SAN DIEGO—As Election Day approaches, President Joe Biden visits San Diego to campaign for incumbent Rep. Mike Levin on Nov. 3 for the 49th Congressional District race.
Details on the presidential visit are still unclear, but Levin’s director of communications Eric Mee said more will be revealed Nov. 2.
What is known is that Biden will attend a Thursday campaign event with Levin—who has represented the district straddling North San Diego and South Orange counties since 2018. The president will also speak at an unspecified event on Friday.
The Biden Administration will hope to turn the tide in an election that months ago seemed to lean toward the incumbent, but was recently deemed by Politico a toss-up between Levin and his opponent, Republican and former San Juan Capistrano Mayor Brian Maryott.
The two candidates have faced off before. In 2020 Levin, won the district by about 6 percent. Maryott and the GOP are hoping for a mid-term turn of the tide, tying Levin to Biden and policies they say are unpopular.
“Republicans gladly welcome Joe Biden to San Diego for his campaign stop with Mike Levin, which will be a boon for the GOP and remind voters to choose Brian Maryott on November 8th,” GOP spokeswoman Hallie Balch said in a statement. “The Biden-Levin agenda has been a complete failure for California families and Biden’s visit with Levin keeps the record of failure fresh in Californians’ minds.”
Levin has attacked Maryott as a MAGA Republican with reactionary views on abortion. Maryott has said Levin and his party continue to spend taxpayer money without thinking of the fiscal consequences.
The race will be one of several California “toss-ups” in the national spotlight as Republicans seek to wrest control of the House from Democrats, including one directly north—the race between incumbent Katie Porter (D-Calif.) and former Republican Assemblyman Scott Baugh for California’s 47th Congressional District.
