NEW: Democratic Challengers Take On Mike Garcia, Ken Calvert, & Scott Baugh For Anti-Women Votes and Rhetoric

On Friday, vulnerable California Republicans Mike Garcia, Ken Calvert, and Scott Baugh were on defense for their harmful, anti-women voting records and rhetoric in light of the 30-year anniversary of the landmark Violence Against Women Act, according to recent reporting from POLITICO.

Emphasizing "the ongoing importance of gender issues and women's rights in California's swing seats," new digital ads from George Whitesides, Will Rollins, and Dave Min highlighted Garcia and Calvert's votes against the Violence Against Women Act after the Republicans "took issue with Democratic additions related to LGBTQ rights and gun restrictions for abusers," as well as Baugh's continued support for JD Vance after the MAGA extremist instructed women to "stay in abusive relationships."

From now until Election Day, Democrats will continue to hold these extreme, deceitful, and self-serving Republicans accountable for working against California women and families.

POLITICO: Dems seek to corner Republicans on domestic violence
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• Campaigns for George Whitesides and Will Rollins today are blasting out new messaging criticizing California Republican Reps. Mike Garcia and Ken Calvert for voting against the landmark act in the past, which was signed by former President Bill Clinton on this day in 1994. The digital ads, which will run today, highlight the ongoing importance of gender issues and women's rights in California's swing seats, which could determine control of Congress.

• The law was the first comprehensive federal policy that sought to prevent violence against women and provide support for survivors. It received ongoing bipartisan support for nearly a decade, but in 2013 and 2019 ran up against resistance from Republicans, who took issue with Democratic additions related to LGBTQ rights and gun restrictions for abusers.

• In the new digital ad, Whitesides' campaign knocks Garcia for claiming in a recent TV spot that he "co-sponsored" the Violence Against Women Act. Garcia voted against reauthorizing the act in 2021 after Democrats added new provisions, instead supporting an alternative GOP stop-gap measure to renew the law for one year that ultimately failed to move forward, according to the Los Angeles Times. After more negotiations between houses, final reauthorization language was added to a bigger federal spending package that Garcia supported but did not co-sponsor. That was signed into law and is in effect today.

• "The Violence Against Women Act is a tremendously important part of our protective fabric for women that we should be celebrating," Whitesides told Playbook. "And to use that moment of celebration in a way to mislead your constituents seems pretty bad."

• Garcia's campaign did not respond to a request for comment on his claims about the act.

• Rollins in CA-41, which includes parts of Palm Springs, is also running a digital ad knocking Calvert for voting against the original act in 1994, and then against reauthorization in 2019 and 2021.

• Democratic state Sen. Dave Min, who is running for Rep. Katie Porter's open seat in Orange County, is also seizing on the chance to once again tie Republican Scott Baugh to comments made by JD Vance at a Christian high school in 2021. Vance at the time suggested divorce was not the solution to unhappy marriages, even those that involved violence.

• In light of the VAWA anniversary, the Min campaign is reupping an ad it debuted last month featuring Min's wife Jane Stoever, director of UC Irvine's Domestic Violence Law Clinic, somberly describing the terrors faced by victims of domestic violence and decrying Baugh for supporting the VP pick.

• "It's important that Californians see for themselves just how far these House Republicans are willing to go to dismantle protections for victims and survivors of domestic violence, demolish women's fundamental freedoms, and deceive their own neighbors about it on the campaign trail," said Dan Gottlieb, spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.