24th Congressional District Race tightly contested

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. - The Primary race in California's 24th Congressional District is a close call as of 10:59 p.m Tuesday night.

Representative and incumbent Salud Carbajal is running against newcomer Andy Caldwell.

With 30 percent of the precincts (112/367) reporting, Carbajal was in the lead with 50 percent, while Caldwell had 46 percent.

Independent candidate Kenneth Young registered three percent.

Caldwell, who is the Republican candidate, is running for office for the first time.

He's been a longtime political watchdog, a conservative local radio talk show host and a frequent speaker at countless government meetings for the past 30 years.

"My whole goal is to bring back representation for the district," said Caldwell. "I want to bring back representation there for the people here. Better jobs, issues of dealing with affordable housing, beach access and things like that."

Caldwell spent part of his Election Night at his watch party inside the historic Santa Maria Inn.

Carbajal decided to remain in Washington D.C. to attend to his Congressional duties.

"I wish I could be at home voting with you all, firsthand in the district, but congress is in session and I had to be here in Washington to vote on a number of issues," said Carbajal in a video sent to NewsChannel 3 and NewsChannel 12. "Today I attended a defense hearing and I voted on a bill to promote global peace, and tomorrow I'm going to be voting on a bill that moves forward a solution to address the coronavirus in our country."

Young, who is a civil engineer, spent Tuesday watching election results at his downtown Santa Barbara home.

"It's really a two-year cycle, so what I'll do is throw my hat into the ring for the next cycle and see what happens, so this is a great opportunity to go out there and start doing this and make some movement," said Young.

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