Will Rollins Announces Rematch Against Rep. Ken Calvert

PALM SPRINGS, CA — A former federal prosecutor who nearly ousted Rep. Ken Calvert from his long-held congressional seat last year wants a rematch.

On Tuesday, Democrat Will Rollins announced he is running again for California’s 41st Congressional District. He narrowly lost to the GOP congressman in the November general election, garnering 48 percent of the vote compared to Calvert's 52 percent.

In announcing his 2024 bid, Rollins slammed Calvert.

“I’m running for Congress because it’s time that 41st Congressional District residents have a representative who rejects the corruption and extremism in Washington and has the courage to put people over politics and profits,” Rollins said in a released statement.

Calvert was endorsed by former President Donald Trump during the congressman's bid for reelection. Calvert was also committed to the Trump cause in the 2020 election aftermath. The Riverside County leader joined more than 125 other House Republicans in signing an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court that backed a Texas lawsuit seeking to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. While he condemned the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol building, Calvert also voted to deny certification of election results from Arizona and Pennsylvania — states where then-President-Elect Joe Biden defeated Trump.

In 2022, Rollins criticized Calvert's loyalty to Trump, and the candidate signaled his continued disapproval in his latest released statement.

“Having worked in law enforcement, I know that the threats facing our democracy and our communities still loom large. But Ken Calvert doesn’t have the backbone to stand up to his own party, let alone keep our communities safe or put the needs of working families first," Rollins said. "In 2024, we will end his corruption-riddled political career and usher in a new generation of leadership that unites Democrats, Republicans, and Independents to solve the biggest problems facing our Riverside County communities.”

Calvert has represented parts of Riverside County in Congress since 1993, previously for the 44th, 43rd and 42nd districts before it was reconfigured and became the 41st in the 2022 election.

The 41st District includes several Coachella Valley cities — Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage, La Quinta, Palm Desert and Indian Wells — along with Corona, Lake Elsinore, Menifee, Norco and Wildomar in western Riverside County.

Calvert and Rollins are not alone in the 2024 41st Congressional District race. Lake Elsinore Councilman City Councilman Tim Sheridan (D) announced his candidacy in March, while San Jacinto Councilman Brian Hawkins (D) announced last week that he was jumping into the contest.

Calvert's campaign spokesperson Jason Gagnon said there are now three declared Democrats in the race — "with a combined four failed congressional campaigns among them." Sheridan challenged Calvert in 2014 and 2016 and lost both times, while Hawkins ran as a Republican in 2022 against Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Indio) in the 25th Congressional District and was unsuccessful.

Gagnon called Rollins an "inflation Democrat who supports reckless spending and higher taxes."

"Will’s last campaign was based on lies and slanderous attacks on Ken Calvert's character as a way to mask his radical inflationary policies," Gagnon added. "Thankfully, voters saw through Will’s lies and elected Ken Calvert by more than 11,000 votes and nearly five percentage points."

According to his campaign, Calvert has raised $1,011,274 from more than 1,000 donors in the first quarter of 2023, "one of the highest totals among all congressional campaigns."

Following his 2022 win over Rollins, Calvert said in a released statement that the election demonstrated "Riverside County voters are more interested in people serious about solving our challenges, than personal politics. In the end, it's clear that voters sent a strong message rejecting the gutter politics of lies and personal attacks from an out-of-town extremist liberal."

Rollins, a Palm Springs resident and Southern California native, touts his experience as a former federal prosecutor in the state's Central District where he said he focused on counterterrorism and counterintelligence cases across Southern California, including protecting Riverside County residents from "MS-13, the Sinaloa Cartel, ISIS terrorists, and threats from China and Iran."

A March 2023 news release from Los Angeles-based law firm Raines Feldman states Rollins was hired by the agency to bolster its "high-profile litigation" team. The agency focuses on finance, media and real estate clients.

According to Rollins, 30 Democratic members of California's congressional delegation endorsed him at the onset of his 2024 campaign announcement.

Rollins says he was raised in a family of Democrats and Republicans and spent time working for former Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"Public service, regardless of party," is key, according to Rollins.

Some Republicans do not buy it. Ben Petersen, western press secretary for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said Rollins "clearly didn’t hear the message voters sent him" in 2022.

“Voters soundly rejected Will Rollins because the last thing they can afford is a tax-raising, inflation-causing rubber stamp for Biden and Pelosi like him," Petersen said Tuesday in an emailed statement. "Will Rollins remains far too extreme for the 41st district and voters will once again reject his out-of-touch liberal agenda in 2024.”

Rollins believes he can flip the district that now includes the more liberal Coachella Valley.

"I was honored that voters entrusted me as their nominee in 2022, and together, we handed Ken Calvert the closest midterm election he’s ever faced," he said in a released statement. "In 2024, we’re going to finally end his three-decades-long, corruption-riddled political career.”