DIXON – “Both Democrats and Republicans connect with me when we meet. I’m not what they expect. I’m authentic. I’m different. I don’t fit one narrative,” says Tamika Hamilton, 35, the African-American Republican woman who is aiming to unseat incumbent Democratic California U.S. Congressman John Garamendi.
From 2009 to 2013, Garamendi, a businessman and politician, represented California’s 10th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives. Since 2013, he has served in the same capacity, representing the state’s 3rd congressional district where Hamilton lives and launched her campaign to oust him.
“After 10 years, it’s time for change. Like most people I meet in this district, we’re sick of of what the Democrats are doing to our state, but we love California. I don’t want to leave. We have to change course,” Hamilton says.
Hamilton, an Air Force veteran who was stationed at Travis Air Force Base near Fairfield, says, after active duty — which included several overseas deployments — she wanted nothing more than to settle down and raise her four children.
All of that changed after she stepped out of the “bubble” of her life in the military.
Hamilton says several things she now had to face as an ordinary citizen unsettled her.
“Transitioning to civilian life wasn’t easy. Seeing what California had to offer in terms of the quality of schools, the homelessness everywhere, the restrictions on our personal freedoms and other laws that Democrats were passing, I just didn’t think I would be able to live here, to raise my kids here,” she says. “That’s why I got into politics. To make a difference. I have the energy. I have the time.’
Now, she spends her time knocking on doors, convincing people across the 3rd Congressional district to vote for her in California’s upcoming primary in March. She is running to be the GOP candidate against Republican candidate Sean Feucht, a musician and businessman.
Over the last couple of months, Hamilton says her outreach efforts have been paying off in unexpected ways. She has 11,000 new social media followers and two organizations — the Frederick Douglass Foundation and Maggie’s List — have officially endorsed her.
She also supports a grassroots movement to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom and has been an outspoken critic of illegal immigration to the United States. Hamilton says she believes people should go through the proper and legal channels to become U.S. residents and citizens.
California’s 3rd congressional district fans out from the outer reaches of the northern and western suburbs of Sacramento, stretching across rural territory to the north, northwest and northeast of the capital city — including several farming communities. It dips down to the outlying areas of the greater San Francisco Bay Area north of Concord and Antioch, and spans Colusa, Sutter, and Yuba counties. The district also covers parts of Glenn, Lake, Sacramento and Yolo counties.
Hamilton says she feels connected to the communities she wants to represent because she grew up in a rural America, too.
“I was born and raised in rural Calvert County in southern Maryland,” says Hamilton. “A place where there are a lot of tobacco farms.”
Politically, the 3rd congressional district is moderate with votes that swing between Republicans and Democrats. Before electing Garamendi, the district sent two Republicans to Congress.
Hamilton shared her thoughts on what Garamendi should be doing that he’s not.
“He needed to spend more time focusing on the needs of the American people than he did on trying to impeach the president,” Hamilton said, referring to Garamendi, who served in the California state Senate and as Lieutenant Governor and Insurance Commissioner of the state, as well as U.S. Deputy Secretary of the Interior under President Bill Clinton.
If the people of the 3rd congressional district trust her with their vote, Hamilton says her top three priorities would be supporting military veterans, fighting homelessness and improving infrastructure in the state.
‘We have to show our vets compassion and care,” says Hamilton. “And our area needs new roads. We need water storage for our farmers.”
By Jaivon Grant | Special to the OBSERVER