California — 48th District

Abel Chavez, 34, a Democrat, teacher and school board member, is running for Congress representing inland North County cities, the San Diego County backcountry and parts of Riverside County in California’s 48th Congressional District.

Chavez is from Riverside and now lives in Nuevo, a community outside Perris in Riverside County.

The San Diego Union-Tribune emailed a series of questions to Chavez and other candidates to help inform voters about their positions, priorities and plans if elected.

Chavez said he did not use any AI tools in responding to the Union-Tribune’s questions.

1) Why are you running, and what makes you the best candidate?

I’m running to represent the people who break their backs to make a living. Housing shouldn’t be a luxury, healthcare shouldn’t be for profit and the cost of an education shouldn’t mean a lifetime of debt.

I grew up in a one-bedroom trailer in Riverside County as a son of undocumented immigrants who taught me to work hard. I washed dishes at UC Riverside to stay in school and pursued teaching because a classroom lets you change many lives at once.

As a chemistry and physics teacher, I saw bright kids slipping through the cracks, so I ran for school board. We flipped a red seat, a conservative board elected me president, and together we secured $30 million to fix our schools and increased test scores more than any other district in Riverside County. While I’m proud of these accomplishments, I know I can make a bigger difference in Congress.

2) What are the top 3 issues facing this district?

My district’s three most pressing issues are its high cost of living, an underfunded education system and clashes with the federal government over immigration enforcement.

Families shouldn’t struggle to put food on the table and afford healthcare, especially not in the richest country in the world. Yet the cost of living keeps increasing as corporations and billionaires get richer and richer.

No student should be left behind, but our education system is failing them. Schools are overcrowded, staff turnover rate is high, and students from underrepresented backgrounds are slipping through the cracks.

Finally, ICE agents are raiding our communities without any federal oversight. I’ve personally spoken with residents who say they’ve been harassed and followed by ICE agents, making them afraid to even go outside. We must hire more judges so we can process people faster, allowing them to pay taxes and obtain a real path to citizenship.

3) What are the first 3 things you would do in your first/next term in Congress?

As a teacher, local school board member, husband and father of three, I feel how expensive everything has become. That’s why my top priority is reducing the cost of living. In Congress, I will ban Wall Street landlords and foreign investors from buying up homes, ensuring that Americans aren’t priced out of their neighborhoods

Second, I believe in strengthening our public education system and offering career pathways for those who choose not to pursue higher education. If elected to Congress, I will pass legislation to build a trades building in every high school in the country.

Finally, I plan to reform our immigration system. We need to streamline our citizenship process so migrants don’t have to wait years to safely live in our country. As your congressman, I will vote to abolish ICE and build a new enforcement agency that processes immigrants humanely and is accountable to the people.

4) If your party wins control of Congress, what should be its first priority? If your party loses control of Congress, what should be its first priority?

If Democrats win control of Congress, my party’s top priority should be ending the war in Iran so we can save innocent lives overseas and protect our economy from becoming destabilized here at home. The party must then pass rapid-fire legislation to undo the damage done by the Trump administration and rebuild relationships with international allies.

If Republicans win control of Congress, my party’s top priority should be to build relationships with moderate Republicans who oppose Trump’s MAGA agenda and advance sensible, bipartisan legislation focused on kitchen-table issues.

5) President Trump has made cracking down on immigration a cornerstone of his administration, ordering widespread arrests and detentions of immigrants nationwide and directing military resources to a new military zone along the U.S.-Mexico border. What impact have these had on this district? What are your goals on immigrants, immigration and the border, and how would you pursue them if elected? What is your message to constituents who are immigrants?

ICE has been kidnapping and separating families with no oversight, making folks in our district frightened and unsafe. First and foremost, we must abolish ICE and build a new agency that can actually be held accountable to Congress and to the voters.

In office, I will modernize our immigration system to offer more work visas, expedite legal pathways, fix backlogs and reunite families faster. Everyone deserves due process, and no one should be swept off the street or locked in a cage for seeking a better life.

My message to immigrants is this: I stand with you, and I will fight for you. My family came here from Mexico with nothing. We lived in a one-room shack, and I starved many nights. Now, I’m a citizen, teacher and successful local business owner, and I’m running for Congress. I am living proof that immigrants are the backbone of this country.

6) It’s been nearly two months since the United States began a war with Iran. Do you believe Americans are better or worse off for it? What should Congress’s role be? Would you vote to let the president continue the war beyond the 60 days after which congressional authorization is required?

There is no question –– the war with Iran has left Americans far worse off, and they know it. Over 60% of Americans, including me, disapprove of how Donald Trump is handling military action in Iran. As a result of this war, we’re already seeing rising costs for basic goods like oil and gas, as well as supply chain shortages and delays.

I believe that Congress has a responsibility to stop this reckless bloodshed and redirect war funds back to the American people by investing in healthcare, education and our economy.

