Congressman Steve Knight in tight race with first-time candidate Katie Hill in Northern LA's 25th District

Josh Haskell Image
Saturday, October 20, 2018
GOP Rep. Steve Knight faces tight race in Northern LA's 25th District
Polls say California's 25th congressional district race between Democratic challenger Katie Hill and Republican incumbent Steve Knight is a toss-up.

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. (KABC) -- Polls say California's 25th congressional district race between Democratic challenger Katie Hill and Republican incumbent Steve Knight is a toss-up.

The district includes parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, and cities like Santa Clarita, Palmdale and Lancaster.

Volunteers at Hill's Stevenson Ranch field office in Santa Clarita Valley say they're organized and hungry to flip the 25th district.

"Including the primary, we've knocked on 300,000 doors altogether. This is presidential levels," Hill said. "You're not seeing anything like this anywhere else. We're pushing 3,500 volunteers, 25,000 individual donors."

In a New York Times Upshot Siena College poll taken last month, Knight leads Hill, a 31-year-old nonprofit executive, by just two percentage points with seven percent undecided.

Knight, 51, is a former Los Angeles Police Department officer serving his second term in Washington.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the district by 6.7 percentage points.

"We know it's going to be a difficult race. We know that there will be a lot of money pumped in. We know that there will be a lot of emphasis on this district, and that's OK because we believe we have a great record," Knight said.

But, Hill said Knight's record looks a lot like President Donald Trump's.

"He votes with Donald Trump 99 percent of the time," Hill said. "I can't think of a single person I agree with 99 percent of the time."

Knight said that's not true, and cites his work to keep families together at the border as an example.

"The president has brought forward different policies. I've seen those," Knight said. "Some I've disagreed with and some I've agreed with. I was one of the first congressmen to write a bill to make sure that the families would stay together through adjudication," Knight said.

Speaking to the Republican Women of Simi Valley and Moorpark, Knight praised the Republican tax plan and low unemployment. But, Hill said the stock market is not the economy.

Hill said the middle class in the 25th District is really hurting.

"He'll say something here, and he'll go and vote in a completely opposite direction," Hill said. "He will vote with special interest groups and party leaders and his wealthy donors, instead of the people of this district, and you see that with his votes on health care and the tax plan."

Unlike many of the other competitive races, Knight and Hill have already faced off on the debate stage, and they'll have another debate Oct. 25th in Simi Valley.