Author: G. Li, Megaphone Editor-in-chief

On November 5th, there will be an election to fill the Senate seat previously filled by Democrat Dianne Feinstein in the United States Congress for California. In this election, candidates Adam Schiff and Steve Garvey will be running. Adam Schiff is of the Democratic party and Steve Garvey is of the Republican party. As of October 16, according to polls by Emerson College, it appears that Schiff is in the lead with 56% polled saying they will choose him in the upcoming election, and 35% saying they will choose Garvey in the upcoming election (table drawn from 270toWin). 

Below is more information on each candidate. 

Steve Garvey: 

Garvey is the Republican candidate for the US Senate for California. 

Here are his views on major California issues: 

Border Security: Garvey writes on his website “If you believe that our wide-open border has been a humanitarian and national security catastrophe — then come join our campaign.” His plans include securing the border, increasing border patrol, supporting a ‘Stay in Mexico’ Policy (ensuring asylum seekers stay in Mexico while claims are processed), and ending ‘Catch and Release’ (preventing illegal immigrants from being released into U.S. communities without proper legal proceedings. In the Senate, he wants to: increase funding for border security, limit asylum claims for those entering illegally, and enact immigration reform to address these challenges.

Cost of Living: He wants to “cut through the red tape” to make it easier to start and grow businesses, address soaring costs in food, energy, and interest rates, and cut regulations and end mandates, emphasizing free market solutions, controlling spending, and reducing unnecessary mandates. 

Homelessness: To combat California’s growing homeless rate, garvey plans on audit spending, auditing where the 7 billion california spends annually on homelessness goes, engage private industry and partner with private orgs like alpha project to develop solutions, address root causes – “mental health issues and addiction”, and to “support new federal solutions”.

Criminal justice: Garvey plans on fixing the failures of Prop 47 with Prop 36 – 

“Prop 47 has led to a surge in crime by reducing penalties for serious offenses. Supporting Prop 36 helps correct these failures by ensuring that repeat and violent offenders face the justice they deserve, while stopping the revolving door for criminals who exploit weak sentencing laws.” He also wants to give more support to law enforcement, hold prosecutors accountable and ensure existing laws are enforced, support tougher penalties, funding the police (believes that defunding bad, should instead fund more for training), blind justice and fairness. 

Energy Policy: Garvey wants to support free market approaches to energy production and get rid of government mandates, and have a careful transition to renewable energy.

Water Policy: Garvey wants to create projects to improve water storage, delivery, and recycling, protect agriculture by creating tech and policies that support water efficiency and availability of farmers and ranchers, eliminate excessive regulations on water access, and promote research for water tech. 

Education: For K-12 education, he believes in maximizing education funding, supporting school choice, and engaging parents and teachers. For higher education, he wants to reduce costs of higher education, promote career-focused education, expand access to trades and apprenticeships, make sure colleges are transparent about outcomes (grad rates and jobs), and create practical solutions to student debt. 

Taxes: Garvey wants to work towards tax cuts for middle-class families, simplify the tax code and reduce loopholes, encourage small business growth by providing tax incentives for small businesses, and limit tax hikes by the government.  

Housing: Garvey plans to combat rising costs of housing, lower mortgage rates, reduce regulatory burden, writing that “Federal, state, and local regulations make up nearly 20% of the cost of a home”, oppose HUD’s costly standards that will “add about $7,000 to the cost of a new home”, lower inflation and interest rates, incentivize affordable housing by providing tax benefits to builders who focus on producing entry-level homes for first-time buyers.

Health Care: Garvey wants to lower health care costs by increasing competition, curing bureaucracy, and promoting price transparency, expand access to care, give people the choice to choose a health care plan, promote innovation, address mental health and addiction, reform medicare and Medicaid to be sustainable long-term. 

National Security: Steve Garvey hopes to “maintain military superiority”, work towards technological innovation, strong foreign policy, and adapt to modern threats (such as cybersecurity). 

Read more about Garvey’s plans on his website here: https://stevegarvey.com/steves-vision/ 

About Steve Garvey: Garvey was born in Tampa, Florida, in 1948. After gaining a BS degree from Michigan State University, he became a baseball player for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres from 1969 to 1987, earning many accolades throughout his baseball career. He is involved in supporting the health of those afflicted with disease, such as being the National Campaign Chairman of the Multiple Sclerosis Society.