A couple of days ago The New York Times highlighted the congressional race in California’s CD 41. It’s a pretty good summary of where we stand now almost 2 months until Election Day.

The article details the district’s demographics which is a mixture of the “ruby red” western half and “the gayest city in America” in the east. The new gay constituency in Palm Springs, made possible by redistricting, produced a whiplash inducing U-turn on the part of the R incumbent, Trump- endorsed Ken Calvert. In a recent vote to recognize same-sex marriage at the federal level, Calvert reversed course and joined 46 Rs to vote FOR it. But I don’t think that’s going to help him win this year.

Hard feelings in the Gay community remain. They are still incensed at how Calvert leveled a homophobic insinuation at his opponent, Mark Takano before Takano came out as gay. What makes this particularly poignant is that Takano eventually won a seat in congress that, until redistricting, included the city of Palm Springs.

So see? It’s kind of personal.