A PAC created by former Rep. Katie Hill (D-Calif.) is urging residents in her district to vote in the upcoming special election in an effort to elect a Democrat to fill Hill’s old seat.
Hill’s Her Time PAC launched a video featuring her standing in front of the White House with a face covering on, urging voters to turn in their mailed ballots as if their lives “depend on it.”
“We’re all scared right now, and it’s even more dangerous because of what’s coming out of that building right behind me,” Hill said in the video. “But there’s something we can do about it.”
“There’s a special election for Congress on May 12 and we have to vote, because we’ve seen that when we take our vote for granted we put ourselves and our communities in danger,” she added.
Hill doesn’t explicitly mention any candidate in the video because she paid for it with money left over in her congressional campaign account, but the $200,000 investment is aimed at boosting Democratic state Assemblywoman Christy Smith in the election, Politico reports.
“I do not want my legacy to be flipping a seat, and then having it immediately flip back,” Hill told Politico.
Hill, who flipped the seat in 2018 when she defeated incumbent Republican Rep. Steve Knight, resigned from Congress last year amid allegations that she engaged in a sexual relationship with staffers. Hill quickly endorsed Smith in the race to fill her seat.
In February, Hill announced she was launching Her Time to help elect women and young people.
The May 12 special election will be held entirely through vote-by-mail amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The race is between Smith and Republican candidate Mike Garcia, a former U.S. Navy fighter pilot.