By Nicolas Ahadzadeh

Election time for the 52nd district of California is coming up quickly. According to BallotPedia, the candidate filing deadline is December 6, 2019 and the primary election is March 3, 2020. Katie Pope, a current 2L at California Western School of Law, is taking advantage of these deadlines. Katie will be submitting her candidacy for Congress in the 52nd district this week.

     Being only 27 years-old, Katie was driven by the success of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Katie says, “. . . if AOC could do it, then so could I” – referring to the 29 year-old who gained national recognition for defeating a 10-term incumbent representative in the 2018 midterm election primaries for the 14th district of New York.

     Katie, a Republican, believes that California has strayed away from the ‘two-party’ system, and only elects candidates that run for the Democrat party. Of the 53 members of congress that represent California, only 7 of them consider themselves “Republican.”

“One of the issues I have in California is that the Democrats have a supermajority in part because of the top two primary system.  This makes it challenging for other ideologies to be heard.  Unfortunately, with the supermajority California has effectively become a one-party system.”

-Katie Pope 

     The 52nd district of California is fairly young – it was created in 1993. If Katie Pope were to win, she would only be the fourth person to ever represent the district.

To find out more information about Katie Pope and see where she stands on major issues, visit her website here.