SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — California's 49th District is considered the most competitive congressional race in San Diego. ABC 10News senior investigator Jim Avila took a closer look at a key campaign issue, abortion rights, and how each candidate plans to address it.
The commercials are ubiquitous, and while polls show the 49th Congressional District, stretching along the coast from Dana Point to Del Mar, leans strongly democratic with three-term incumbent Mike Levin holding a double digit lead in our latest ABC 10News/Union Tribune poll, millionaire challenger Matt Gunderson, a retired car dealer, is pushing hard in what he insists is a purple district.
"It's not an extreme district in one way or another," Gunderson says.
His push to the middle includes message after message never mentioning he is a Republican and emphasizing his role as a "girl-dad" who supports abortion rights.
"You're a Republican. Are you trying to hide that or downplay that?" Avila asked Gunderson directly.
"No. I mean, I don't hide from the fact that I'm a Republican, and I would tell you all day long I'm a pro-choice Republican," Gunderson responded.
Gunderson says he has never changed his position on abortion. But in 2022, when California voters passed Proposition 1 to codify abortion rights in the state constitution by a two-thirds vote, Gunderson voted no.
"I opposed Prop 1 because that removed all fetal viability language from California abortion law," says Gunderson.
Avila also interviewed Levin about Gunderson's stance on abortion.
"Not only against it Jim, but he even went so far as to call it 'disgusting,'" Levin says.
Team 10 obtained Gunderson's "disgusting" comment.
"We can fight this issue all day long, but the reality is that disgusting Prop 1 was passed by 65% of the voters," says Gunderson.
Gunderson is not the only Republican attempting to back away from the abortion issue. In a Washington Post article from earlier in October titled "Republicans flee from abortion restrictions in final weeks of campaign," Matt Gunderson's position and picture are featured.
