A buzzing crowd of supporters of Republican candidate Justin Fareed sipped drinks at the Santa Maria Elks Lodge while awaiting the primary election results on the evening of June 5. By 10 p.m., Fareed’s campaign felt comfortable declaring that he had shut out Republican primary candidate Michael Erin Woody for the GOP ticket, ensuring that Fareed would challenge Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) once again for 24th Congressional District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The crowd—which dwindled as it got late but still included dozens of local Republicans, organizers, and volunteers—cheered as Fareed entered the room to give his victory speech, thanking the Elks, his parents, and voters in Santa Maria.
“I think Washington can learn a few things from well-run municipalities like Santa Maria,” Fareed told the crowd. “Santa Maria has a two-year budget structure with good oversight and management of taxpayer dollars. The great people of Santa Maria elected pragmatic local leaders who share a commonsense vision of governance, lowering taxes, reducing onerous regulations, creating more local jobs, higher wages, and a great opportunity for the next generation.”
Fareed clinched the Republican nomination after receiving 37 percent of the votes in Santa Barbara County, dwarfing Woody’s 8 percent of county votes, according to semi-official results from the county.
Rep. Carbajal took home 54 percent of the vote in his home county, and achieved 53 percent of the vote to Fareed’s 46 percent across the entire 24th Congressional District, according to ballotpedia.org.
Carbajal spoke with the Sun over the phone from Washington, D.C., saying he was pleased with the primary results leading into the general election in November.
“Clearly the voters are putting the faith and trust in me to continue to represent the Central Coast in Washington,” Carbajal said. “Water, jobs, bringing down health care and prescription drug costs, immigration reform, and continuing to work in a bipartisan way, as I did in local government and as I continue to do in Washington.”
The congressman was busy in the Capitol, he said, preparing for a number of important votes in the House, including votes on energy, water resources, military appropriations, and spending bills.
“I’m obviously very happy with the outcome tonight and the trust that voters are putting behind me, but I’m not taking anything for granted,” he said.
In Santa Maria, at the Elks Lodge, Fareed pointed to Carbajal as part of the “broken Washington system,” that was “mortgaging the finances of this country on the backs of our children and grandchildren.”
“What I’m focused on are the issues that are affecting us locally,” Fareed told the Sun. “I do believe we will have our people who are looking for more practical and commonsense leaders who will put the interest of people in front of politics, and that’s what I think we all hope for and that’s what I’m going to fight for—our values here on the Central Coast collectively.”
Familiar local Republicans and conservatives were a part of the crowd at Fareed’s event in Santa Maria, including Santa Maria City Councilmembers Michael Moats and Etta Waterfield and 4th District County Supervisor Peter Adam.
They were there to also keep an eye on the rest of the election results coming in, which depending on key races like the one for the governorship, could help Fareed’s chances in November, Councilmember Moats said.
“We wanted to see a Republican come in second place for governor, so it isn’t two Democrats running against each other, which I think will be good for the down ticket Republican congressional candidates,” Moats said. “I think it’s really important that we retain our congressional Republicans for the state of California. I think [Fareed] is doing really well.”
When asked if he was concerned about the “blue wave,” a perceived backlash against Republican candidates due to Donald Trump’s presidency and administration, Fareed said he wasn’t worried.
“I’m encouraged by the amount of turnout that we have and the amount of people that are engaged in the process so far and across the political spectrum,” he said.
This article appears in Jun 7-14, 2018.