Mike Levin, the Democratic candidate running to replace Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) in a tossup district in Southern California, is welcoming Sen. Bernie Sanders to the district to rally the Democratic base in the final days before voters go to the polls.
Sanders will appear alongside Levin Friday night at a rally in Oceanside, a more Democratic pocket of the evenly divided coastal district. Oceanside is also home to Camp Pendleton, the Marine Corps' largest West Coast expeditionary training facility.
Levin is running at least 10 points ahead of his GOP opponent, Diane Harkey, according to a New York Times poll conducted in late September and is focusing on turning out his base in the final days of the campaign. Democrats have targeted the seat since Issa won by less than 1 percent in 2016 and Hillary Clinton bested Donald Trump by 7 percentage points.
Despite the polling lead, the Harkey campaign views Levin's decision to host Sanders as a bridge too far for a purple district in which Republicans in 2016 held a seven-point registration advantage.
"Mike Levin and Bernie Sanders do not represent our values—they both support open borders and massive tax increases to pay for government take-over of entire industries—socialist ideas that have failed everywhere they have been tried," Harkey's campaign spokesman told the Washington Free Beacon.
Democratic groups, including billionaire Tom Steyer's NextGen America, have focused on registering more Democrats, but it is unclear if they have managed to close the GOP registration edge in the 49th district.
The Levin campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the Sanders rally or if Levin condoned the Vermont senator sharing the stage earlier in the week with a 9/11 conspiracy theorist.
On Monday, Sanders and Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D., Wis.) appeared together at a rally in Milwaukee in which a Chicago-based progressive activist and hip-hop artist known as Solo Littlejohn warmed up the crowd.
The artist introduced himself as a "leader of the Fight for 15," a Sanders-backed group campaigning for a $15 minimum wage. Littlejohn's social media posts reveal that he shared a conspiracy theory that the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks were staged, suggesting that the buildings were destroyed by controlled demolition.
During the primary and throughout the campaign, Levin has had the support of national Democrats, including far-left Democrats Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Rep. Ted Lieu (Calif.).
With the help of the House Majority PAC, a group aligned with national Democrats, Levin has blanketed voters in the district with negative mailings taking Harkey to task for her personal wealth and for litigation over her husband's failed real estate deal.
Levin also has readily embraced House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) while other candidates in competitive districts have either tried to run away from her or equivocated on whether they would support her for Speaker if Democrats win back the majority. In March, Levin called Pelosi "one of my political heroes," and had Pelosi attend an event in the district in late August.
The New York Daily News in March surveyed 34 Democrats running for Congress in competitive GOP-held seats in California and found that only Levin and a defeated Democratic primary candidate running against Rep. Mimi Walters (R., Calif.) backed Pelosi.
Levin also accepted $14,000 directly from Pelosi's PAC to the Future and personal campaign committee.