Senority Counts

Representative Raul Ruiz, 47, a California Democrat representing the 36th Congressional District, may face an unusual opponent in the November 2020 election: Republican candidate Raul Ruiz, 57, a construction contractor. “I want to give the citizens another option,” challenger Ruiz told Politico. “I’ll say this. I had the name first.”

Dirty Campaign Tricks

Pre-existing conditions, immigration policy and Nancy Pelosi’s leadership were all defining issues in last year’s midterms, but no campaign had quite the unique flair, the je ne sais quoi of the debate in Virginia’s 5th Congressional District race.

That’s because the central Virginia contest included multiple references to one candidate’s fondness for images of a muscular and (ahem) extremely well-endowed Sasquatch. It all started when eagle-eyed critics from Democratic candidate Leslie Cockburns campaign unearthed the questionable social media posts by Republican candidate Denver Riggleman. Things escalated upon the revelation that Riggleman had also authored something titled Mating Habits of Bigfoot and Why Women Want Him. His Democratic opponent publicly accused him of being a “devotee of Bigfoot erotica,” while Riggleman insisted that the entire thing was an elaborate joke with some military buddies. It helped that he had proof to corroborate the story. 

Riggleman was elected to the House in November 2018, by a 6.6 percent margin.