In Congress, I would vote against allowing the president to continue the war. I am strongly against further foreign intervention and “forever wars” –– battles that our government continues to wage without any vision for a peaceful end. We need to turn our attention toward helping our own country and ensuring that all Americans can attain the American dream.

7) Recent jumps in the cost of fuel, food and other goods — combined with federal cuts to safety-net programs, new limits on certain federal loans and more — are squeezing residents already struggling with San Diego County’s high costs of living. What relief would you seek to offer, and how?

Billionaires keep getting wealthier, while hardworking families keep getting poorer. Our nation’s cash assistance programs have not kept pace with inflation, meaning they aren’t enough to cover the cost of basic necessities like food, housing, childcare and healthcare. That’s why I believe we need to make significant investments in our nation’s social safety net programs and offer greater financial relief (such as stimulus packages and federal loans) to Americans who need it the most.

Corporations have gotten away with overcharging consumers for far too long, but wages have stayed the same. In office, I will go after corporations for needlessly raising prices and institute a higher federal minimum wage to protect working-class families from poverty and housing insecurity. Additionally, I plan to collaborate with labor unions to secure more workers’ rights and build people power. That means better healthcare, improved unemployment benefits and safer workplaces.

8) Like much of California, this district has been affected by the effects of climate change. How should Congress mitigate those impacts, and what would you do to pursue such efforts?

Oil and gas companies across the country have been thoughtlessly polluting our environment without government intervention. In Congress, I will vote to fund the Environmental Protection Agency so it can hold these corporations accountable and incentivize them to adopt environmentally-friendly business practices. We also need to limit harmful practices like fracking, which extract oil by drilling into the earth and polluting our groundwater.

Additionally, I believe that Congress should make sizable investments in the renewable energy sector to transition to a 100% clean energy economy. I’m confident that by protecting the environment, our nation will be healthier, happier and safer.

9) Polling underscores that one chief concern of California voters in the 2026 midterm elections is the issue of threats to democracy. What do you believe are the greatest threats to American democracy? How would you, and how should Congress, protect against these?

The greatest threats to democracy are billionaires, corporations and corrupt politicians. Billionaires and corporations have effectively bought our elections by making huge donations to elected officials –– who are supposed to work for us. Meanwhile, our representatives go on lavish vacations while we work day and night to afford rent and groceries.

In Congress, I will reduce corporations’ influence in our elections by breaking up corporate monopolies, place significant taxes on billionaires to redistribute their wealth and go after politicians who misuse our taxpayer dollars to fund their expensive lifestyles.

10) Do you support a ban or restriction on congressional lawmakers and their families buying or selling individual stocks? Why or why not? And what would you propose to ensure lawmakers aren’t using their positions to engage in insider trading?

Yes. I wholeheartedly support banning members of Congress and their family members from trading stocks, and co-sponsoring this legislation will be one of my top priorities in Congress. I would also propose that Congress members divest from their publicly traded stocks before taking office to promote fairness.

My opponents are not like us. Our incumbent congressman is worth $500 million and has been accused of insider trading. Meanwhile, other Democrats in this race have either accepted thousands of corporate PAC and lobbyist money or have spent millions of dollars to buy this seat.

How can they possibly represent us, the people?

11) By design Congress is supposed to serve as a check on the executive branch through budgetary, legislative and oversight powers. Do you believe that Congress has fulfilled that obligation in recent years? Why or why not? Should Congress do more to hold the president accountable? Explain.

No, Congress has not fulfilled its obligation to the people in recent years. Instead, it has allowed President Donald Trump to break the law over and over again without any punishment. What’s worse, multiple Democratic lawmakers have backed the same policies as Trump and even used their voting power to advance his agenda.

When our president’s corruption goes unchecked, he becomes more powerful. To stop this, Congress must do more to hold the president accountable by impeaching him and his major cabinet members for gross misconduct. We also need to more aggressively investigate the current administration’s crimes, especially its handling of the Epstein files.

12) A recent San Diego Union-Tribune poll found voters overwhelmingly disapprove of the job Congress is doing, by higher margins than they disapprove of the job Trump is doing. Why do you think this is? How can Congress win back voters’ hope and trust, and what would you personally do to achieve this?

I believe that voters disapprove of the job Congress is doing because many of our representatives aren’t doing their job at all.

Congress is known for being notoriously slow and inefficient, while our presidential administration is aggressively pushing policies left and right.

In 2025, Congress only passed 64 bills. The same year, House members only cast 362 votes –– the second-lowest count in the past 25 years. During the 118th Congress (January 2023 – January 2025), over 30 Congress members missed 10% or more votes.

To win back voters’ hope and trust, Congress members need to actually go to work. This means fixing our divided government and passing bipartisan legislation that everyone can agree on, instead of letting political conflicts stall lawmaking. In office, I pledge to actually show up to votes, introduce bold new legislation and work to get it passed instead of wasting taxpayer dollars.