the red-eye flight he took Monday night to the capital.
Even if his lead holds, he said at the time, “This is the semi-final,” and the real race is ahead in November.
The top-two vote-getters in each district will advance to the general election in November.
As of Tuesday evening, Jeff Gorman had not responded to the Tribune’s request for comment.
This story was originally published June 7, 2022 at 8:53 PM.
