‘America First’ Republican says campaign against Kevin McCarthy is to change DC status quo

David Giglio, an “America First” and MAGA Republican who is running against Rep. Kevin McCarthy in 2024, said that his 1-year-old son motivated him to run against the long-time California GOP congressman.

“I’m like, hey, I want to make sure he has a country that gives opportunities to everybody and is really working for everybody,” Giglio said in an interview Monday.

Giglio, who owns a business selling sports collectibles in Clovis, said that crushing inflation and overbearing policies have put immense pressure on families in the Central Valley. It’s beyond a partisan problem, he said, rather an institutional problem of career politicians. Giglio wants to disrupt that status quo.

McCarthy, who was ousted as Speaker of the House four weeks ago by eight GOP hardliners and all Democrats, embodies issues of wielding corporate interests and broken promises in Washington DC, Giglio said. He said removing McCarthy as speaker was a good move because Republicans needed someone “running the show in Congress that is a doer.”

“People are tired of politicians making them all sorts of promises and then not delivering,” Giglio said. “And I think this just sums up who Kevin is as a politician.”

Challenging Kevin McCarthy

Both Republicans and Democrats who voted against McCarthy’s speakership four weeks ago said he was untrustworthy. Last week, Republicans finally settled on little-known conservative Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana to be speaker.

After reports fueled speculation about McCarthy’s political future, he said he was seeking re-election in California’s 20th Congressional District in 2024.

Challenging McCarthy, who was first elected to Congress in 2006, will be difficult. A prolific fundraiser who has more than $10.6 million in campaign cash, McCarthy has never had a tough election in the Bakersfield area.

Still, McCarthy has not made a formal campaign announcement. He has a handful of challengers — Democrats, Republicans and an Independent. Candidates have until mid-December to file necessary paperwork to run in 2024.

California’s 20th is a deep-red district that extends into northeast Fresno and Clovis, parts of Hanford and Visalia, and Tehachapi into west and northeast Bakersfield. The three-arm-shaped district covers parts of Kern, Fresno, Tulare and Kings counties.

David Giglio, politics and Donald Trump

In 2022, Giglio ran in California’s 13th, a bluer agricultural expanse stretching around Merced County. Rep. John Duarte, R-Modesto, won that seat by 600 votes last year. Giglio lost in the primary.

He and his wife moved from the East Coast to Madera Ranchos several years ago when she got a job as a nurse practitioner.

Giglio owns CaliCards & More where he buys and sells sports cards and collectibles. He previously taught high school history in New Haven, Conn., at Wilbur Cross High School.

Giglio connected with former President Donald Trump and said Trump does not “kowtow to party leaders.”

“One of his biggest things is how he tends to talk about going in there and doing what’s best for the American people,” Giglio said, “not what’s best for a political party or what’s best for Washington or what’s best for big donors.”

Giglio also said that the justice system was unfairly going after Trump while he is running for president once more. Trump faces 91 felony counts in courts across two states and two federal districts over allegations of attempting to overturn 2020 election results, mishandling classified documents and falsifying business documents.

Giglio said that the law is applied unequally to President Joe Biden’s family. Biden’s son Hunter Biden is at the center of a years-long federal probe related to his tax and business dealings. Whether the president benefited from his son’s business or vice versa is at the center of an impeachment inquiry that McCarthy launched this fall, an inquiry that impeachment experts say is weak and lacks evidence.

“You can have personal opinions about President Trump, who he is as a person,” Giglio said, “but I do think that the law is being kind of applied in an unequal way to go after President Trump when you have the Biden family that’s got very serious, credible allegations of corruption.”

David Giglio’s policy priorities

His experiences as a parent, in business and in teaching informed his political platform.

Giglio is in favor of doubling the current child tax credit and passing a comprehensive California water plan. He also wants most educational decisions made at the local level, saying it will help tailor to communities’ needs. And he wants the United States to rely more on domestic products, an issue highlighted as imported plastics used for the sports cards he sold were unavailable and then became more expensive during the pandemic.

This, he said, all folds into being “America First.”

“It’s a struggle everyday for millions of Americans,” he said, “and I think Congress should be focused on alleviating the stress and the anxiety and making life better for the average American.”

“I know it gets a little bit of a stigma, but I don’t think there’s anything radical about it at all,” he said. “I think it’s actually rather moderate because like I said, I think there’s a lot of things that America First Republicans and even some of the progressive side can work together on.”