Will Rollins’ would-be constituents had another tough question in mind.
His answer — “The Rams!” — drew cheers from kids at the Corona-Norco Family YMCA who asked about his favorite football team.
A Democratic congressional candidate, Rollins, who toured the YMCA on Wednesday, April 10, hopes to field more questions from western Riverside County voters who will determine whether he or Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, win a strategically important House of Representatives seat.
Democratic congressional candidate Will Rollins, middle, visits the Corona-Norco Family YMCA pool Wednesday, April 10, 2024. Rollins toured the facility as he campaigns in western Riverside County, which represents about half of the 41st Congressional District. (
“This election will be won and lost based on what happens in western Riverside County, in the cities of Corona, Lake Elsinore and Menifee,” Rollins said during an interview at his Corona campaign office.
“Those voters will decide who represents the 41st District and those voters need to know who I am.”
In an emailed statement, Calvert said he’s been “hitting the pavement all over the district, putting in the miles and hours to meet with voters, hear their concerns and roll up my sleeves to help.”
“I know voters will see Rollins for what he is, a serial liar and radical liberal who would raise taxes, release criminals from jail early, open our borders, and is bought and paid for by the same special interest groups he says he wants to get out of politics,” Calvert said.
Like Rollins, who lives in Palm Springs, Calvert, a lifelong Corona resident, wants to win votes in his opponent’s backyard.
He opened a campaign office in Palm Desert to court voters in a region he didn’t represent prior to 2021. Calvert said he’s brought back “millions … to the valley for critical water and infrastructure projects” and processed “hundreds of casework requests” for constituents navigating the federal bureaucracy.
Opening a Corona campaign hub “is a shrewd move” by Rollins, Marcia Godwin, professor of public administration at the University of La Verne, said via email.
“I’ve seen candidates from both sides of the political aisle make the mistake of neglecting to campaign in areas that are seen as less friendly when there will still be significant pockets of support within a large district.”
Stretching from Corona to the Coachella Valley, the 41st, which took shape through 2021 political redistricting, is one of a handful of seats in California and New York that could determine which party wins the House majority in November.
To avoid losing to Calvert like he did two years ago, Rollins will have to rack up votes in the Coachella Valley, home to a Democratic stronghold in Palm Springs.
The western part of the 41st includes GOP-friendly cities such as Norco, Canyon Lake and Menifee, as well as cities with slight Democratic pluralities in Corona, Eastvale and Lake Elsinore.
Rollins will have to do well in the light blue cities and, at the very least, limit his losses in the red cities to beat Calvert, a 32-year incumbent and the Inland Empire’s longest-serving congressmember.
Unlike many Inland House districts that are solidly Republican or Democratic, the 41st is a true swing seat. Registered GOP voters in the district outnumbered Democrats 37% to 36.4% as of Monday, April 8, though Democrats held a 121-vote lead in voter registration in late February.
The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan political forecaster, rates the 41st as a tossup. Two other forecasters, Inside Elections and Sabato’s Crystal Ball, rate the district as “Tilt Republican” and “Leans Republican,” respectively.
On the campaign trail, Rollins shares a layered message catering to a spectrum of voters.
“What I see on the Corona/Elsinore/Menifee side of this district is a major concern about affordability of housing. And that goes back to needing a Congress that’s willing to invest in affordable housing that’s willing to give tax breaks to working families, not billionaires,” Rollins said.
Frustration about infrastructure and traffic that “sucks” connects voters on both ends of the 41st, he said.
“One of my favorite things to do as a candidate has been to go to the 91/71 exchange (in Corona), which is being funded by the bipartisan infrastructure bill that Ken Calvert voted against,” Rollins said.
Democrats, Rollins said, need to explain “why we are better on immigration, why we are better on lowering costs for working families, why we are better on crime.”
Calvert “(has) had 32 years to secure the border,” Rollins said. “He believes in medieval walls instead of thermal imaging drones, more boots on the ground, more asylum judges …”
“I think we need both a secure border and a humane immigration system that rewards people who want to come here to work legally (and) provides a pathway to citizenship to kids who were brought here before they were 18.”
Calvin Moore, a Calvert campaign spokesman, said via email that Rollins “is dead wrong and lying about the (71/91) interchange.”
He pointed to a sentence on the Riverside County Transportation Commission website stating that final funding for the interchange was received in 2020, before Joe Biden was president.
“This is exactly the kind of dishonestly voters have come to expect from Rollins,” Moore said.
“The interchange was fully funded before Biden was even president. Not to mention, the border would have been secured decades ago, were it not for the extremist Democrats standing in the way at every turn and pushing the radical open borders policies Rollins would push from Day One in Congress.”
To appeal to the district’s 87,000 no-party-preference voters, Rollins said he’s willing to defy party leadership and touts his support for congressional term limits and banning lawmakers, who often have access to private information, from playing the stock market.
“(We say) ‘Here’s somebody who wants to reform Congress because he believes that the system is corrupt and he believes that these kinds of anti-corruption reforms should apply to both Democrats and Republicans alike,’” Rollins said.
Godwin said Rollins “will need to figure out how to attract the attention of commuters, younger voters, and families within the district. Rep. Calvert has mastered the art of running radio ads to base voters. Rollins could do the same, but also consider what stations and media young voters favor.”
She added: “Rollins has a difficult task in trying to energize progressive Democrats and while projecting moderate and bread-and-butter issues to suburban families. Since he has not been part of the Democratic supermajority in the state legislature, he might be able to avoid rising criticism about crime and homelessness.”
Factors that could work in Rollins’ favor include what’s expected to be higher turnout this year than in 2022, when the White House wasn’t on the ballot.
Compared to 2022, Rollins appears to be getting a bigger boost from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and its allies, who have reserved TV ad time in the Los Angeles and Palm Springs markets.
Rollins is also on that committee’s “Red to Blue” list, which identifies candidates the party thinks have a good chance of flipping GOP-held House seats.
“I think, given how close it was last time, that it’s been a pretty united front in D.C.,” said Coby Eiss, Rollins’ campaign manager.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct an error about which cities are in the 41st Congressional District.
