Hi Mia,

This past weekend, some disturbing details about anti-Asian rhetoric from my opponent's campaign team surfaced. These racist attacks are exhausting as much as they’re not surprising.

My opponent has a history of using ethnicity to stoke division - even directly to my face. Last year, she told me that "our district is 70% Latino, it should be represented by a Latino." That statement so infuriated me in the moment, and it still does today. I'm sorry, but I thought a representative was supposed to represent every person in their district, not just the people who look like them. This kind of bullying and identity politics has seen its day here in LA ... and that day is PAST.

It’s especially frustrating because I’m honestly just trying to be a voice in our government for ALL people, not just those who look like me.

Sharing facts is not mudslinging, but attacking my integrity or ethnicity is. Our campaign has attempted to rise above and focus on the issues, but enough is enough. 

Read a joint statement from me and David Kim, US House Candidate for CA-34, about the incidents with Rep. Jimmy Gomez's and Asm. Wendy Carrillo's teams here >>

Look, momentum is on our side. I can feel it in the air. We've repeatedly been told by insiders that this is a race to watch and my opponent and I are now TIED in the polls. I get that she's nervous. But that's no excuse to use bullying or racist tactics as we close in on the finish line. We should all be above that kind of rhetoric by now, especially since the fallout from my opponent's friends on the LA City Council.

We may be opponents in an election, but we don't need to be opponents in real life. We are both working in our own way to improve the lives of the people of our district and have real differences of opinion on the best way to accomplish that. Let's have these differences of opinion and policy without resorting to race-based attacks.

Elections come and go. But doing what's right, behaving with integrity, and lifting up all voices is what lasts.