Breaking News: Shawn Nelson to Take on Young Kim for CD-39 Republican Mantle
Posted by Chris Nguyen on January 9, 2018
Cross-posted to OC Daily…
Shawn Nelson
Less than 36 hours after Congressman Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) unexpectedly announced his retirement after 13 terms in Congress, there are now two major Republican candidates to succeed him in the 39th Congressional District: former Assemblywoman Young Kim (R-Fullerton) who announced her bid early tonight and Supervisor Shawn Nelson (R-Fullerton) who announced his bid late tonight to City News Service.
As OC Political noted this morning in our analysis of potential candidates for CD-39:
Supervisor Shawn Nelson represents 45% of the voters of the 39th Congressional District. Of the 367,000 registered voters in CD-39, Nelson represents 166,000 of them, who reside in the 4th Supervisorial District’s overlap with CD-39. Nelson has deep roots in the district, having grown up in Fullerton, graduated from high school there, and even graduating from law school there. He’s also a member of countless civic organizations in CD-39. Nelson won three elections to the Fullerton City Council and two to the Orange County Board of Supervisors (and raised the necessary money to wage those campaigns). As it happens, he is termed out from the Board in 2018.
Conventional wisdom would have Republicans coalesce behind one candidate. However, with the top-two primary, having both Kim and Nelson could work (assuming that obscure La Mirada Councilman Andrew Sarega pulls out and perennial candidate John Cullum does not jump in; I would note La Mirada is not in CD-39).
In CD-31 in 2012, with four Democrats and two Republicans running, the top-two primary allowed Congressman Gary Miller and State Senator Bob Dutton to advance to an all-Republican run-off in a tough swing seat. In CD-39 in 2018, there are currently six Democrats running.
OC Political 
cstfullerton said
No brainer. Shawn is the best possible candidate to be our next congressman. His a proven winner, a strong, no-nonsense fiscal conservative that does not suffer foolishness, thinks for himself and gets things done. He is respected by everybody he works with. He’ll support wise immigration policy that preserves our right to manage immigration policy which puts Americans, the economy and our security first. While he will run like a winner from day one, he will work like an underdog until the polls close. Get behind this guy. His is good for Orange County, California and America.
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