unpacking some of these key races with our series on the ballot. we are focusing on california s 41st congressional district. last year s midterms, former federal prosecutor will rollins was less than five points away from unseating 15 term republican congressman ken colbert. collins was attending the new congressional member orientation when he learned that he lost. now, rollins is running to unseat calvert again. after the upcoming primary, voters could be seeing a rematch for the ages. will rollins joins me now. welcome to, you sir. thank you for being. here can you just tell us, what did you learn from your 2022 campaign. how are you doing things different this time around? i learned that we built a pretty great coalition. i was the only democratic challenger in california to win independent voters during the midterm. the best performance of any democratic challenger compared to biden in 2020 by house
suggest that he will stand up erdogan. you know, this was the first time iran in the midterms. i spent my career in law enforcement. i thought that i was going to spend the rest of my career in law enforcement. i loved working in counterterrorism. it was what ken calvert did while people like me were helping track down the people who attacked the u.s. capitol on january six. that motivated me to get into this race. he was calling for dropping charges against those people. he voted to overturn the election. he voted against a commission to investigate the attack. look, regardless of party, people want someone who s going to stand up for our democracy and to the rule of law. i think that s why we build a bipartisan coalition in the last election. it s why we re going to win this thing and 24. after redistricting the 41st congressional district, it now includes palm springs. palm springs has a huge lgbtq+ population. how would you use this house seat if you wind to protect the
defund the lgbt centers in pennsylvania recently. we can t get that kind of progress that we really all deserve to see in this 21st century. we ll rollins, dental granted candidate for congress in california. california s 41st district. thank you very. much we will be seeing you on the campaign trail. thank you out there as well for watching symone on this sunday afternoon. i am symone sanders-townsend. you can catch me right here on msnbc weekends at four pm eastern. anytime over on peacock. if you want a little more of the, show you can also find us on instagram. the site formally known as twitter and tiktok. don t go anywhere, folks. politics nation with the great reverend al sharpton is starting after a short break. hort break businesses need 5g solutions today. that s why they choose t-mobile for business. mlb partners with t-mobile to not only enhance the fan experience, but to advance how the game is played. aaa relies on t-mobile s network to stay connected nationwide, so the
california s 41st congressional district, incumbent ken calvert. he has been in congress for 30 years. he had the support of donald trump. he is leading by about 5,000 votes. this too is a republican plus one district. if the republicans just won these two, they would have control of the house of representatives, and anderson, that doesn t include colorado. lauren boebert s seat out here, she is ahead by 1100 votes. 99%. and just overseas an absentee ballot left there. if they win that, they would give them more of a cushion. right now on track probably around somewhere 220, 221 seats maybe for the republicans. 214 for the democrats. a very, very slim majority for the republicans. all right, john berman, appreciate it. thank you. now to the republican leadership battles under way on capitol hill. joined by manu raju. undeniable trouble with the republican leadership. senate republicans in particular. mitch mcconnell for the first
republicans lead in six. remember, they only need three. democrats lead in ten. they would knneed 14. they re very far away right now. they need three seats to take control. where are those three seats? they could come in california. a very blue state, but there are some red districts there. you can see right here, for instance, this is california s 41st congressional district. ken calvert who has been in congress for decades at this point, he leads by some 5,000 votes. this is actually a republican-leaning district. it s an r plus one district. he might be favored tat this point with 82% in. there are other republican districts or at least districts where there are republicans running as incumbents, michelle steele is up by 13,000 votes, 78% in now. this is a democratic leaning district, but turnout can often favor republicans there. then you go inland. you have california s third congressional district, ken kiley, 9,000 votes in. only 52% reporting. this is a republican leaning